Kanazawa: A Walking Guide to Hokuriku Cultural Capital

Kanazawa produces around 99% of Japan's gold leaf, the entire national output of a craft that goes into temple altars, gilded ceiling panels at the Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, the rim of every formal Buddhist butsudan in the country, and, increasingly, the topping on a soft-serve ice cream you can buy on the lane up to Higashi Chaya for ¥1,500. About ten artisans hold the licence to actually make the leaf. The whole industry sits inside one wet, snowy, Sea-of-Japan-coast city of 460,000 people, and the gold is just one of the things it does well.

Kanazawa is one of Japan's most-walkable cultural cities and one of its most-mishandled day-trip articles. The day-trippers from Kyoto rush four locations and miss the city entirely. The two-night stayers walk Kenrokuen at the wrong hour, queue at the Leandro Erlich pool, and never find Kazue-machi. This guide is built to fix that. Everything below assumes you've come for the city, not for a stop on a Hokuriku Shinkansen highlights reel.

Why Kanazawa is worth the trip

The short answer: Kanazawa was the second-richest domain in Edo-period Japan, run by the Maeda clan, who poured their kaga-hyakumangoku rice income into crafts rather than military display. The result is a city that looks ordinary from the Hokuriku Shinkansen platform and turns into a cultural capital the moment you walk five minutes in any direction. Two preserved geisha districts. One samurai district. One of the three so-called great gardens of Japan. A SANAA-designed museum that won the Golden Lion at Venice. A fish market that's been on the same site since 1721. And a population that does not yet feel overwhelmed by tourists, which makes it a notably different experience from Kyoto in mid-April.

The city is also a useful Hokuriku base. Day trips to Shirakawa-go are 75 minutes by Hokutetsu bus and the start of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route is two trains away through Toyama. If you've come down through the Hokuriku region from Tokyo, Kanazawa earns at least two nights and rewards three.

How to get to Kanazawa

From Tokyo

The Hokuriku Shinkansen runs Tokyo to Kanazawa in 2h 30m on the Kagayaki express, 2h 50m on the all-stops Hakutaka. Reserved seats only on the Kagayaki, ¥14,380 in ordinary class as of 2026. The west window seat (D side) gets the better light through Joshinetsu and the brief Kurobe river crossing. Don't bother with non-reserved cars on a Friday evening or Sunday afternoon. The line continued past Kanazawa to Tsuruga from March 2024, so southbound service to Fukui is now direct shinkansen too, no transfer at Kanazawa.

If you have a Japan Rail Pass, the Kagayaki is technically excluded but the Hakutaka is fine and barely slower. The Hokuriku Arch Pass is the better-value option if you're routing Tokyo to Osaka via Kanazawa, since it covers the full Hokuriku Shinkansen and the onward Thunderbird limited express to Kyoto.

From Kyoto and Osaka

Since the March 2024 Tsuruga extension, the route from Kyoto and Osaka changed. Take the JR Thunderbird limited express from Kyoto or Osaka to Tsuruga (75–90 minutes), then transfer to the Hokuriku Shinkansen Tsurugi for the final 45 minutes to Kanazawa. The whole trip is about 2h 15m from Kyoto, 2h 45m from Osaka. The transfer at Tsuruga is on the same platform, well-signed, takes 8 minutes between trains.

Inside the city

The Kanazawa Loop Bus runs anti-clockwise (LL route, blue) and clockwise (RL route, green) every 12 to 15 minutes from 08:30 until 18:00, hitting Kenrokuen, the 21st Century Museum, Higashi Chaya, Omicho Market, and Kanazawa Castle in a single circuit. Single ride ¥200 flat. The Hokutetsu Group Kanazawa one-day free-ride pass at ¥800 adult, ¥400 child as of 2026 covers the Loop Bus, the city's regular Hokutetsu buses inside the central zone, the Kanazawa Light-up Bus (Saturday evenings), and even the West JR bus inside the same zone. Pick it up at the desk on the right as you exit the bus terminal at Kanazawa Station's east side.

