A MONTH IN JAPAN – KANAZAWA TO KYOTO, NOVEMBER 15, 2025

November 15, 2025 – Kanazawa

We had bought tickets on the 13:04 Shinkansen from Kanazawa Station to Kyoto Station, so there was plenty of time to visit one of Kanazawa’s three geisha quarters and the Omicho Market, where we’d had dinner at an izakaya and met the Grohe salesman on our first night in the city.  We stored our bags in a locker at the train station, scoped out the various bento boxes and drinks available for our Shinkansen to Kyoto, and then walked over to Kazue-machi Chaya – the  geisha district located nearest to the Omicho Market.

•  Kazue-machi Chaya

The three geisha or teahouse districts in Kanazawa are Higashi Chaya, the largest district and located to the east; Nishi Chaya, much smaller and located to the west; and Kazue-machi Chaya, sometimes called the hidden geisha district and located along the Asano River.  Of the latter, Kaname-inn online magazine says:

The most secretive of Kanazawa’s three geisha districts in both its design and feeling of discretion is Kazue-machi, named for Todakazue, a samurai family of the Kaga region. 

Though it is larger than Nishi Chaya, it is also relatively small, made of only about twenty households packed tightly between bars and restaurants, in a small labyrinth of alleyways. 

With a walk along the cobbled riverside street, it’s no surprise that this district was the setting for forbidden romance in the 1978 novel Asanogawa Boshoku (“Asano River Dusk”) by Hiroyuki Itsuki. 

With its rocky hills and proximity to the mountains, Kanazawa is known among the Japanese for its characteristic slopes and stairways that pepper the city. Two of the most notable are directly connected to the Kazue-machi geisha district: Akari-zaka, the “Lighted Slope,” [below] and Kuragari-zaka, the “Dark Slope.”

Hidden around the back side of Kubo-ichi Otsutsurugi-gu Shrine is Kuragari-zaka [below].

The stairs are blocked on all sides, receiving sun only around noon of the clearest days. Yet at the bottom grows a lone sakura [cherry] tree in front of the geisha’s practice center.

The morning walk along the river was peaceful; delivery vans were on scene to service entertainment establishments that would open later, like Café Bar Saika   

 

and this geisha house.

  

Some front doors were decorated with organic talisman, like this blessed corn talisman below from Kannon-in Temple. These talismans are sold only once a year during the Shiman Rokusen-nichi (46,000 Days) festival, typically held in late August.  It is believed that visiting the temple on this specific day grants the same spiritual merit as visiting for 46,000 consecutive days (ca. 126 years).

This talisman below is a Japanese New Year’s decoration called a shimenawa, a sacred rice straw rope used in the Shinto faith to mark boundaries around sacred places and ward off evil. The decorative sign hanging in the center translates as "the gate of laughter," symbolizing a household filled with happiness.

• Kubo-ichi Otsutsurugi-gu Shrine

Leaving Kazue-machi, we took the Dark Slope up through a small park leading to the Kubo-ichi Otsutsurugi-gu Shrine.  According to All About Japan:

This shrine has a history dating back to Heian Period (794-1185), when it was called Ototsurugi Daimyojin. It was built as a guardian shrine of the city. The central market of the Kitakaga area was located nearby, and the actual city developed from that market, so the shrine is also known as "the market’s birthplace" or "the city’s birthplace." It's believed to protect the city’s prosperity and development.

Here are a few photos of the approach to the shrine through the little park above the geisha district, and the shrine itself.  

This is the ema we got at the shrine.  2025 was the Year of the Snake, hence the motif.

• Omicho Market

As noted above, Kanazawa’s sprawling central market, Omicho, is located a short walk from the shrine.  Per Visit Kanazawa:

Established during the Edo Period, Omicho Market has formed an essential part of Kanazawa’s food culture for more than 300 years. 

The sprawling market features more than 170 stores, including a large number of fishmongers that sell freshly caught seafood from the Sea of Japan. There are also fruit and vegetables stores that sell unique local produce, marine product stores, clothing stores, grocery stores and restaurants. 

Particularly well-revered are the crab, yellowtail and shrimp from the Sea of Japan that are sold around November. Because of this, the market is normally crowded with tourists and locals alike during this time of year. 

• On the Shinkansen

It was a bit of a torture to walk through the market and not stop to nosh—the crab!!-- but we had a Shinkansen to catch and this time, we were determined not to miss it!  We retrieved our carry-on's from the locker and bought two bento boxes plus sake in the Kanazawa Station for our two-hour trip to Kyoto.  

The first leg from Kanazawa to Kyoto was via the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Tsuruga Station.  

There we transferred to the JR (Japan Railways) Thunderbird Express, which deposited us at Kyoto Station.  Then, it was a short metro ride on the Karasuma Line to Shijo Station and from there a short walk to Seven Keys, our accommodation.  

