Saigawa cycle path & Kenminkaihin park, Kanazawa

Beach at the end of the Saigawa cycle path, Kanazawa

Got home from my wonderful Kaga weekend at 2pm on Sunday so thought I'd make the most of the beautiful afternoon and go on a bike ride to the beach.

I know the cycle path pretty well as in the good ol days when I could actually jog (still can't, knees are wrecked) I used to head as far as the small harbour on the outskirts of Kanazawa which is the point where I'd hit the "wall" and run out of water (then I'd run back dehydrated in the midday heat, CLEVER).

Anyway the cycle path is such an easy ride, 8km, flat all the way, no traffic, no stops and starts for the lights and quite a pretty route along the river. Today I managed to go further than I'd been before (thanks to the wheels!) and just before I got to beach (30 mins later), walked the bike up this huge hill and rode down into a really beautiful little park with a boating lake and BBQ/picnic. The trees were such beautiful autumnal colours. (only had small camera so pics don't do it justice!)

I took a path down to the beach and was surprised at how quiet it was for a warm, sunny day. Anyway, this is the beach near Kanazawa (not Uchinada) and the Sea of Japan. It was so lovely to have sand between my toes again!

Local fisherman in Kanazawa

Saigawa cycle path just by my house in Nishi Izumi

Girls Weekend in KagaOnsen Pt4: My hilarious "Doctor Fish" experience!

The Japanese creations and innovations never cease to astound me and here's a belter for you. I just couldn't believe my eyes.

In the ryokan where we were staying for the weekend there was a blow up pond full of little grey fish. Ahh for the kids, I initially thought, maybe a "catch a fish and win a prize" type game? But no, I failed to read the sign above the pond "ドクターフィッシュ" which literally reads "Doketa-Fishu" or "Dr Fish" to you and me! These fish are, in this sense, doctors who give your feet a good ol' pedicure treatment. You pay to sit on the edge of the pond, dangle your feet in and have scores of fish nibble off the dead skin on your feet! Yep, throw away that old pumice stone, these hungry little nippers will polish off that dead skin in minutes leaving you with baby smooth feet (well in theory).

Yoko having her Dr Fish experience!

The fish aren't exactly phirana size nor do they remotely look like the vicious cousins. They're tiny but still they're ALIVE!! I'm all into holistic medicine but this takes the biscuit.

Anyway this is Yoko having her Dr Fish foot cleaning experience. She did tell me it didn't hurt, just tickles but every time I so much as submerged a toe the little buggers would come up in their hundreds all chewing at the bit to get some of my foot, AGGGGGGHHHHHH!

We paid ￥500 (about £3.50) for a 10 minute session with Dr Fish. I couldn't even bear it for 30 seconds but was such an hilarious experience it was worth the money.

NB!! After writing this post I found out that Dr Fish actually originated in EUROPE! (Turkey) God and there was me thinking this was a crazy Japanese invention. Doing a bit of web research it seems that the fish (known as Garra Rufa) are used to consume the skin of patients with psoriasis and eczema, leaving the healthy skin to grow.

Girls weekend in KagaOnsen, Part 3. Playing taiko drums!

I thought the drag dancing show was enough crazy Japanese "cultural" drama for one day but nooooo. As we were heading back to our room when we heard the boom of taiko drums the hotel lobby. The word "taiko" means drum in Japanese, and "wa" stands for Japanese so I guess 'wa-daiko' (和太鼓) is probably more appropriate.

I first saw a wadaiko drum performance at the Hyakumangoku festival in Kanazawa back in June. It was so powerful, I was almost mesmerised and I SO wanted to have a go. The drummers (even the women) look so cool and hardcore, bandanna's, matching jackets and those cool split toe socks.

Anyway, I digress. This group of 3 drummers and a flutist were simply amazing. See my video below (although it still doesn't do it justice.)

After the show, they asked if anyone wanted to give it a try. Well Yoko immediately started nudging me to go up which got their attention so they invited me on "stage" to play. All I had to do was strike the drum with a wooden stick called the bachi (桴, 枹) to a simple rhythm whilst the other lady played some more complex rhythm on the other side of the drum. Well I swear it sounded professional! I was so proud. I then got it a bit carried away trying to play 2 drums at a time and lost the rhythm.

Me playing taiko with audience in the background....

At the end I bowed to the all Japanese audience gathered in the lobby, said "arigato gozaimasu" (thanks) and got a (non-standing) applause. Not bad for a beginner ey?

Girls weekend in KagaOnsen, Part 2. The after-dinner drag show

Japanese men in drag, scary stuff.....

Posters of the Japanese cross dressing performers.

This had to be one of the most "off the wall" shows I've ever seen; a bunch of male cross dressers wearing enough foundation to fill a truck on stage re-enacting traditional Japanese female dances (I'm still not sure exactly what dance they were trying to re-enact). Japanese tacky drag at its best.

The theatre walls were plastered with posters of these chickguys all dressed up wearing really bad make up that made them look butch and scary, really not that feminine!