That said, half the city is walkable. Kanazawa Castle to Higashi Chaya is 25 minutes on foot via the Asano River, and the route is more scenic than the bus. Cycling is also good: the Machi-nori share bicycles cost ¥1,650 for a 24-hour pass, with docking stations near every major sight. I'd still take the bus from the station to your first stop with luggage, then walk.

Kenrokuen, the garden you have to time right

Kenrokuen is one of the three great gardens of Japan, alongside Kairakuen in Mito and Korakuen in Okayama. The name means "garden of six attributes", spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, water, and panorama. It's 11.4 hectares of strolling-style garden, designed to be walked through with set viewing stops, not stood in front of. Admission is ¥320 adult, ¥100 child (6–17), free under 6 and free for over-65s with ID, as verified on pref.ishikawa.lg.jp on 2026-05-07.

Opening hours change with the season:

• 1 March to 15 October: 07:00–18:00, last entry 17:30
• 16 October to end of February: 08:00–17:00, last entry 16:30

What most visitors don't know about: the early-morning free entry. Kenrokuen opens an hour or two before the ticketed time, free of charge, with the Renchimon and Zuishinzaka gates open. Specifically: 04:00–06:45 in April through August, 05:00–06:45 in March and September to mid-October, 05:00–07:45 from 16 to 31 October, and 06:00–07:45 in November through February. You have to leave 15 minutes before the paid period starts. This is the single best free thing to do in Kanazawa, and the gravel paths are empty except for the gardeners.

What to actually look at

The Kotoji-toro lantern at Kasumi-ga-ike pond is the icon, but Kenrokuen rewards a slow circuit. Start at the Renchimon gate, drop down to Hisago-ike with its Midori-taki waterfall, climb to the Yamazaki-yama tea-plum grove (in flower from late February into early March, two weeks before peak sakura), and finish at the Tokiwa-ga-oka viewpoint where the panorama opens out over the city to the Sea of Japan. Two intentional pauses: the sazae-ishi stone, the rocky shape of a turban shell that visitors used to climb in the Edo period; and the Karasaki pine, planted from a Lake Biwa seedling by Lord Maeda Nariyasu in 1830, which is the tree the gardeners harness with the famous yukitsuri rope cones from 1 November every year against the snowfall to come.

The seasons, season by season

The wedding-couple-and-pink-petals shot you've seen is from the first ten days of April, and the garden is full of tripods then. November's autumn colour is just as good and far less shoulder-to-shoulder. February's snow with yukitsuri is the rarest and most photogenic, but the path is icy and the side ponds freeze. Late June into early July is Kanazawa's iris season at the Hanami Bridge ponds, surprisingly empty, which is when I'd push you to come if you wanted just one season.

The combined ticket worth buying

The Kenrokuen-plus-1 ticket (¥500 adult) lets you into Kenrokuen and the ticketed Hishi-yagura, Gojikken-Nagaya, Hashizume-mon-Tsuzuki-yagura at Kanazawa Castle on the same day. Buy it at any Kenrokuen ticket gate. If you're seeing both, this saves ¥140 over buying separate tickets.

Kanazawa Castle Park, the free part most lists miss

Kanazawa Castle's keep burned down in 1602 and was never rebuilt. The political optics of a daimyo with a tower were tricky after the Maeda lost a quiet succession dispute. So the castle today has no donjon. What it does have is one of the most ambitious historical reconstruction projects in Japan, the rebuilt Hishi-yagura, Gojikken-Nagaya, and Hashizume-mon-Tsuzuki-yagura turrets done in 2001 to the original Edo-period plans, and the Nezumi-tamon and Kahoku-mon gates added in 2010 and 2020.

