DD reckons he’s been to Japan more than 20 times over the years on both business and leisure trips. But he’d never visited Kanazawa and definitely never played drinking games with geishas before …
But let me start at the beginning of our journey …
We caught two trains from Kyoto to Kanazawa on Monday to explore the city that’s regarded as being as lovely as Kyoto with a fraction of the crowds.
The compact destination offers a geisha district, spectacular castle, beautiful shrines and gardens and samurai history. What’s not to like?
Months ago while we were planning our trip to the city we read about an event called ‘Geisha Evenings in Kanazawa’.
Since 2014, a woman called Lady Baba has been opening her geisha tea house for special evenings. The seasons are limited to in spring (March, April) and autumn (October and November) at her teahouse.
Bookings only open three months ahead for each night’s performance, so my friend Emily jumped on the website and secured tickets for our first night in Kanazawa.
The 220-year-old Kaikaro teahouse is located in an atmospheric designated Preservation District for Groups of Historic Buildings. It holds around 50 guests, who are given the opportunity to explore the rooms before the performance.
Lady Baba provides informative, entertaining speeches about the teahouse and Geisha culture, interspersed with dancing, singing and musical performances by two of her geishas.
She is quite the character and it was fascinating to experience and learn about authentic geisha culture. While there were once 200 geishas in Kanazawa, now there are only 35.
One of the final elements of the evening was a demonstration of a geisha drinking game, with Lady Baba picking DD out of the audience to play.
He was very reluctant to take part and refused several times before giving in, but upon reflection, what a moment! Not many people can say they’ve played a drinking game with geishas, can they?
The game involves two players facing each other and alternately touching the box or table between them. If the box is on the table when it is their turn, they must touch the box with a flat hand. If the box is not on the table when it is their turn, they must touch the table with a fist. Failure to do either means you lose the game and must skull sake.
DD did well but eventually lost. Glug!
The next morning we set off on a walking tour of the town through the colourful Omicho Market, which has been the city’s largest fresh food market since the Edo Period (1603-1868).
A few blocks away were the grounds of Kanazawa Castle, which was the seat of the lords of Kaga from 1583 to the end of the Edo Period.
The buildings feature lead clad roof tiles that have turned silver, which gives them a very regal appearance. We wandered the grounds and toured the armoury before heading to the cafe to admire the castle while eating soft serve ice creams with gold leaf and yuzu sprinkled on top. So pretty!
Kanazawa boasts a 99% share of Japan’s gold leaf production and they put it on and in everything, from temples to make-up and sweets.
We also explored one of Japan’s top three gardens, Kenrokuen Garden, which has been evolving over three centuries. I was fascinated to read that it was once gifted a giant cherry blossom tree that required 50 houses to be demolished to get it through the streets to its new home.
As we left the garden I was so excited to discover a set of deserted torii gates and snapped away like crazy, revelling in my “tourism hack” of torii gates without the crowds, until DD explained there are torii gates all over Japan.
Ah.
Then we fast forwarded to the present day with a visit to the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art for a twirl around its exhibits, which ranged from a remarkable wall hanging made from bottle tops (so big it doesn’t fit in a photo, with my friend Emily for scale) to a bar of soap with three pubic hairs artfully arranged on top.
On our way back to the hotel we wandered through the beautiful Nagamachi Samurai District, with its streets lined with former residences of Kanazawa’s mid to high-ranking samurai families.
We loved taking a fascinating glimpse inside one, the Nomura Samurai House, which featured a samurai uniform in the foyer and had a lovely garden.
Primary school children were walking home as we left the samurai district and cheerfully said hello as we passed them. Fabulous coffee revived us at Townsfolk Coffee, followed by a pizza dinner at Oriental Brewing Company, accompanied by my new favourite spritz – plum wine and soda.
The next morning we hugged my friend Emily goodbye and set off on our separate trains for the solo segments of our respective holidays.
It’s been an epic week – DD reckons we’ve walked 100km in a week. One day featured 33,000 steps alone! Oh my aching bones and blisters …
Song of the day: Chris Isaak “Wicked game”
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