Caw-caw Rawr! :: 親切な人

Alright. So this week, I went to my last two extracurricular activities, koto and oshie. Koto being a wooden stringed instrument born from the Chinese guzheng and oshie being a cloth craft that creates very beautiful not quite 3-dimensional reliefs. So like squashed stuffed animals. Some interesting stuff happened at oshie with a comedy group called テツ＆トモ that came to film a segment for their show at the International Lounge. They mostly goofed around, interviewed us, became enamored with Claire's sass, and taught us their theme song, 「なんでだろう」. It was an interesting experience and I can now say that I have been on Japanese television. Whew time to cross that off the bucket list (and also add it to the bucket list so I can actually cross it off). The same day I went to oshie, I also finally went to this cafe that I've had my eye on for the longest time. It. Was. Magical.

I want my house to look like this.

If you're ever around Musashigatsuji in Kanazawa, stop by this cafe called Book Cafe (or is it Life is Good?) and get a sandwich. Or a kabocha scone. Or soup. Or any of the other delicious things that the owner makes from scratch. Also props to his music taste. And decorating taste. And book taste. And well everything.

And then on Saturday I turned into a Wilderness Explorer

So today, I decided to get well and truly lost in Kanazawa. I don't know why the urge hit me, but I've had a slight feeling of panic slowly growing in my stomach from not actually getting out much and actually exploring this city that I've been living in for two months. Which in reality is a bit silly of me because I've been to all the major touristy places and shopping centers and also go to a bunch of different places through PII and extracurriculars and I also try to go to new places every time I go running...so yeah. 

My first stop was Omicho Market. I'd been there a couple times before but never when all the stores were open and when I had time to go through the whole market. It was quite fun and I left with a very growly stomach. 

Look at how friggin big that octopus is!

Mmmm oyster. (I think it's oyster?) They also had GIGANTIC crab and sea urchin.

Omicho Fish Market also sells veggies! And Tsukemono! And clothes. And souvenirs. And it has delicious smelling food for sale

Fruit that costs more than tuition. Just kidding. Sorta.

After that, I somehow found myself in a part of town I'd never been in.

Very pretty. Also the moat for Kanazawa castle. How I ended up a good 20 minutes away from Omicho I'll never know.

Road lined with naked people statues I wandered onto

And then I was hungry so I got some soft serve. Sakura flavored and matcha flavored soft serve to be exact. I was so excited I started eating it before I remembered to be a good blogger and take pictures.

Went all through the tourist shops lining the way to Kanazawa Castle and one of the entrances to Kenrokuen and found giant golden poop (and smaller golden poop) for sale. The temptation to buy was strong.

Also went to Kenrokuen once again and spent a lot of time sitting around people watching, fish watching, and Japanese plum tree watching. Afterwards, I decided that today was the day that I go and spend money to see the non-free parts of the 21st Century Museum. Definitely, definitely, definitely worth the 800 yen. Especially since I also got access to their new exhibition on transparency and reflection. 

Leonard Elrich's Reflection Pool. It looks like a real pool from the top and from the bottom, but there's really only 10 cm of water in the pool.

Sideways staircase. Just as disorienting and cool as the pool was.

Have I ever told y'all how much I love clouds? I love clouds. And the sky. These made me happy :)  From the front they looked like very realistic clouds...

...but from the side you can see that the affect is achieved through painting layers on glass! I really want to try this now.

Cool hallway thing

Another exhibition to mess with perception. Mirrors split this exhibit up into three different greenery environments, so it looks like the scene is complete changing as you move around the exhibit. From this angle you can see how the left third of the thing is different from the other two thirds.

From there, I wandered over to Higashichaya, but before I got there, I found a set of stairs that looked interesting. So I went up.

Adventure! Wilderness! Exploration!

Shrine and temple at the top of those stairs

And past that temple was another set of stairs.

That led to Hanashoubu-en. It's an iris garden with hydrangeas that bloom in June and early July. So unfortunately, most of the irises had already finished blooming. I can imagine how beautiful it is in full bloom though.

It was pretty large. If y'all wanna know how it looks with flowers..

Sensing a theme?

I accidentally wandered into mosquito territory. They were very unhappy with this encroachment and launched a 4-pronged attack on me. One of them landed a hit on my nose. ON MY NOSE. Yes, the shakiness is due to my haste in trying to leave before angering more mosquitoes with my presence.

Large statue to some important person

I guess getting a mosquito bite on my nose was worth this view

Park on the top of the mountain (whose name is Utatsuyama...I think)

Once I got to the top, I realized just how ridiculously lost I had gotten myself. I couldn't find the stairs I had come up the mountain on, and found way too many different roads and crossroads leading...who knows where. So I asked a car parked nearby for directions, and after a while, they lady got out and offered to give me a ride to Kanazawa station. In the US, I would probably turn down this offer because, well...stranger danger. But at this point it was nearing 7pm and I had honestly no idea where I was and I was desperate to get home and to food, so I took her up on her offer. And holy amazeballs, she was so fabulous. Interestingly enough, she had no idea that I was a foreigner until about 15 minutes in when I told her that I was an exchange student here, and she almost didn't believe me! Gave myself a little pat on the back for being able to pass as a Japanese person...at least for a little while :) This 親切な人 went far beyond simply giving me a ride to the station, and actually drove me all the way out of her way to where my host home is. This was a good 40 minutes out of her way, but she did it with a smile on her face and even gave me some candy to take with me (yes, yes, I know...never take candy from a stranger...or get into a stranger's car...). I was so surprised at how amazingly nice and helpful she was to a complete stranger, and if it wasn't so impolite in Japanese culture, I would've hugged her. I'm definitely looking forward to paying this forward. 

Thanks for reading, and DFTBA!