Crucially: the park is free. You walk straight in through Ishikawa-mon and across the bridge from Kenrokuen, no ticket. Park hours match Kenrokuen's seasonal pattern: 07:00–18:00 from March to mid-October, 08:00–17:00 the rest of the year. The early-morning gates open even earlier, from 04:00 in summer.

Only the three reconstructed turrets are ticketed at ¥320 adult, ¥100 child, open 09:00–16:30, last entry 16:00. If you skip these, your visit to the castle costs nothing. The view from the Hashizume-mon side over Kenrokuen alone is worth the climb up the slope from Oyama-jinja.

Tea at Gyokusen-an

Inside the park's restored Gyokusen-in-maru garden, the Gyokusen-an tea-house serves matcha with an original-design seasonal sweet for ¥1,000. Open 09:00–12:00 and 13:00–16:30, closed 29 December to 3 January, no reservations needed for under ten people. The tea is brewed in the standard kaga style, slightly thicker than urasenke. The seat to take is the one facing the Saigyo-zakura cherry tree if you can get it.

The 21st Century Museum that's not actually about the pool

The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 2004 and Kanazawa has never quite been the same city since. SANAA's plan put a low circular glass disc on the corner opposite Kenrokuen, with no defined entrance, no hierarchy of front, and the public corridor you walk through wraps the entire building so you can pass through it as a shortcut to anywhere. The Leandro Erlich Swimming Pool, the trompe l'oeil installation everyone's seen on Instagram, is in the central courtyard. Look down through the glass surface and you see clothed visitors standing on the bottom of what looks like a normal pool.

What most travel articles miss: the public zone of the museum, including the upper part of the Erlich pool, is free. You can see the pool from above as long as you're outside in the courtyard. Free admission, 09:00–22:00 daily, closed only at New Year. To go down inside the underwater room, you need a ticket to the exhibition zone.

Exhibition zone hours: 10:00–18:00, 10:00–20:00 Friday and Saturday. Closed Mondays (next weekday if Monday is a holiday) and at New Year. Adult ticket pricing varies by exhibition; the current SIDE CORE show running to 15 March 2026 is ¥1,200 adult, ¥1,000 advance, ¥800 students, ¥400 over-65s. Verified on kanazawa21.jp on 2026-05-07. Reserve the Swimming Pool underground slot online when you book the exhibition ticket. The slots fill, especially weekends and Friday evenings.

Higashi Chaya, the geisha district that is still a geisha district

Higashi Chaya is the largest of Kanazawa's three preserved tea-house districts and the one most travel sites land on. It was laid out in 1820 by the Kaga domain as a regulated entertainment quarter, on the model of Kyoto's Shimabara, and the dark-wood machiya frontages with their wooden lattice kimusuko screens and the curve in Kannon-michi street are the original 19th-century street pattern. Of the 87 historic chaya buildings here, exactly three still operate as ochaya in the original sense: where you book a room, take dinner, and a geiko (the local word for geisha) entertains. The other 84 are houses, shops, cafes, and the occasional gold-leaf workshop.

Two named buildings are open as paid visits, and they're worth doing in this order:

Shima Ochaya (志摩)

Built in 1820 alongside the rest of the district, never structurally altered, designated an Important Cultural Property. The interior is the original tea-house plan: a small entry, a tatami performance room with a black-lacquered raised stage, a ladies' chamber, and a small garden visible through paper screens. Admission ¥500 adult, ¥300 student. Open 09:00–18:00 (April to October) and 09:00–17:00 (November to March). Cash only at the door. The downstairs sweets counter sells matcha with a daifuku for ¥700 if you want the full slow visit.

Kaikaro (懐華樓)

The largest tea-house in the district at 200 years old, still in operating condition, ¥750 adult, ¥500 student daytime tour, 10:00–17:00, closed Wednesdays. Verified on kaikaro.jp on 2026-05-07. The interior is more flamboyant than Shima: gold-leaf walls in the central reception room, the famous kaiseki kitchen you can stand inside, and a small kintsugi gallery upstairs. Worth the extra ¥250 over Shima if you have time for one. The Salon de The serves matcha with kuzukiri jelly for ¥1,650, last order 16:00 weekdays and 16:30 weekends, which is the better way to spend an hour here than just walking through.

