Kanazawa

Another early start, we were going to Kanazawa for the day. On route, I saw Toyama train station which has a very impressive entrance with a modern and traditional influence and at the very front was a clock at a fountain. I wouldn't have noticed it unless Eric pointed it out to me but the clock itself was made up of many small fountains which changed sequence as every minute passed.

After arriving in Kanazawa, our first destination was a local park. We strolled around and took in the area, took photos and I cringed at the size of the fish in the pond and quickly visited a few temples/shrines.

We then made our way to the 21st Century of Contemporary Art Museum. There was an exhibition by Peter Fischli & David Weiss. Just like in the Tate Modern in London, I decided modern art was a load of rubbish. There were a few interesting things to see, most notably a swimming pool that you could look into from above and see people in the swimming pool and then eventually go downstairs so you were "in" the swimming pool. There was also a detailed map of the world made entirely out of marbles.

There were some boring clay sculptures which were abstract and not interesting in the slightest and then a big room full of small clay... things ! I'd say the woman who was security hated me because I couldn't stop laughing at how rubbish they were.

It reminded me of a pathetic attempt of Under 10s Community games modelling competition where mála was the only supply ava

ilable. One stand, entitled Potatoes, was simply round balls of clay. It could have also been called Rocks and we would have been just as impressed. While myself and Philip were discussing how rubbish it was, I jokingly took a photo of him looking at an air vent while he posed like an impressed modern art lover. We were told straight away that no photos were allowed. We came to the conclusion that it's because they don't want photos of how shit it is to get to the outside world. I did get a free postcard out of it after a girl I'm assuming was a student of something asked me to take a survey.

After popping in to 2 more temples, we then went to Kenrokuen Garden, considered "one of the 3 most beautiful gardens in Japan". It really was very nice. One of the first things I noticed was that there were a lot of crows, while it seemed one of the first things the 2 lads noticed was the amount of Korean tourists. The garden was full of greenery and had about 3 or 4 ponds. The place was kept in amazing condition by all the gardeners around the place.

It was getting dark while in the park so we made our way back to the train station. On the train, an old man was staring at me for a long 2 minutes with a look of disdain. Xenophobia is a common thing in Japan but the politeness of most people completely outweighs it but it is still very evident. We ate dinner in a Mexican resteraunt in Toyama. After dinner we went to a bar and met one of Eric's friends from New Zealand and stayed there for the night. The bar man was a Johnny Depp look-a-like, the only difference being Johnny Depp isn't Japanese. At one stage myself and Philip amused ourselves by waving at strangers out the window as they walked by. One girl waved back to which we cheered and I gave her a thumbs up. She replied by giving me the finger. Philip told me they don't have the thumbs up sign so she probably thought I started it. Oops.