Note first the amount of "indoor shoes" (you can't wear outdoor shoes indoors in Japan so they usually give you courtesy indoor shoes) piled by the door of the theatre. It was some poor young girls job to come along and place all the shoes in the right direction (outwards and together as a pair) ready for everyone when they leave.

Before the performance, look at how I tower over everyone, stand out like a sore thumb...

The theatre was packed, a few drunk Japanese men started heckling the compere were sat right next to me, so I knew this was going to be interesting! The show as hilarious in a kind of "what the feck" is this all about kind of way.

Japanese cross dressers; Not quite matching the elegance of the traditional Japanese geisha...

Check out this performers eighties quiff..

Videos not allowed but managed to play the ignorant gaijin who didn't understand...

Different acts came on, one cross dresser who kept taking his arms out of his kimono sleeves and popping them up in front of his chest (I'm not sure if this is skilled or just random), one act with 2 cross dressers flipping and opening fans and another little boy, kindergarten age, fluttering around the stage effeminately.

During the show people from the audience were going up to the performers and wedging ￥10,000 notes (about £70) in their kimonos as tips. Unbelievable. They must have been doing something right. Fun performance all round, videos should be testament!

After the show we got to have our pictures taken with the performers. Brilliant, you can now see them close up.

The first time my head has EVER looked small, hahahaha

This little kid was so sweet, at primary school. The eigo sensei (English teacher) came out in me & I made him speak English...I'm so cruel.

Girls weekend in KagaOnsen, Part 1

Me and Miyuki on the balcony of our room, obviously very excited!

View from our huge room at Nagayama Rokyan

Yoko, my Japanese teacher, is such a star! This weekend she organised a girly stayover at a ryokan (Japanese style hotel) called Nagayama (ながやま) for 13 of us ladies in KagaOnsen. She'd found a deal in the paper (which of course I can't read so I'd never know about it) for ￥6500　about ₤43 which included a night's stay, onsen (hot spring) to use as many time as you want, all you can eat buffet dinner (known as tabehoudai), after dinner show entertainment and a buffet breakfast the next morning. Bargain!

Any preconceptions I had about the Japanese being an enchanting and mysterious race (probably spawned from seeing countless exotic images of Geisha, their bowing culture and other fine etiquettes) were blown out of the water for me this weekend because, believe it or not....the Japanese are huge fans of Butlins type TACKINESS! They love it, in fact they revel in it. I thought it was only us Brits! This weekend was such an eye opener into what the average Japanese family do at weekends.

I have so much to write about I'll split it into several posts. So we met at Kanazawa station and took a train (about 30 mins) directly to KagaOnsen station. We then all piled on a little bus whose conductor was probably older than Grandad, bless.

Choosing our yukatas (I had to have "large" damn those Japanese for being so teeny!)

Got to the ryokan (which was huge) and spent a lot of time deciding on which yukata (summer style kimono) we wanted to wear. Once you have your yukata you can wear this everywhere, for dinner, in the bar etc like being at a health farm at home)

Some of our futon beds lined , very cosy!

Our room was huge and looked like a girls dormitory, only Japanese style of course (futon beds lined up on the floor)

Me and the ladies having Japanese tea in our room at Nagayama ryokan

Homemade rice crackers (sembei)

We then sat on floor cushions and polished off the complimentary green tea and mochi (pounded rice cake) in seconds. Once this was gone, the older ladies brought out more food, homemade rice crackers, oranges, chestnut cake and pastries. I don't know how the Japanese stay so thin!

We then all trooped off to the onsen (hot spring) on the 6th floor in our yukatas. Being the ONLY gaijin (foreigner) in the whole hotel I was actually thinking that eyes were going to be all on me in the onsen (you see you have to go naked in an onsen) especially with all my cellulite wobbling about with nothing for it to comfortably hide behind but was relieved when they didn't stare at all. Although who knows what they were doing behind my back!

Early dinner at 5pm in the "restaurant" which was more like a canteen packed with about 150 Japanese adults and kids running about everywhere. I so wish I'd filmed the ABSOLUTE frenzy of the Japanese around the buffet. I thought it was bad in India! Everyone pushing and shoving (esp around the sushi table), trays getting dropped on the floor and the kids hogging the chocolate fondue fountain. Crazy...

The buffet was amazing though, a huge salmon with head and tail cut open like we have in England, the only difference being that the Japanese were eating the salmon raw. I do actually love sashimi (raw fish without the rice) but actually picking pieces directly out of a whole fish did make my stomach turn a bit. The buffet also had miso soup, tempura vegetables with a dipping sauce, 3 kinds fo rice (plain, adzuke bean and chestnut), pickled fish, boiled tofu and soy, chawamushi (Japanese steamed egg custard), green sesame beans, sesame aubergine and countless varieties of sushi (squid, octopus, salmon, tuna etc). There was even a "western buffet counter" with (I hang my head with shame) chips and deep fried fish cutlets....

Anyway here are my first helpings, all washed down with a glass of nama! (draft beer)!

My first helpings from the buffet....

Dinner was followed by cake and ice . We then we all hit the hotel's own little theatre en masse. I'll write about that in another post.