07 July, 2016

Camping tour 2016: Day six (Thursday 7 July)

Today we went into Kanazawa, a city of just under 450,000 people. It has a lot of character, including a big university. Parts of the city reminded me of places in Australia. 

There is tonnes of history to explore. We visited a temple nicknamed the "Ninja Temple". What sets it apart is it is full of tricks and traps to fool the enemy. It was part of the defenses of the local castle. The tour was good. The building looks small, but has multiple staircases and hidden doors and exits. For fooling or trapping the enemy and for rapid escapes. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside. 

This is in the centre of town. It is not a flat featureless city, there are quite a lot of hills. It was a quite misty and cool start to the day, but that "burned" off and it crept up over 30 degrees with 80%+ humidity. Thankfully it's cooler in the hills where we are camped and we have lots of shade. 

After eating lunch back at our car (on a picnic mat behind the car in the car park!) we walked to Kenrokuen, one of the top three gardens in Japan. It is indeed gorgeous and very old. It dates back to the early 1600s. 


Walking through the streets of central Kanazawa there were many example of old juxtaposed with new. 

And now at 4pm I sit in a laundromat typing this post on my phone. The boys, thankful, have good books to read. 

Later we made dinner: veggies in foil with BBQ meat (plus corn on the cob). Yummy camping meal!







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