Hohsen-ji and the bamboo path

Walk uphill from Higashi Chaya for ten minutes and you'll reach Hohsen-ji, a small Nichiren-school temple with a covered bamboo-grove approach that gets a quiet fraction of the visitors that Higashi Chaya does. The view back across the district from the temple gate is the under-photographed angle. Free, no ticket. Combine with the slightly further Utatsuyama Temple District (a 22-temple group laid out on the hill in 1616) for a full half-day if you have it.

Kazue-machi, the tea-house district most lists miss

Kazue-machi, on the south bank of the Asano River across from Higashi Chaya, is the third of Kanazawa's preserved tea-house districts and the one almost no travel article does properly. It's smaller, narrower, and still functions as a residential lane. There are no museums, no marked buildings, just one long curve of dark machiya backing onto the river. A small plaza at the upstream end, the Naka-no-hashi pedestrian bridge across to Higashi Chaya, and that's it. Ten minutes start to finish.

Walk it at sunset. The river runs west, so the late light hits the wood frontages straight on, and from autumn through early spring you'll see local residents pulling shutters across at 17:30. There's one small bar in the second house from the bridge, Sushi Mekumi, that opens onto the lane after dark and serves a 7-piece nigiri set for ¥3,800 if you can get a seat. Six counter seats, no reservations after 18:00 unless you have a guide.

Naga-machi, the samurai district the others did not preserve

Naga-machi is what Kyoto's samurai districts looked like before everyone knocked the warrior houses down. It sits ten minutes' walk south-west of Kanazawa Castle in the Korinbo district, one block from the Kohrinbo 109 department store, which is the surreal part: turn off the modern shopping street and you're walking 200-year-old earthen walls. The old residences are still mostly private, but several are open and worth doing.

Nomura-ke house

The most-restored of the open houses. The Nomura family served the Maeda for 11 generations. The house has been put back close to its 17th-century state, with a tea-room overlooking a small inner garden so well-composed that the National Geographic 2003 ranking had it in the top three Japanese gardens worldwide. Admission ¥550 adult, ¥250 children, open 08:30–17:30 (April to September) and 08:30–16:30 (October to March), closed 26–27 December.

Shinise Kinenkan and the canal

The Shinise Kinenkan (long-established merchant house museum, free admission, open 09:30–17:00, closed Tuesdays) is the secondary stop. Round the corner is the Onosho-yo canal, a 17th-century waterway that still runs along the lane. The footpath beside it ends at a small Sushi Otsuka tonkatsu-curry restaurant that several Kanazawa locals will tell you is the best lunch in the district at ¥1,400 a plate.

Myoryu-ji, the temple they call the Ninja Temple but is really a defensive trick-house

Myoryu-ji is universally called the Ninja Temple in English, which is misleading. There were no actual ninja here. It's a Nichiren-school temple, completed in 1643 by Lord Maeda Toshitsune, that the daimyo used as a defensive watch-station. The outside looks like a two-storey country temple. The inside has 23 rooms across seven internal levels, 29 staircases, hidden trapdoor passageways, a dry well shaft that was rumoured to be an escape tunnel to Kanazawa Castle (it isn't), and an offerings box with a hinged grille at the entrance designed so an attacker stepping on it would fall straight through.

You can only visit by guided tour, in Japanese, with a printed English handout. Tours run continuously from 09:00 to 16:00, last tour 15:30 in winter and 16:00 the rest of the year, no admission 1–2 January or on temple service days. Admission ¥1,200 adult (junior high and up), ¥800 elementary, no children under 4. Reservations are required and have been since the late 2010s. Book by phone (076-241-0888) at least one day in advance, ideally two for weekends, since the slots fill. The temple webpage (myouryuji.or.jp) does not always load reliably from outside Japan; the phone is the dependable channel. Verified pricing as of 2026-05-07.

