Kanazawa

Kanazawa is a really beautiful place. There are some cities which you immediately warm too and this was one of them.

Situated on the West of Central Honshu, this city used to the 4th largest in Japan and about 700 years ago was the capital of the only Buddhist state in Japan when monks and farmers overthrew the Togashi family.

The station is pretty amazing though sorry I didnt get any photos but there was a clock which tells the time using tiny water fountains.. very cool!

Kanazawa has Kenroku-en, one of the top 3 Japanese gardens and also this crazy temple called Myoryu-ji which is nick named the "ninja temple" due to its complex structure. The temple has special trap doors and hidden steps to allow some on to escape from an enemy.

Here I also managed to stay in a ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese hotel in which you sleep in a tatami room (basically filled with straw mats) and on a futon. The futon was really comfy and the hotel right in the cool part of town.

The city also has a brillant art museum called the 21st Century Museum of Art, some great stuff in there. The building itself is very well designed, super modern and only finished in August 2005. I reckon it is where Ikea gets their designs from!