Toyama City, near Kanazawa, is one of my new favorite places to visit. The shinkansen 🚄 stops here on its way to Kanazawa and I highly recommend spending a night here to explore the area. The Toyama Glass Art Museum building was designed by Kengo Kuma and has a stunning interior. The city’s public library…
Category: Kanazawa
Kanazawa Yamato
Yamato is a very cool shop that specializes in fermented foods including soy sauce, miso, and kōji products. Staff are helpful and friendly in this busy shop and offer many samples before purchasing. I’m a big fan of the fermented kōji amazaké which is an all natural probiotic drink. The shio salt kōji and soy…
Kanazawa Teahouse Soshin
Higashi Chaya is one of Kanazawa’s most charming neighborhoods. There are several cafes for sweets and coffee or tea including @cafe_soshin Sabo Soshin 茶房素心. Sabo means teahouse or coffee shop. The menu includes parfaits and Japanese mochi sweets and wagashi confectionaries with flavors like hōjicha roasted green tea, kinako roasted soybean powder, kuromitsu black sugar…
Kanazawa Kissaten
Kissaten are old school coffee shops. The morning service sets are often sandwiches or toast with coffee. I picked it because it was open early in the morning. New Katorea is not far from Ohmicho Market in Kanazawa. The newspaper had news on the local sumo wrestler Enho and local specialties crab and kanburi winter…
Kamakura Pasta
Wafu Italian, Italian cuisine made with Japanese ingredients, is trending in the US and has long been popular in Japan. We often make spaghetti at home using Japanese seafood or vegetables. It’s the perfect fusion cuisine. While we are on the road and eating mostly Japanese food we often will take a break from rice…
Kanazawa Chikuwa
There are many local foods we try to enjoy while in Kanazawa. One of the dishes is oden, a hotpot of mostly fishcakes, but also daikon, eggs, fu wheat gluten, and more. Chikuwa is a casual stand inside of Kanazawa Station that diners can enjoy craft beer and oden. We grabbed just a few items…
Kanazawa Maimon Sushi
Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures are on Toyama Bay and famous for seafood. Part of any trip to Kanazawa always includes a sushi meal. We love Maimon Sushi, a kaitenzushi conveyor belt sushi chain famous for getting seafood deliveries twice a day, ensuring the freshest seafood. There are a few branches in the city. There’s a…
Kanazawa Library
Kanazawa in Ishikawa prefecture is one of my favorite cities to visit. On Toyama Bay the seafood in Kanazawa is fresher than what you can get in Tokyo. There is also the famous Kenrokuen gardens and the charming Higashi Chaya district. What I now look forward to more than anything in Kanazawa is visiting the…
Kanazawa Fukuro
Fukuro is a cool condiments shop near Ohmicho Market. I love the seasoned salts and misos. Curry chicken miso excellent for stuffing in onigiri or for crudité. On this trip I picked up lemon salt as staff said it’s great for karaagé fried chicken and bōcha roasted green tea salt for ochazuké rice with toppings…
Kanazawa Kazu Nakashima Fruit Mochi
Mochi stuffed with a sweet white bean paste and seasonal fruit. Café @Kazu_Nakashima in the Higashi Chaya district of Kanazawa specializes in fruits mochi. The building housing the cafe dates to the Edo period (1603-1867) and is as charming as the sweets. The shop serves teas, other sweets, and mattcha latte. Chef Nakashima is a…
Food Sake Tokyo 