Kanazawa

At the end of another busy day Dad searches for a Scooby Snack. What we found were delicious pork dumplings!

Dad's art photo of the day.

One of mum's many art photos of the day.

Shirley outside the Ochaya Shima geisha house. This was well worth the effort of finding it!

A lantern inside geisha house.

Many lanterns inside geisha house. Shirley spotted this photo opportunity and Calum was in there camera at the ready.

Just in case visitors to the geisha house get too excited by the many photo opportunities.

This is Shirley's favourite shot of the day - by Shirley.

Geisha house kitchen .... what no dishwasher?

Geisha district - Higashi Chiya.

Samurai district - Naga-machi Buke Yashiki.

Shopping opportunity.

Calum outside the Myoryuji Temple also called Ninja Dera. This temple appears to be two storeys high - in Edo period buildings could be no higher than three storeys.

This building really has four storeys, seven layers, 23 rooms, 29 staircases and lots of secret passage ways, traps and escape routes.

We had a guided tour - in Japanese - but the nice ladies hunted around for an English language tour guide so we could ooh and ahh with rest of tourists when we were shown the secret stairs, escape routes concealed by sliding doors and the hari kari chamber.

The menu from left to right - local stew with noodles, pork and half a boiled egg, pork dumplings with Japanese coleslaw, rice, dipping soup and more dumplings. Calum points out that this was for sharing in case anyone should think it was all for him!

Green tea ice cream.

I have reflected all day on why I was moved to try this Japanese delicacy. I mistakenly thought that icecream, being loosley classed as confectionery, is universally sweet and that this sweetness would balance the smokey, bitter taste of Japanese green tea. I was wrong! The flavour of green tea was loving replicated in this icecream.

The photographer played it safe and enjoyed his vanilla icecream.

Old Japanese building on pond.

Who could have taken this photo?

Some people show no restraint.

Kenrokuen Gardens - scene of green tea icecream and two beers incidents.

The maestro captured the rainbow.