The students all enjoyed their weekends with some travelling as far as Kyoto and Universal studios in Osaka and all experienced a diverse range of interesting activities. A number had a change in Host families as well. This morning we traveled to Kanazawa which is the largest city in the area and capital of Iskikawa prefecture. Together we went to several interesting places.
1. The Ninja dera temple (Also known as Myoryuji) During an unstable period in Japanese history this temple was bulit in 1643. In order to protect the local ruler, this temple had a number of extra features added to the normal design such a secret passages, secret rooms, trick staircases and a ritual suicide chamber. The many tricks and traps were designed to trick shogunate spies and enemies and allow for sudden escapes. Photography is not allowed inside this temple.
2. Kanazawa castle. Burned and restored many times this is an impressive structure.
3. Kenrokuen Garden. This is regarded as one of the top 3 gardens in Japan and it has impressive views of Kanawzaw city centre.
We then made our way into the city centre and had lunch at an Italian restaurant. I can recommend the pizza if you are ever there! The students were then free to explore the many superb shops in the city before travelling back to Matto station where they were picked up by their hosts. Today was the first day of the local school holidays so we were accompanied by 13 of the host students. It is so easy to explore a new city in the company of the local experts on the area. I hope I have managed to take enough photographs to give you an adequate computer side view of the day. I also had the pleasure of meeting up with Ayaka Mizutani (Kura) this evening who visited Boston last summer.
Tomorrow we have an outdoor activity in a river in the mountain area but heavy rain is forecast. If so we will go to a swimming pool instead. I hope the weather will be good!
Hi another fabulous day. I would have really liked your itinerary today (as already commented I love Japanese architecture)so today's visit to a temple and castle would have been a treat. The gardens looked amazing I think Japanese gardens have such a sophisticated simplicity that always manage to be breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteAll this shopping: does it include new suitcases??
Lovely to see a picture of Ayaka and that you got to catch up with her; I hope she is well.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the weather is kind and you get your day in the mountains.
Take care Clare x
Hi. I don`t know about the suitcases but I didn`t see any large objects on the train back! Ayaka is doing very well.There was very heavy rain last night but it is dry this morning.
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