The winner of Visit Japan Campaign 11 – Long Lit, has shared his first 2 days journey to us. It is time for us to see the last 3 days stay in Japan.
Day 3- Kanazawa, The Capital of Ishikawa Prefecture
Architecture + Engineering = Miracle
Day 3 early in the morning, we departed from our hotel to Nagano Station, heading to our next destination – Kanazawa. With Shinkansen, the journey only took us an hour to reach Kanazawa Station and the first expression once we reached was just “Wow”, just look at the architectures, look at those beams, Japan never failed to amaze us! Kanazawa Station is said to be the one of the most beautiful stations in Japan.
Gold Leafing Experience, 24K Gold of Happiness
After checking in, we headed to Higashi Chaya District, where abundance of teahouse can be found, alongside with geisha who perform song and dance in traditional Japanese way. Apparently, Kanazawa is known as a famous in gold leaf production, where it produces 99% of gold leaf within Japan. Hence, FUN! Japan arranged this “golden” experience for us in Hakuichi, it was tough, required some serious art skills and patience. However, we just managed to handle it with our amateur artwork.
Kanazawa Castle with Kenroku Garden
Osaka castle? Himeji castle? You have heard it before, just to let you know...Kanazawa castle is magnificent too! After the gold leafing experience, we visited the one and only famous castle in Kanazawa. Big and ominous, strong and impregnable, white and innocent, just like me and myself.
Subsequently, we also went to Kenroku Garden, which as known as one of the “Three most beautiful gardens in Japan”. In fact, it combines the six significant aspects in the notion of an ideal garden: spaciousness, serenity, venerability, scenic views, subtle design, and coolness. The Kotoji Toro, a two-legged lantern is one of the most iconic symbols of Kenrokuen, you can find it everywhere, even at the manhole cover on the streets.
Even it was not the cherry blossoms season yet, we still able to see some pre-blooming around the garden.
Sushi Lesson, We Have Been Eating Wrong This Whole Time!
Apparently, I did not mention much in the food we had along day 1 and 2. That does not mean I hate Japanese food, I really love it as much as you do. The buffet meals in Nagano was superb, but the sushi dinner we had was amazing too. Our buddy Rishabh from India trying his first sushi bite of his lifetime, his favourite was salmon sushi. The sushi master was generous, humorous and friendly, we even learned how to eat sushi like a proper Japanese. To sum up for all the 4 lessons, remember the soy sauce must never, never touch the sushi rice! I realised I have been eating sushi wrongly all the time.
Yummy sushi with sake shots!
Sushi Lesson 101 by sushi master in Kanazawa.
Late after our dinner, we headed back to our hotel and took a rest, while I went to the public bath alone. Not going to lie that I am very addicted to public bath and hot springs, guess I am already half-Japanese. I personally think that we should at least try naked in public bath once in our lifetime, a very odd and unique experience!
Day 4- Finding Our Love in Japan
Seek for the God of Marriage, Keta Taisha
We went to Keta Taisha Shine to seek for the God of Marriage in the morning of day 4. For the sake of our love ones, we woke up early in the morning, took a shuttle van to Keta Taisha that located in Hakui City. For your information, all the single Japanese, couples come here to seek for good blessings on their marriage and relationships. In fact, the deity of this shrine is known to be very effective to answer our wishes!
This ceremony will only be held once per month, which is the first day of the month. As known as the “Tsuitachi Musubi”, where the priest read the wishes from us, sending the messages to the god. We were very lucky to be there, the priest guaranteed us that we will definitely find our love very soon after the ceremony.
Remember to use 5 yen when you’re making a wish in shrines because it represents serendipitous encounters that result in long and meaningful relationships. To be honest, after the ceremony in Keta Taisha, I have got some messages from girls that want to be friends with me, guess it’s a great start!
[Read More] A Highlights Guide to Keta Taisha Shrine on the Noto Peninsula
Drones, Japan’s technology, Traditional Japanese Marriage Ceremony
The master of Keta Shrine, is also a professional photographer that arrange marriage for the Japanese couples, or even foreigners. He showed us their past experiences on taking lovely, cinematic and epic shots using their photography ways. Besides, we also managed to try how to fly a proper drone, we were so excited as most of us here would like to own one too, as we love to travel a lot!
If I really have the chance to marry in the future, I would definitely come back here for a traditional style Japanese marriage ceremony.
Departing from Kanazawa to Osaka
They said you must try the Bento in the trains or shinkansen in Japan, I would say that’s really a must! “Eki-ben” also known as station bento set that can be found at the train stations. We had some souvenirs shopping at Kanazawa Station, also we bought our bento set for our next few hours train journey, definitely a 5-star treats!
We passed through the mighty Hakusan, Kyoto, my favourite Yamazaki Distillery then we arrived at Osaka after 3 hours of train journey, as bullet train is still not available from Kanazawa to Osaka railway.
I believe most of the people who travel in Japan would surely put Osaka in their bucket list, because of its well known for delicious street foods such as Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki. We ordered lots of street food in Osaka, it just won’t be too much for street food, I can eat them all day, all night!
Yum Yum! Food heaven is real!
The Glico Guy Sign
A famous attraction where everyone will strike a pose same as the Glico guy, what a legend. Next time I will think of one pose and place it at one of the tourist attractions in Malaysia.
Since it was the last day in Japan, we wandered around Dotonbori, shopping till no money left in our pockets. Yeap, this is what you’ll do the same in Osaka. Leaving is always hard, but we already get used to it. Thousand thanks to FUN! JAPAN for giving such opportunity for us, who love Japan just like all of you do, this journey is going to be a life to remember!
Related Article: Visit Japan Campaign 11: Enjoy Winter at the Rainbow Route of Japan – Day 1 & 2
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