• Kyoto

Seven Keys is a new, very modern, self-catering hotel with seven apartments, centrally located and near to transit on a quiet street with small shops and izakayas.  We settled in, found the 7-11 for breakfast staples, and plotted our evening’s entertainment.  (Love that brand new, baby blue statement Mercedes SUV!  It never moved out of that carport while we were in residence.)

Lonely Planet Pocket Guide to Kyoto & Osaka notes that Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over 1,000 years and, miraculously, it was spared destruction in World War II.  Given its longevity and national importance to Japan, as Lonely Planet says, “Kyoto is a living museum of history, both physical and intangible, which no other Japanese city can match.”

For starters, Kyoto has some 1,600 Buddhist temples, expressing the epitome in Japanese art, architecture, aesthetics, and philosophy.  If you like gardens, Kyoto offers them in moss, raked sand, dense bamboo, or theatrical landscape imagined by a ‘30s Japanese film star.  If you’re into culture, there are music and dance performances by geisha, kabuki and life-size puppet theatres, as well as ritual tea ceremonies that can be booked. 

Then there are the covered food markets, outstanding dining both fine and fast, and lots of shopping, from high- to funky-fashion.  As if that were not enough, there are outdoor experiences to be had on lakes and in the thickly wooded hills encircling the city.  It’s a world-class tourist destination and I could easily have spent six months there.  But, we didn’t have six months.  We had four nights and three full days.

• Yasaka-jinja Shrine

Given our short stay in Kyoto, we wasted no time getting out into this historic city.  Lonely Planet said that Yasaka-jinja, an important Shinto shrine whose construction was begun in 656, was open 24 hours a day, every day, so we made that the target of our first evening.

We walked down Shijo-dori (Shijo Street), just around the corner from our apartment, through the Gion shopping district of high-end shops, to the entrance to Touka Saikan, a famous Peking-style restaurant designed by American architect William Merrell Vories in 1926,

 

where a clutch of inebriated Chinese businessmen were out for a night on the town.

We continued across the Kamogawa River, bordered by grand buildings in a mix of East meets West styling,

and further on we passed a Starbucks where a colorful patron was scrolling on her phone with impossibly long fingernails.  

About 30 minutes into our walk, we came to the vermilion gates of Yasaka-jinja at the end of Shijo-dori.  

A pair of elderly women were chatting on the steps as their pair of aging, overweight Akitas stood (well, sat actually) guard.

Lonely Planet says of Yasaka-jinja:

Also known as Gion Shrine, Yasaka-jinja has mysterious origins, but was founded over 1000 years ago and is certainly one of Kyoto’s most famous shrines; its distinctive vermilion gate is impossible to miss just beyond the streets of Gion and below the wooded slopes of the Higashiyama hills.  Yasaka-jinja is open 24 hours a day and is a pleasant and atmospheric place to wander after dark or at sunrise….In cherry blossom season, it is particularly lively; likewise in July, when it plays host to Gion Matsuri, one of Japan’s most famous summer festivals. 

Wiki describes the origins of the Gion Matsuri, a month-long purifying festival complete with floats and portable shrines, much like the ones we saw in Takayama (image below courtesy of Japan News):

In the year 869, a terrible epidemic caused the Emperor to call for a Shinto ritual to appease vengeful spirits believed to be the cause. Representatives used 66 pikes for each of 66 regions in the country at that time, in a Shinto ritual called goryo-e at Shinsenen, a lake at the Imperial Palace at that time. Eventually, the ritual became an annual event known as the Gion Goryo-e, and then the Gion Matsuri, associated with Gion Shrine, in the Gion district of Kyoto. The pikes became decorated, larger, and eventually morphed into the famous Gion Matsuri yamaboko floats. These travel through the central streets of Kyoto, as do mikoshi (portable shrines) from Yasaka Shrine, to purify the streets and ward off any potential epidemics or other harm. The Gion Matsuri takes place every July. 

 

Today, in addition to hosting the Gion Matsuri, Yasaka Shrine welcomes thousands of people every New Year, for traditional Japanese New Year rituals and celebrations. In April, the crowds pass through the temple on their way to Maruyama Park, a popular hanami (cherry blossom viewing) site. Lanterns decorate the stage with the names of festival sponsors. 

It was extremely atmospheric, but as so often was the case, no photos of the Main Hall were allowed.  Nonetheless, I snapped one and am probably going to Hell.

This is the dance stage lit with lanterns donated by patrons.

 

To the right of the dance stage, and through a gate guarded by these scary dudes, 

 

you enter a promenade with torii, stone lanterns, and small shrines on either side of the path, reminding me of side chapels in a cathedral.  

 

Just before leaving, a monk wearing wooden clogs and swinging a blue and white lantern on a pole clopped by, his footsteps echoing in the darkness.  I tried to get a video, but he was too quick for me, despite rocking on his teetering footwear.

We left by the main gate, where Shijo-dori rolled out like a diamond carpet in front of us, and went in search of dinner.

Keep it real!

Marilyn