Ireland day 1324. Wednesday 14 May 2025- To Kanazawa

Today’s summary	Checked out of our ryokan and took the metro down to Kyoto station. Caught Thunderbird 19 train to Tsuruga and changed onto the Shinkansen to Kanazawa. Walked from Kanazawa station through the town, old and new, to our next, very traditional, ryokan accommodation. Amazed to see snow covered mountains in the distance. Bath then dinner in our pyjamas and overnight sleeping on mats on the floor. Very different.
Today’s weather	Warm dry and sunny all day. Very light north westerly breeze. Appx 25c.

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Kanazawa station to Yamamoo Ryokan

Commentary

Today it was time to move on from our stay in Kyoto, which has been absolutely brilliant. So we got up early, had our traditional breakfasts, checked out of the ryokan and made our ways down at Kyoto station in plenty of time for our 11:40 Thunderbird train to Tsuruga. Amazingly, the train was eight minutes late. No doubt there will be a Parliamentary enquiry.

We had to make a connection at Tsuruga onto the Hakutaka Shinkansen and had 25 minutes (now reduced by the delay) to negotiate ourselves from the Thunderbird (narrow gauge) platforms on level 1 to the Shinkansen (standard gauge) on level 3. Anyway, despite the shortened transfer time, we made it ok and were soon speeding along the shores of the Sea of Japan, destination Kanazawa.

The whole journey to Kanazawa only took just over two hours and we were at our destination by about 2pm. We had a good look round Kanazawa station, as it’s modern, interesting and spacious – and even features a clock which tells the time using fountains.

It was quite warm as we walked across the town but after months of Irish winter, the sunshine and heat was welcome. And then, to our surprise as we turned a corner in the old town, there ahead of us, in the far distance, was a range of snow-covered mountains. The Japanese Alps, perhaps, and looking quite out of place on such a summery day.

We eventually located our Ryokan for the next few nights – it’s called “Yama-no-o” which means “Mountain foothills” (quite appropriate, really, given the distant snowy peaks) and it’s even more traditional than its cousin in Kyoto. We were soon checked in and made use of all the facilities – the wooden bath being high on our list, along with numerous cups of tea.

Once suitably cleansed, we changed into our pyjamas and slippers, ready for dinner. We were duly collected from our cabin at 6:30 and shown over to the dining room for another traditional Japanese meal. Lots of courses, lots of fish, a great spectacle, and overall very enjoyable! We were finished by about 8:30pm so retired to our room, where the futons had been magically laid out on the floor while were were eating. It’s been quite a tiring day, so I don’t think it will be long before we dive into bed and check out the floor-sleeping experience.

I think we are slowly getting the hang of Japanese culture now, but it’s a pretty steep learning curve, though every step brings new challenges and excitements. Long may it last!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Thunderbirds are go! TB19 in our case	All aboard the Shinkansen at Tsuruga

Rice paddy fields as we Thundered alongside Lave Shiga	Impressive arrivals hall at Kanazawa station

Distant snow capped mountains from the terrace of our room	Traditional sitting room (which becomes the bedroom at night when the futons are laid out)

Dressed for dinner!