The walk there

Myoryu-ji is in the Tera-machi temple district, the third of Kanazawa's three temple clusters, on the south side of the Saigawa river about 25 minutes on foot from Kanazawa Castle. The walk through Tera-machi is itself worth doing. There are 70 temples in this small grid, and most of them you'll pass without stopping. From Kanazawa Station, take the Loop Bus to Hirokoji (about 18 minutes) and walk three minutes from there. If you've gone to Nishi Chaya, the third tea-house district (smallest, often skipped, fine for ten minutes), you're already next door.

Omicho Market, Kanazawa's kitchen since 1721

Omicho is Kanazawa's central market and has stood on this site since 1721. About 170 stalls under a low covered arcade, four cross streets, three above-ground entrance gates. Roughly two-thirds are seafood; the rest is vegetables, flowers, kaga-yasai (the local heritage vegetable varieties), pickles, and a small sweets quarter. Free to walk through. Open from 09:00, with stalls closing at 17:00, but the freshest fish counters are sold out by 11:00 most weekdays, and on weekends they run shorter than that.

Kaisendon and the upstairs counters

The way you eat at Omicho is to walk the ground-floor stalls until something looks interesting, then go upstairs to the second-floor restaurants for a kaisendon. The famous places (Yamasan, Iki-iki-tei, Daiwa Sushi) have queues from 11:00. The under-rated ones are along the back of the Omicho Ichiba-kan building's first floor. Grilled scallop on the half-shell from the central stalls is ¥500–700 each, fresh-shucked oysters from November onwards are ¥500–800, and the gold-leaf soft-cream is ¥1,500 if you want to do the photograph everyone does. Snow crab season is November to March; outside that window, the same restaurants are quieter and the menu shifts to firefly squid in spring and sea bream in summer.

Kaga-yasai, the vegetables you have not heard of

The Kanazawa version of heritage vegetables is the kaga-yasai, 15 named varieties that have been grown only in this prefecture since the Edo period. Look for the gensuke daikon (a stubby pickled radish), the kintoki carrot (deep red, used in osechi New Year cooking), the hitomoji-gusa (a bunching scallion), and the heta-murasaki eggplant in late summer. The market's Yorozu-tei vegetable stall (third street, north side, easy to spot from the kaga-yasai painted plaque above the door) is where most of the local restaurants buy.

Gold leaf, the city's other thing

Kanazawa produces around 99% of Japan's gold leaf. The figure has been the same since the late 19th century. The technique requires three things: hand-pounded gold beaten to between 1/10,000 and 1/20,000 of a millimetre, a humid climate so the foil does not crack mid-fold, and the local water in the Asano valley, which is unusually low in iron and chlorine. About ten artisans hold the licence to produce kindachi gold leaf today; mass-market kinpu leaf for cosmetics and food is made by another small group. The Yasue Gold Leaf Museum at the Higashiyama district has the only public exhibit of the craft.

Where to actually do it yourself

Two named workshops in the Higashi Chaya area run hands-on classes where you press a small panel of gold leaf yourself. Kanazawa Hakuza on the main lane has a 30-minute experience for ¥1,650 (small lacquer dish). Hakuichi Hakukokan on the Higashiyama rear lane has a 45-minute kinpaku chopsticks workshop at ¥2,200. Walk-in slots most weekdays before 11:00; weekends fill, book ahead by phone. The result you take home is genuinely useful. The lacquer dish doubles as a small accessory tray. The other workshops you'll see signs for are mostly for the brush-on cosmetic gold leaf cream, which is fine but a different thing.

