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Ohayou!
Today I've been feeling much better, which was great, because we've done a lot and I'd have hated to have missed it all!
So first off, we headed to Kanazawa Castle and Park. The castle has been burnt down by natural and manmade fires several times, so only a few parts of it are left standing; the people here are currently in the process of restoring it to its former glory. Despite this, the park has survived and was quite nice to stroll through; there were tons of people painting the remaining structures and the lakes, and we had a nice walk through a forested part towards the north of the park. After this, we made our way to one of Japan's "three great gardens"; it was really lovely here, with fountains, streams, all sorts of trees and random stone statues etc.
We soon moved on to the Kanazawa 21st Century Contemporary Art Museum; now, Kanazawa has loads of random pieces of modern art scattered all over the town, so this museum was bound to be filled with wacky post-modern stuff. And it didn't disappoint; there were six exhibition rooms, each one more bizarre than the last. A huge optical illusion; a series of strange pieces of strings dancing in stop-motion; a cafe made entirely of knitting; a single leaf/weed/rose on the ground or on the wall; a room underneath a swimming pool; it was really fantastic.
Then for something completely different; the old samurai district. The houses here had been preserved almost exactly as they were (save for a few vending machines here and there); the low walls and roofs that appear in the samurai films were all present and accounted for. We even got to walk around a samurai house, with its sliding doors and gardens.
After resting for a bit, we headed back out to look for a bookshop for Joe, who has nearly exhausted his books. Unfortunately, the english-language bookshop closed down last month, so we went all over town on our quest, including a trip into a really high-end department store. It was all for nought; the only bookshop we found that had english books had only a small selection; we'll have to wait until we get to Tokyo.
Tonight, the owner of the guesthouse has gone out for the evening, and we're the only guests; its like we own this great little Japanese house, all to ourselves!
Ryan x
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