Kanazawa

Kanazawa is the start of our “smaller ports” section of this cruise. This area has an “olde time Japan” feel to it. We started by visiting a samurai’s house, and the bus parking lot only had space for four buses. That alone is a step to the more mellow. We walked down single-lane roads to get to the house. While the houses I visited in Kagashima were actively lived-in houses that allowed us to see the gardens, this house was a museum run by a private trust.

This is the house of a top caste military leader, and was a total of four rooms. Damn we 21st century first world types are spoiled.

Japan does love their gardens, tho.

More action on the cherry blossoms. Out guide mentioned it was sleeting the previous morning, but we brought the sunshine today. I got some blossom close ups.

We then went to visit a shop that deals with gold foil. Seems that Kanazawa produces 90% of the gold foil in Japan. Who measures that? Anyway, part of our tour was we got to make our own gold foil chopsticks. First, you add masking tape for the areas you do not want gold. They had many examples to spark your imagination. I decided to try a different style for each stick.

Once done our instructor painted an adhesive derived from cashew nuts (why cashews? I have no idea.). After a few minutes the glue is tacky, so we were given our gold foil. We were warned against sneezing. I’m not kidding, the foil is so delicate it could blow apart, not to mention what could happen to your neighbor’s work.

You take one of your chopsticks and roll from one side, then to the same with your other stick from the other side.

You now take a small paintbrush and press the gold to the glue. You do not brush the gold, you use the paint brush bristles and push the gold onto the glue. Once approved by our instructor we then removed the tape to expose the design.