Oyama Shrine and the gate that's almost out of place

Oyama Shrine, built in 1873 to enshrine Maeda Toshiie (the founder of the Kaga domain) and his wife Lady Matsu, is between Kanazawa Station and the Castle Park. The shrine itself is small, but the Shinmon gate is what most people come for: a three-storey stone-and-brick structure with Dutch coloured-glass panels at the top of the third storey, designed by a Nagasaki-trained architect when Meiji-era Japan was experimenting with what Western architecture could mean inside a traditional context. Light a lamp inside the gate at dusk in summer and you'll see the panels glow. Free, no ticket, open all hours, with the shrine office at the rear open 09:00–17:00.

The shrine's small Kanaya garden behind the main hall is in the Maeda's original residence layout, including a teahouse with a small pond. Cross through the rear gate and you come out close to the Castle Park's southern moat, which is the unmarked back route between the two.

What to eat (other than kaisendon)

Kanazawa eats well. The four things to try, in priority order:

• Kaga ryori, the local kaiseki tradition, drier and less sweet than Kyoto-style. Ryotei Tsuruko in Higashi Chaya does an ¥6,500 lunch and the staff speak just enough English to walk you through it.
• Jibu-ni, the regional duck-and-mochi stew thickened with kaga-fu wheat gluten, traditionally a Maeda samurai dish. Tsubajin near Korinbo, dating from 1752, is the canonical place. ¥1,800 a bowl.
• Kanazawa curry, a thick dark-roux curry over rice with cabbage and a flat fork, distinct enough from Tokyo-style curry to be its own genre. Champion's Curry on the basement floor of Korinbo 109 is the chain that started it. ¥1,000 a plate.
• Higashide coffee, the Kanazawa kissaten institution. Flannel-drip coffee since 1979, now run by the founder's daughter, no English menu but the staff will happily talk you through the bean origins. The Higashiyama branch is across from Higashi Chaya, the original Korinbo branch is near Naga-machi.

Sake

Ishikawa is one of Japan's strong sake prefectures and Kanazawa's local brewers have a distinctive medium-dry, rice-forward style. Two breweries inside the city: Fukumitsuya (founded 1625, the oldest), with a free tasting room at the Korinbo branch open 10:00–19:00; and Tani Sake, in Naga-machi, smaller and harder to find, with a small standing-room counter. Buy a 720ml bottle to take home; the pricing runs ¥1,500–3,500 for daiginjo. The two restaurants you'll most often see locals at for sake-with-food: Itaru Honten in Korinbo for kaga ryori, and the upstairs counter at Mori Mori Sushi at Kanazawa Station's Anto food hall.

Sweets

Kanazawa is the third largest wagashi market in Japan after Kyoto and Matsue, with shops that have been working since the 17th century. Morihachi (founded 1625) by Korinbo and Tawaraya (founded 1830) near Higashi Chaya are the two old-establishment houses. The thing to try is fukuume, a pickled-plum-paste sweet, with matcha, at any of the wagashi houses or Kaikaro's salon.

Where to stay

Kanazawa rewards staying inside the central walking ring, which is roughly the area between Kanazawa Station, Kenrokuen, Higashi Chaya, and Korinbo. Budget by night, in yen, for a no-frills double mid-week as of 2026:

• Hostel / capsule: ¥3,500–6,500. Pongyi (Higashi Chaya) and Bluehour Kanazawa (near Korinbo) both work.
• Mid-range business hotel: ¥9,000–15,000. Hotel Pacific Kanazawa, UAN Kanazawa, and Daiwa Roynet Kanazawa Eki-mae are the three I rotate through.
• Boutique / design: ¥22,000–38,000. Korinkyo Kanazawa (designed-machiya conversion in Higashi Chaya) and Hotel Kanazawa Zoushi (across from Omicho) sit in this band.
• Ryokan / luxury: ¥45,000+. Kinjohro near Korinbo is the named one; the rooms come with private cypress baths and breakfast on lacquer.

