Your Japanese word of the week is...

"saisho" 最初 which means first. I'm mostly saying this because while many people learn "saigo" 最後 as last, it technically means final. The "last" train of the day, for example, isn't the final train to run, since it will start again the next day. Unfortunately, last is "saishuu" 最終 which, if you ask me, sounds a lot like "saisho". And that, doubly unfortunately, means mistaking one for the other results in a certain blog writer asking the same question 3 times to the hotel clerk... oh well haha......

Anyways, these past two days I was in Kanazawa, about 4 hours from Tokyo and up near the Sea of Japan coast. While known for many historic things, it also contained some rather nice modern things.

Quite obviously modern is Kanazawa's 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. Designed as a giant circle with multiple entrances so visitors can "approach" the art from many angles. Kanazawa itself also seems to been taken by modern yet artistic flair. Sculptures can be seen all around the city (above) and there are some neat architectural elements that just somehow look slightly more stylish. It even includes the cool lattice-work structure of Kanazawa station's entrance and a gorgeous re-interpretation of the famous torii gates found all over Japan (see first picture).

The art museum itself contains a few permanent and free pieces as well as lots of open space, inviting people to use the museum as a meeting spot and not just as a destination. Some of the free pieces include Leando Erlich's Swimming Pool (above), where 10cm of water and cleverly made pool bottom make it look like a real pool while people underneath the glass stare back up at you.

Now, I should admit I used to be quite critical of modern art; I once read about a new gallery in South Africa that hung all its paintings backwards, claiming there was much left unseen on the blank canvas behind. This pool I would've found cool but many things I tended to over-rationalize, quickly breaking them down into their component pieces and claiming ambivalence towards them (it's just a lamp post...), like when I went to visit the Pompidou Museum in Paris. But more recently I browsed through the modern art section of the Hong Kong Art Museum (twice) as well as saw an art film while I was there (all three of which, I now realise, is due to my aunt! Thank you! =P) and I think I've started to understand how to approach modern art- I force myself not to think about anything and then, with my mind sufficiently blank, I think about whatever thoughts bubble up as I view a piece. Some piece are easy to appreciate, like 100 Labyrinths (above), a maze made entirely of salt. The backwards South Africa idea, however, I still find ridiculous...

But these bicycles you can rent to ride around the museum halls or James Turell's Blue Planet Sky, which is a giant square room with a giant square cut out of the ceiling so visitors can sit and quietly watch the sky and light change, are great in and of themselves. Unfortunately, their special exhibit (which currently costs a whopping 1700yen for access to both zones) doesn't allow photography, but when I say one of the pieces is a giant black oval painted on a sloped off-white wall, you can understand why it might be something I would write off right away. It turns out, however, the piece is really intriguing as the lighting in the room makes it seem like it's an actual hollowed out section of the wall; an actual hole instead of a painted hole. In truth, I have no idea if it actually is a hole, as visitors aren't allowed within 2 feet of it, which makes it all the more interesting. Then there's a silent film about factory workers in China and how each garment they make contains a piece of the worker's history. Sounds plain, but the way it was filmed and the use of old and new footage make it more powerful than that. My favourite was Open Dialogue, which used a ping pong table with shock sensors so that each time the ball hit the table, a synthesizer would play a note. The exhibit asked visitors to play ping pong with someone for a while so despite the players focusing on keeping the ball on the table, the erratic pings and pongs from the speakers mimicked how a conversation would progress. I have no idea what exhibits will come next, but the entire place comes highly recommended, even if they do charge 1700yen for access to all the galleries.

