After a week at Tokyo Disney Resort (a luxury since in prior trips we are usually trying to squeeze in 2-3 Disney days in a 10-day visit to the whole country), we set out for the west coast of Japan to visit Kanazawa, Niigata and Nagano. We have never been to these cities before. In our prior trips, we have traveled the well worn paths of Tokyo => Kyoto => Osaka => Hiroshima (and places around there such as Nara, Miyajima, Matsuyama etc), so this trip, with weeks at our disposal, we are hitting areas that we cannot get to in a “normal” trip to Japan and areas we have never visited in six trips.
For week 2, we used our first of two Japan rail 7-day passes. The J-rail pass is a deal. For basically the cost of one ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto, you can travel all over the country for 7 days on unlimited trains (plus the ferry to Miyajima off Hiroshima). We do not drive in Japan (being illiterate makes that sort of dangerous, I feel), but the trains are so frequent, organized and take you almost anywhere you would want to go, that it does not require any Japanese to navigate.
Our first stop out of Tokyo was Kanazawa. We took the bullet train there.
We also were there June 1, which coincidentally was part of the annual festival to celebrate when a Japanese leader in the 1500s made his way to the local castle for the first time. As soon as we exited the train, we saw lots of people in costumes. Including the obligatory Japanese warriors, who were so friendly and kind and immediately began sword fighting with the girls and then posed for photos.
There was an awesome parade for a couple of hours right outside the train station,
We also were there the same day that one of my closest friends from high school, a professor of Japanese literature at Emory University, was visiting there, and so we were able to meet up with her as well.
After the parade, there was a street party. It was really something else and hard to describe. Basically the entire parade was out on the street dancing for blocks. Same dance, same music for probably a mile.
There was the amazing castle
All told, a very fun start to Japan, week 2.