Kanazawa lies up in Ishikawa prefecture, by the Sea of Japan. It was my first time there, so I was pretty open to what was up there. The obvious attraction was the famous Kenrokuen garden, but there's more to the place than that.

Let's see what we found...starting with the station, which has a pretty interesting roof structure.

The "old town"; also referred to as the "Geisha district", although it was a bit cold for them to be out and about and we didn't see any.

Inside of an old store

The same store from the back:

On to Kenrokuen itself (this place is also featured in the "light-up" post in the blog). This is what it looked like during a (rather grey and damp) day.

Just across from Kenrokuen is Kanazawa castle, which still had some autumn colours hanging around.

Elsewhere around Kanazawa...a market...

...more gardens...

...more temples...

...and a couple of other-themed shots to finish off: lights on and sushi.

Thank you for looking! The next part (which will be the first post of 2014, therefore) will be from the World Heritage site of Shirakawa-go in Gifu. The weather was highly changeable, which made for some interesting shots.

Best wishes to everyone who reads this for the coming year.