Yudanaka to Kanazawa

Trip Diary Day 4 - 1 April 2019

Check out Episodes 2 & 3 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.

Spring has sprung apparently. Not in Yamanouchi though. It snowed overnight. It must be an April Fools joke. Beautiful sunny day though even if there is a light dusting of snow on everything. These cold snaps aren’t helping the cherry blossom situation. If it stays cold the sakura blossoming season will be delayed and we’ll miss one of the reasons we came to Japan at this time of year. Our trip will be ruined. Not really. Japan in any weather is awesome. If we miss the flowers we miss the flowers. I’ll just drown my sorrows with another pancake or creme caramel or Sakura KitKat.

I have a cold so I slept badly. My immune system must be celebrating the season. I was awake at 6 and up by 7. At least it wasn’t 4 am. Yes I probably will complain about early starts loudly and often. We had a breakfast of yoghurt and corn flakes and a packet of maple syrup and butter pancakes from Lawson. I think the Lawson pancakes win the pancake wars over 7-Eleven. They have that certain je ne se quois. That’s a French fancy pants way of saying “I do not know what”.

There’s someone still in bed when he should be getting ready to leave

We went down to the onsen for a final dip before packing and checking out. 48,000 yen for the stay including a dinner and breakfast - cash only. That’s about AU$650 in our sadly under performing antipodean currency. Many ryokans still only take cash. Cash is still king in much of Japan which is surprising considering how hi-tech much of the country is. Each time we’ve come we found more and more places accepting credit cards though. Finding ATMs that take foreign cards is a lot easier too. Speaking of which 48,000 yen is a big chunk of cash so I reckon a visit to the 7 Bank ATM was on the cards soon. 7 Bank ATMs in 7-Elevens are your best bet for foreign card compatibility. Otherwise ATMs in Japan Post shops is another option. I think even Family Mart ATMs work with foreign cards now too.

The lovely older couple that run Yudanaka Yasuragi came out to wave us goodbye. They run a fabulous place. Clean, quiet, beautiful food and a great onsen. Help the local cash economy and stay there when you visit Yudanaka.

We drove to Goen (where had dinner the night before) to see if they were open for breakfast. The were not open. The Goen Deli at the station was open but didn't have anything breakfast like so we drove up to Kokuya Ryokan to get onsen eggs. Kokuya was the expensive ryokan I’ve mentioned previously. It is way way out of price range now. Beautiful place to stay though. Every day they leave basket of eggs sitting in a bath of hot spring water outside of the ryokan for anybody passing by to buy fresh onsen eggs. The eggs are 50 yen each. We bought 4.

We drove to Enza cafe again for coffee and muffins. Lots of snow up there. The top end of Yudanaka-Shibu Onsen has just enough elevation to have had a dump of snow overnight. A lot more than the lower part of town where we stayed. There were even nice big drifts of fresh stuff at the entrance to the monkey park walk. We considered going to see the snow monkeys again but decided we had a long way to drive and it would take too much of a chunk out of our day to go see the monkeys again. The last time we came here we did go a second time to see the snow monkeys because that time there had been an even bigger overnight dump of snow and we didn’t have as far to travel that day. So taking a few hours to see the monkeys wouldn’t hurt. Most of the monkeys spend the day in the onsen when it snows so it is well worthwhile photography wise. And the monkeys are too busy having a soak to throw poo at you.

We had our hot cappuccinos and muffins and wandered up to the gift shop for monkey souvenirs. Georgia and Brandon settled for 200 yen monkey erasers. Not as exciting for them as the plush stuffed snow monkeys they actually wanted but the plush monkeys, like everything else, were just too expensive.

The GPS said it was going to take 3.5 hours to get to Kanazawa so we stopped at Lawson and 7-Eleven for sandwiches and snacks - road trip food - before leaving town. While we were in the 7-Eleven car park we ate the Kokuya onsen eggs in the car. They were perfect. Exactly the right consistency for 63 degree onsen eggs. It may be huge call, an early call, but these may be Japan’s best 50 yen onsen eggs.

