Kanazawa

Kanazawa is a historic castle city on the Sea of Japan coast, capital of Ishikawa Prefecture and the cultural heart of the old Kaga domain. It escaped wartime bombing, so you can still walk streets built for samurai and geisha, and its craft traditions run unbroken to the present.

Kenroku-en, ranked among Japan's finest landscape gardens, changes character with every season, and the Nagamachi samurai and Higashi Chaya teahouse quarters fill in the Edo-period picture. The city produces most of Japan's gold leaf, and the circular 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art jumps genres entirely.

Browse Omicho Market for the seafood that makes dinner here memorable, at its best in winter crab season. The Hokuriku Shinkansen runs direct from Tokyo, and Kanazawa pairs naturally with the Kaga onsen towns or a Takayama loop. Two nights covers the districts without rushing them.