If you want to split between the two best small areas: stay one night near Higashi Chaya for the early-morning empty lanes, then move closer to Kanazawa Station for the second night to reach the shinkansen easily. The Loop Bus runs to both. Avoid hotels in the Owari-cho district north of the castle. They're cheap because they're 25 minutes from anywhere worth seeing.

When to come

Kanazawa has a real four-season climate, more than Tokyo and noticeably more than Kyoto. The Sea-of-Japan side is one of the snowiest inhabited regions in the world: average winter snowfall in central Kanazawa runs around 2.5 metres total, dumped in heavy episodes from late December into February.

• Late March to early April: cherry blossom, with Kenrokuen and Kanazawa Castle lit up at night during the bloom week (free entry to both during the lit-up evenings). One week earlier than the Kyoto peak. See the cherry blossom guide for the timing pattern.
• May to early June: my favourite. Iris and azalea inside Kenrokuen's pond garden, mild mid-teens-Celsius weather, very few tour groups, the seafood season pivoting from snow crab to firefly squid and sea bream.
• Mid-June to mid-July: the tsuyu rainy season. Hokuriku's rainy season is shorter and less drizzling than Tokyo's; everything still functions, just bring a lightweight waterproof.
• August: hot and humid, but the Hyakumangoku Festival on the first weekend of June is the real cultural event of the summer (yes, June, not August, confusing).
• October to mid-November: autumn colour, second peak season, a fortnight of perfect afternoon light. Kenrokuen is gorgeous, Eihei-ji a day-trip away from Fukui is at its best, and the snow-crab season opens in early November.
• Late December to early March: snow. It's spectacular at Kenrokuen and Higashi Chaya. It's also miserable on the legs if you're not in waterproof boots, and shinkansen delays during the bigger snow events do happen.

The realistic one-day plan

If you're on a single day from Kyoto and you cannot be talked into staying:

• 06:30 arrive at Kanazawa Station from Kyoto via the Tsuruga shinkansen change.
• 06:50 Loop Bus to Kenroku-en-shita.
• 07:00 free entry to Kenrokuen via the Renchimon gate. One slow circuit, 70 minutes.
• 08:30 walk over to Kanazawa Castle Park (free), do the Hashizume turret if you bought the Kenrokuen-plus-1 ticket.
• 10:00 walk to the 21st Century Museum, see the courtyard pool from above for free, queue ten minutes for the underground.
• 11:30 Loop Bus to Omicho. Kaisendon for lunch.
• 13:30 walk to Higashi Chaya. Shima or Kaikaro, gold-leaf workshop, kuzukiri at the salon.
• 16:30 walk Kazue-machi at sunset.
• 17:30 Loop Bus to Kanazawa Station. Buy a Higashide coffee at the Anto hall before the Tsuruga shinkansen back.

That's a packed day. If you can do two days, drop the day-one rush and add Naga-machi and Myoryu-ji on the second morning. If you can do three, the third day is a Shirakawa-go return trip via Hokutetsu bus.

Mistakes to avoid

• Don't queue for the Erlich pool from the courtyard side. Buy the exhibition ticket online with the timed slot, and walk past the queue.
• Don't take the Loop Bus from Kanazawa Castle to Higashi Chaya. It's a 25-minute walk and the route along the Asano River past Kazue-machi is the better part of the day.
• Don't book a hotel north of the castle. The bus connections are slower than the map suggests and you'll be paying central-city rates for a 25-minute commute to dinner.
• Don't expect Myoryu-ji to take walk-ins on a Saturday. Or any day, really. Reservations.
• Don't skip Kazue-machi just because Higashi Chaya is famous. The two together are the geisha-quarter pair Kanazawa is known for; without Kazue-machi you have only seen the photographed half.

The taxi from Kanazawa Station to Higashi Chaya is ¥1,400 if you want a tired-evening shortcut. The driver will tell you, in slow Japanese, that he prefers visitors who walk. He's right.