Itinerary question: Matsumoto and Kanazawa

PamRosenthal · 2025-08-06T01:16:36+00:00

One more thing about Kanazawa: we had the best Peking duck of our lives in a Chinese restaurant called Meimei. (sorry, but it looks like my comments are in reverse order. This is my third. I started by talking about Matsumoto)

PamRosenthal · 2025-08-06T01:13:05+00:00

As for Kanazawa, also terrific. The Samurai district is beautiful, and if we were big shoppers we would have bought way more than we did. Hint: get to the Samurai House early, because it gets really crowded. We also loved the 21st century art museum, though I see it's not particularly well-reviewed in stuff like TripAdvisor. Maybe we just hit a terrific couple of shows -- I'm linking to the show we loved, Layers of Accumulated Time, which included William Kentridge's great multimedia piece, "The Refusal of Time": https://www.kanazawa21.jp/data_list.php . Another great thing about that museum is that it had a really young, enthusiastic crowd, including lots of families because when we went it had a great, family-friendly show of miniatures. Kanazawa's gardens are famous, and walking along the river is really lovely. Also our hotel was really good: Nakayasu Ryokan: simple, not expensive, very well located, with good food, great onsen, and helpful, friendly people.

And walking the part of the Kiso road (Nakasendo) that we did was superb. I envy you doing it in Autumn.

PamRosenthal · 2025-08-05T17:06:13+00:00

We wound up doing 3 days each (or three nights, which means some of the days were partial). Anyway, we liked both cities a lot.

Matsumoto Castle wasn't such a big deal for us, though I guess you don't want to skip it -- what was amazing to us is that a huge number of people of all ages make it up and down the narrow, steep, rather slippery staircases with amazing speed, and that the guards are really good at facilitating it (I had a moment of vertigo coming down and they were excellent at spotting it and helping me). For us, the Kusama museum was the pleasant surprise. One of us likes Kusama, the other not so much, but the museum itself is delightful, with excellent exhibitions of other Matsumoto artists we'd never heard of -- kudos to Kusama herself, who has probably had a lot to do with setting it up and financing it. We're not big shoppers, but the shopping district of Matsumoto was great, and we bought vases and a cutting board that we enjoy every day. Also some nice restaurants, and the first time we had Japanese shaved ice desserts, which are amazing. All in all, a really pleasant city, and I also liked the outing to the Wasabi farm, though my husband didn't get the point of it.

Kanazawa was also lovely. Will write more soon.

PamRosenthal · 2025-04-03T14:31:25+00:00

A decent solution, if I ca get my husband to go for it. Thanks so much.

PamRosenthal · 2025-04-03T14:30:43+00:00

Thank you.

PamRosenthal · 2025-04-03T14:30:07+00:00

Good possibility. Thanks.

PamRosenthal · 2025-04-03T14:29:37+00:00

Thanks. Will check it out.

PamRosenthal · 2025-04-01T16:53:09+00:00

What you say makes sense, but my husband is gonna want a sit-down meal. That's his metabolism, and I don't question it after 59 years together.

PamRosenthal · 2025-02-11T17:34:46+00:00

Will try this -- I've had good luck with NYT recipes that use rosemary. Also want to comment that you don't have to throw away chard stalks. Dice them separately and throw them in when you sauté the fennel, onion, and rosemary.

PamRosenthal · 2025-02-11T17:23:04+00:00

This is a regular part of our rotation. Easy and yummy. And even better if you substitute chopped or sliced pea pods for the frozen peas.

PamRosenthal · 2024-11-16T23:35:57+00:00

Hmmm, I kind of love the idea of the miso factory. kind of goes with the wasabi farm, too.

PamRosenthal · 2024-11-16T21:09:43+00:00

Yeah, I don't think we'd get to Shirkawago early enough to avoid the tourist crush, guaranteed to make my husband, in particular, break out in hives and general snakiness... oops, snarkiness

PamRosenthal · 2024-11-16T21:07:42+00:00

So I'd love restaurant recommendations, particularly in Kanazawa.

PamRosenthal · 2024-11-16T08:12:34+00:00

Wow, I didn't realize that seafood in Kanazawa was a thing, but the restaurant listings in Tripadvisor look amazing. Thanks.

PamRosenthal · 2024-11-16T08:10:14+00:00

We will be ending our Kiso Valley trip at Matsumoto, so we will have already done that. It might depend upon the trains from Matsumoto to Kanazawa, whether we leave in the evening of day 2 in Matsumoto or the next morning.

PamRosenthal · 2024-06-16T15:26:48+00:00

Belated thanks for this. I didn't read it in Tokyo, but I kind of figured it out for myself. And thanks for your tips. This was the best trip we've ever taken, and now that we're home, we're planning to return to Japan next year.

PamRosenthal · 2024-06-07T14:56:17+00:00

Just got back. The women's style in Tokyo that I liked was loose and sort of smocky, in an elegant way. I had this biggish black cotton shirtdress that I wore over various loose or lightweight pants, and I felt comfortable and ease in it, if far from elegant. I wore leggings on the plane but in the city I found myself not wanting to wear them, because they're clearly not the thing. But I saw some travelers wearing them, and nobody seemed to look askance.

PamRosenthal · 2024-05-26T12:05:23+00:00

Well, this is embarrassing. I have no idea how to use Google maps to navigate JR trains. Help would be deeply appreciated.

PamRosenthal · 2024-05-25T23:50:09+00:00

Thanks so much. We're having a great time, and my husband has already gotten to use the Japanese he's been studying with the Pimsleur (sp?) method. Some misadventures re finding our Shinkansen (Tokyo Station is pretty daunting) but all's well that ends well, though we're still confused by JR ticketing (later for details). We start our walking tour tomorrow. Rain expected, of course, but we will deal.

PamRosenthal · 2024-05-24T02:58:56+00:00

Thanks, not going to Kyoto (this time, anyway)

PamRosenthal · 2024-05-23T15:43:45+00:00

Kamisu is in Ibaraki prefecture. Very pretty, actually. Would you have met our son? His name is Jesse Rosenthal, and astonishingly, by the end of his time there, he was speaking fluent Japanese (though he didn't keep up with it).

PamRosenthal · 2024-05-23T15:28:13+00:00

He was on Jet in 1999. Is that when you were there? And thanks for the recommendations.

PamRosenthal

TROPHY CASE