After a couple of hours of driving we stopped at Rendaiji road side stop for a vending machine coffee break. This particular road house is essentially a convenience store, ramen shop, toilets and a dozen or so vending machines. Not one of the huge super duper complexes. I bought a cold Milk Coffee - a bottled iced coffee. Nice and creamy. Did I mention there were a lot of vending machines? There’s something like one vending machine for every 25 people in Japan. Hot and cold drinks and food and snacks and used underwear. You’ll find them just about everywhere. Don’t be surprised if you’re driving along a quiet rural road that you’ll find a vending machine sitting under a street light miles from anywhere.
Kanazawa is about 2 hours from here.

Yamanouchi (Yudanaka) to Kanazawa

We had another stop for a pee break and stopped again for petrol with about 45 minutes to go. We’re well and truly on the north coast by now. The highway runs parallel to the coast then cuts across the Noto peninsula before dropping down into Kanazawa. It was fascinating to have the ocean on one side and off into the distance snow capped peaks on the other. Kanazawa is in the Ishikawa Prefecture. We’d started in the Chiba Prefecture, then Nagano and now Ishikawa. Coast to coast in a couple of days. It rained for the last hour or so.

Kanazawa

Have you ever noticed driving into a town or city that you find yourself thinking, hey this city is bigger or smaller than I thought? You never think, hey this town is exactly how I thought it would be. Kanazawa was bigger than I thought. We hit the outskirts thinking not far now and we still had 20 minutes to drive. Kanazawa’s population is almost half a million so it is just big enough for big city convenience and small enough not to be overwhelming.

I really did follow the instructions to find our apartment. Even so we kept driving round and around the block and just not seeing it. We had a print out with photos too. Eventually we found the apartment after driving up and down at least three different streets. But find it we did. I reckon we drove past it at least twice beforehand though.

It was a ground floor apartment in a small apartment block. The doors looked pretty close together so I guess that was the first indication that the unit was tiny, or at least narrow. All the units seem to be Airbnb because they all have same instructions for parking and WiFi stuck to the doors. There was no parking at the building, just enough room to unload our luggage, but there was a parking lot about 100 metres away (included with the apartment).

It was a tiny apartment. Only slightly wider than the front door upon entering through the kitchen. A sink, and a stove on the left and tiny bathroom and toilet on the right. A couple of paces later and you enter the slightly wider bedroom lounge area. A bed, a sofa, TV and bar fridge took up nearly all the floor space. With the sofa bed pulled out there was almost no floor space. Georgia and Brandon shared the fold out sofa and Michelle and I had what turned out to be the big hard shitty bed. There wasn’t any room for our bags. The end of the room had an enclosed balcony type area that had the washer dryer combo machine and stacks of sheets and towels. Not for us. It seems the Airbnb hosts used this particular area for storing clean sheets and towels for all their apartments in the building. There was just enough room in this cupboard sized space for our bags. The washing machine was handy but we never did figure out how the drying worked. Unless the spin cycle was considered drying? All this luxury for about AU$125 per night. We were here for 4 nights so it came to about 37000 yen (about AU$500). From the paperwork pinned to the door we figured the apartment was listed on Airbnb and Booking.com. We made our reservation through Booking.com.

Sushi Ippei

It’s about a 15 minute walk down to the river and the main city of Kanazawa for sushi. Probably not the best conditions weather wise for a walk. We were going to figure out public transport options for the following day so in the meantime we decided to leg it to town anyway. The good news was that there was a Lawson nearby so we were okay for essentials like creme caramels and pancakes on the way back. The rain was only spitting at first but it was really coming down heavily by the time we found Sushi Ippei.

The sushi chef and the waitress are a very friendly very welcoming older couple. She spoke a little English. They even had an English menu which had pictures. They have an inexpensive nigiri set course or choose your own adventure by picking and choosing your own sushi. We chose our own adventure. Each piece of sushi between 200 and 500 yen each. Chutoro, fatty tuna, being the most expensive followed by uni - sea urchin.

Everything was fantastic especially the otoro - the highest grade fatty tuna. Some local shellfish with a sweet sauce was delicious too. We had a jug of hot sake each. To keep the cold away. Georgia had water and brandy a large orange juice. He ended up having two because of course he did.

