金沢 (Kanazawa)

So, Sunday morning after the Girls Rock Magazine Tour, we woke up early to head to Kanazawa! It was the end of the term, and after, well, everything, I was really feeling like I just needed to get away (unfortunately, it seems that as opposed to needing to get away from home, I really just needed to get away from people and not Okazaki, but, well, that's another story for another not blog time).

So, to Kanazawa with Alexis, Martin, Zack, Thama, Sandra, Vickie, and Yui!
First up, we visited the castle area.

Then we headed to the museum, which was super cool with all this optical illusiony like stuff!

We got to stand under the water of a pool. It was cool.

Then we walked around the old town area.

The next morning, Alexis and I slept in while the boys went to breakfast, and we met up with them at NinjaDera, this old temple with all sorts of traps and cool things throughout it that made it seem all ninjaish, thus the name!

Us hanging out in front of the temple - no photos allowed inside :-(

Then Martin and I separated and went off to eat lunch at Takano, a vegan restaurant that ended up being utterly scrumptious! We got to eat Daikon flavored-soy ice cream, which, shockingly and unexpectedly, ended up being absolutely delish! I also had some delicious tempeh and seitan, and I got some vegan mac and fauxmage to go for dinner (SO YUMMY!)

Then we headed back over to the castle area to meet up with the others to go to the supposedly super nice neighboring park.

While waiting, we must have taken at least a bagazillion pictures of ourselves making ridiculous faces (for some reason, we love doing this)!

I think in this one we were trying to emulate the face we would be making if there were a woman beating a dog with suckling puppies over yonder.

We found this small but absolutely STUNNING little pond, as well, and I felt like I could have just sat there all day.

Then the park was absolutley LOVELY!

There were these fish that I found absolutely BEYOND adorable when they opened their mouths!

Me trying to open my mouth like one of the little fishy faces - do I succeed?

There were literally TONS of cool trees in the park!

There was also this big statue of this apparently mythical hero. I wish I could remember his name. He seemed super cool.

If you look closely, apparently there are tons of animals carved into the stones!

There was a little temple thing outside the park, so Martin and I played there for a bit while the others headed back to the museum.

There was this totally rad statue of a cow - so cute, right?

And if you've ever read my blog before, you know that I have a somewhat illogical obsession with tori gates. There's really no reason for it, but I get all giddy and excited every time I see them (in the same way that I get giddy and excited for the dragon fountains that are at just about every temple). There were tori gates, so I was satisfied. :-)

These ones were a little small, though. Martin didn't fit.

The next day, we headed to Kagano Onsen for a night in an onsen ryoukan.

On train over, things were quite typical and just as they should be: Thama slept and Zack talked to strangers. . .

After arriving, we decided to take a walk around the little village before heading to the baths. We found some oversized geta that we of course had to try on!

The view from our room was AMAZING(we all had to share the same room - Vickie and Yui had left us by then, but still - 6 people, one room, a bit claustrophobic feeling - thank heavens for the amazing view)!

Getting settled in the room finished, we went down to enjoy the nice baths, which were absolutely PERFECT! Seriously, the view was the most amazing onsen view I had ever seen, and the water temperature was PERFECT! And when I got to hot, there were little benches to go sit on in this area that somehow managed to be cool. I felt like I could have just sat out there alternating between bench and bath for days.

Then, the ryoukan had made me special vegan food for dinner. It was SUPER nice of them, and I had no idea how to say thank you. I got to eat delicious vegan tempura and miso soup and other weird things that I didn't recognize but that were delicious (except the weird slimy, foamy seaweed thing, which was not delicious). It was just wonderful!

The next morning, after leisurely eating breakfast and enjoying the baths, we went out on the walking path behind the ryoukan.

We stumbled across this super cool bridge, and Sandra totally matched it in her pink tank. :-)

There were these HUGE, super cool looking leaves that made me think of cloud giant hands.

Because it's me, I of course wanted to keep one forever, and so despite Alexis and Martin saying how dirty and covered with bugs it must be, I couldn't stop myself from carrying it around all day.

Then it was over, and we hopped on the train back to Kanazawa where we caught the bus back to Okazaki. Good times were had, and when it was over, I was ready for a break! :-)
(Apologies for the not so great quality of the pictures - I didn't really take many, so got to make do with what I had)