A short bus ride from the museum drops you off near Myoryuji, a temple more commonly known as the Ninja Temple although it has nothing to with ninjas at all. I should warn that the temple requires reservations for tours and the tours are completely in Japanese. However, they do provide a comprehensive booklet that briefly covers, in the same order as the tour, all the things the guide covers. The temple itself was built in the Edo period as a defensive structure. As such, there are many tricks and traps hidden up the temple's sleeves... again which you can't take pictures of. The biggest trick, though, can be seen above. What looks like a simple two storey building actually has 7 "floors", 23 rooms, and 29 staircases. There are perilous pitfalls, secret pathways, and sneak lighting arrangements so that warriors can stand guard in a dark room watching guests in a lit room through rice-paper walls. Some of these tricks aren't too special (we close this door and it looks like a closet!) but others are really intricate, like a secret staircase entrance that automatically locks when the door is shut. There's also a well that is believed to connect to Kanazawa castle a few km away and then the entire maze-like layout of the temple with multiple passage ways- some rooms have up to five exits.

The next day I headed off to Kenrokuen, a landscape garden widely regarded as one of the best in Japan. And it didn't disappoint. Built off the principle that a beautiful garden should possess "spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, watercourses, and panoramas", it impressed even on a dreary overcast day. The garden also includes one of the symbols of Kanazawa- the Kotojitoro Lantern whose shape recalls that of the bridges supporting the strings on a Japanese koto (above, right). It even appears on their manhole covers =P...

Here's another view of the lantern with the "Rainbow Bridge" in front of it. I'd also like to take this time, since it is my blog, to rant about something...

See, people work really hard to keep the garden looking nice. I mean, "artificiality" is one of the principles the garden was built around, so it takes people to produce it. And it irks me to no end just how disrespectful some people are. When there's a fence somewhere, DON'T step over it into the groomed moss just so you can get your sorry head into a picture. When you're walking around cultivating your throat cancer, DON'T flick cigarette ash towards the trees lest you burn down the entire garden. When the weather gets a bit hot for you, DON'T toss your jacket onto a pruned bush because you don't have enough hands to hold it. I simply don't understand how some people can be so damn self-centred that they can stand around proclaiming how beautiful the garden is while crushing flowers under their feet because they couldn't stay out of the fenced off areas... And I'm certainly no generalist, racist, or stereotypist but all the people I saw doing this came from mainland China...

Fuming, I left and, walking by a tea house, I decided what I needed was a place to take my mind off all of it. The Shiguretei Tea House is the perfect place for that as you get served some nice green tea in a quiet room. Better than that, however, was the view of the tea house's garden exclusive to the serving room (above). At 300yen for the regular green tea (700 for the powdered version), it's worth the 300yen to see the garden.

Kenrokuen, however, is fully deserving of the praise it gets, as can be seen in the first of the two above pictures showing, on the right, a tortoise shell-like island representing the mythical island of perpetual youth and longevity. Even better is that it's rather close to the train station (about 30minutes should be enough to walk there, or a 10 minute bus ride) and it's right across from Kanazawa Castle, although the latter is current under re-construction.

Aside from the garden, Kanazawa is also famous for its many "tea districts" where visitors can experience an authentic tea house. Above is the Higashi-chaya (East) district which is probably the best of the 3 main ones (East, West, and Kazue-machi). While walking around it doesn't really provide much aside from interesting old buildings, spending some time (and money) at a tea house will enhance the experience.

My last stop before heading home was the Nagamachi Buke Yashiki District, which is to samurai what the tea districts are to tea houses. Walking through it does offer some contrast to the tea districts (all the buildings have strong outer walls; all the decorations are that bit more expensive looking) but there is a preserved samurai house (Nomura-ke) that serves as a mini-museum. You're free to enjoy the various rooms it has, take in some of the Edo-era items on display (two above), or gaze at the seemingly bursting garden (above).

All in all, Kanazawa is a surprisingly nice city to visit. It's got a great mix of old and new without feeling uncomfortable at the melding of the two aspects. It's a simple city to get around and everything is within a reasonable walking distance. And while it doesn't deserve (or need) more than a day or two to really see the core sights, at two hours from Nagoya, it makes for a very decent side trip.

Tomorrow I'm off to Kiso Valley, which is part of an old postal route with old post towns on either end of it. Then it's even more history on Wednesday, as I head to Ise Shrine, one of the most sacred shrines in Japan. Stay tuned...