Kanazawa

And then on again, this time for a brief stop in the old Samurai quarter of Kanizawa. Beautiful houses built from Japanese Pine. We visited the Nomura family residence, they were the boys round here in the 1600's. Every detail taken care of - not one nail can be seen in the house, paper doors decorated by Sasaki Senkei - we're told he was pretty handy.

We also saw Kenrokuen Garden, former garden of Kanizawa castle and one of 'the three best gardens in Japan'. It was stunning, but then if you employ a small army to sweep your stream beds every morning, you expect stunning.

It was here that Tom learnt to pose for a photo the Japanese way (see flickr for that one) and we pondered the love of group photos with cuddly toys. Love this country!!

Oh, and we ate a roast dinner in an Irish bar, run by a guy from Mansfield. He was left speechless when Tom confessed his upbringing in the very same town. His lovely wife gave us a free glass of wine, then promptly overcharged us double that anyway. Happy days.