Trips

The Gokayama tour ended with a stop at the Iwase House, a traditional Gassho House. This style includes the steep, thatched roof that allows the 2-3 meters of winter snow, typical of the region, to slide off. The group sat inside the cold, very smoky main room to watch a traditional dance called Kokiriko. The dance was accompanied by a wooden instrument (binzasara) with slats that slap together.

	Iwase House
White radishes	Onions
Carp in the pond	Iwase House model
Cute sign for the school children	Map pointing out local attractions
Gyotokuji Temple
Pagoda outside Gyotokuji Temple	Fire hydrant
	After our return from the day's tour, we wandered over to the beautiful Kanazawa train station. It is very modern and closely resembles the Kyoto train station but was done by a different architect: Ryuzo Shinrae.
	Entry to the Kanazawa Train Station
	Kanazawa Train Station
Kanazawa Train Station	Kanazawa Train Station
Kanazawa Train Station	Kanazawa Train Station
Wed., 10/26 - Kanazawa to Kyoto This morning we divided into smaller groups for our OAT “Home-Hosted” event. Our group spent 2 1/2 hours with Masanari Nakagawa, a sake distiller and liquor store owner, and his wife Noriko. Masanari is a collector of many different examples of works of art. These included traditional Japanese art, old vinyl US records, sculptures, etc. His home also includes both Shinto and Buddhist shrines. It seems that many Japanese honor both religions.
Triangle symbol on our hotel window
	Print of "The Wave"
	Noriko showed us her in-floor refrigerator and the very handy drawer in which rice is kept.
In-floor refrigerator	Rice drawer
Masanari wrote out calligraphy messages for each of us.	The Nakagawa home
Masanari's Wine and Gift store	We were given a sample taste of his best quality sake - it was quite good
After the Home-Hosted experiences, the group went for a lunch of spaghetti, bread, and salad at Budou no Mori restaurant in the Kanazawa train station. After lunch, we took the Super Express Thunderbird 28 train to Kyoto. On the way we passed Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan.
View of Lake Biwa from the train	Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan
After arriving in Kyoto, we walked the 3-4 blocks to our new hotel, the Onyado Nono Shichijo, another Dormy hotel with free ice cream and laundry. However, the Onyado is a traditional Japanese hotel, meaning that we have to take off our shoes at the front entrance and leave them in lockers. Everyone walks in socks, slippers, or barefooted the entire time they are in the hotel. The hotel is fully "carpeted" with tatami mats.
Tatami mat "carpeting" in the Hotel Onyado Nono Shichijo	Dinner at Tsuzuri, a local restaurant

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