Georgia and brandy both had a few pieces of sushi. Georgia loved the tuna sushi most. They love sitting at the counter of these small sushi bars. Part of the fun is watching the sushi chef prepare the fish and they way he rolls the balls or rice in his hands. I love the finesse and the ritualisation of the process including the clap at the end. No we don’t applaud. The chef brings his hands together with a clap as he finishes rolling the rice. We probably should applaud though. This is serious performance art. Sushi trains are fun but watching a sensei, a master, at work is sublime.

Sushi shops tend to only have between 6 and dozen seats at the bar so there were only a few other customers when we arrived. Two couples. Both American. As the first couple left they asked us about our camera. Both Michelle and I have our Nikons out and I’d also been videoing the goings on for our Youtube channel with the Panasonic GH4. So I guess we looked serious about photography. He said he has a Canon 5D Mark 4 but left it at home on this trip. That is a serious camera too. Seriously expensive. Speaking of YouTube you can expect to see the video from Sushi Ippei up on our channel at some point. When I eventually get around to it. The link will be here somewhere. The guy from the other couple chatted to us and he mentioned going to Antarctica. He is an oceanographer and has been 5 times most recently on the Aurora Australis. The Aurora Australis is an Australian icebreaker used for Antarctic research and re-supplying the Australian Antarctic bases. I’m not jealous at all. Not one bit. I don’t know why you would think that.

Brandy loved the tomago sushi at the end of the meal. Tomagoyaki is rolled omelette. They have a sweetness about them that almost makes them dessert like.

We paid 12800 yen (AU$175) for the entire meal including drinks. It adds up quickly but was very reasonably priced for the standard. If you were lucky enough to go to Jiro in Tokyo, for example, you’d pay around 30000 yen per person for maybe 15 pieces of sushi. If you’re visiting Kanazawa I can highly recommend Sushi Ippei.

It was raining heavier again when we left if that was even possible. We went Family Mart and bought some food and milk and an umbrella. We had to go to Lawson too because one convenience store is never enough. Lawson is fast becoming our favourite conbini. On our last trip to Japan it was Family Mart but this time Lawson seems to have the edge. 7-Eleven is best for compatible ATMs though.

There was some snow with rain by now. Perfect for the walk home. We thought we’d see if a nearby Michelin star tempura place was open for lunch tomorrow. And cheap enough. We found it but they only had room for 3 people tomorrow. Closed Wednesday. Okay for Thursday, but the kicker was lunch was going to be 6000 to 10000 yen each (AU$80 to AU$135). Oh crap, Dreams of cheap tempura lunches flew out the window. Thanks we said, but no thanks. Lunches are usually cheaper than dinners so I can imagine how expensive dinner would be. I can only imagine which of the kids we’d have to sell to afford that. And to think once upon a time we we eat out at places like Jiro. That’s probably why we can’t afford tempura now. Conbini kaarage (fried chicken) from now on.

We walked home. The rain had stopped by then.

We had our snacks and pancakes and Milo. Yeah, I brought a kilo of Milo with me. I love my Milo. I took a couple of cans to Europe three years ago so I figured there was no reason not to bring some to Japan too.

Aussie Milo meets Japanese milk

Kanazawa, Japan

We laid out the kids bed which they were very happy with after some argument as to who had which side. Our bed is hard as fuck which will be fantastic. Does the sarcasm come across in that last statement? There were glass doors to the laundry and to the outside alley. No curtains. The doors were frosted but they still let in heaps of light. Michelle will love that in the morning. That was more sarcasm by the way. Michelle often brings black plastic sheeting to cover windows when we travel but not this time. Oops. She likes sleeping in the pitch black. Cold tonight. More snow was expected. Rain too. The Sakura has not even budded because of the cold. So much for any ideas we had of seeing a spectacular cherry blossom season in Kanazawa. We were in Kanazawa for a few days so who knows?

There’s a Ninja temple and geisha part of town is quite near us in the Nishi Chaya district. Lots of Edo period traditional buildings and tea shops. I’m starting to think everything is Edo. So possibly we’ll head there first in the morning before coffee at Blue Monday. As I wrote this it was pissing down again.

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Check out Episode 2 & 3 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.

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