Venice is definitely a city for one's bucket list

Kanazawa rises quietly on Japan’s western coast, offering a slower, deeper rhythm of beauty that modern Kyoto can no longer protect.

Kanazawa doesn’t impose itself. It doesn’t rush toward you. It’s a city that reveals itself slowly, like a book that refuses to be skimmed. While modern Japan accelerates and Kyoto bends under the weight of millions of visitors, Kanazawa remains on the western coast of Honshu with the calm confidence of a place that guards something precious and has no intention of giving it away.

Arriving here feels like stepping into a parallel Japan, where tradition isn’t a museum piece but a living presence moving through the streets, the markets, the gardens, the gestures of its people. It’s a city that doesn’t need to imitate Kyoto to be authentic — it already is, and has been for centuries.

The journey to Kanazawa: a path that prepares the spirit

The easiest way to reach Kanazawa is by train. The Hokuriku Shinkansen glides from Tokyo through mountains, forests, and coastline in just two and a half hours. It’s a journey that seems designed to prepare you for the city’s atmosphere: the rhythm slows, the landscape shifts, and when the train pulls into Kanazawa Station — crowned by the iconic Tsuzumi-mon Gate, shaped like traditional drums — you immediately sense you’ve arrived somewhere where past and present speak to each other without conflict.

Travelers coming from Osaka or Kyoto can take the Limited Express Thunderbird, a train that cuts across the Kansai region before heading north. The ride lasts about two and a half hours and is one of the most scenic routes in western Japan. Long-distance buses also connect Kanazawa to major cities, but the train remains the most fluid, most Japanese, most spiritually coherent way to begin this journey.

The ancient heart: Nagamachi, the samurai district

Kanazawa is one of the few Japanese cities that has preserved an authentic samurai district. Nagamachi isn’t a reconstruction or a tourist set — it’s a living fragment of history. Narrow streets, yellow earthen walls, quiet canals, low wooden houses: everything feels suspended in a time that refuses to hurry.

Walking here means stepping into a Japan that has nearly vanished elsewhere. Samurai residences like Nomura-ke reveal the life of a class that shaped the nation’s identity for centuries. Worn tatami floors, inner gardens tended with almost spiritual precision, armor and swords that aren’t museum props but echoes of an era where honor was law.

Nagamachi isn’t a place to visit. It’s a place to listen to.

Higashi Chaya: the geisha district Kyoto can no longer protect

If Kyoto has Gion, Kanazawa has Higashi Chaya — and here, the magic is still intact. Dark wooden teahouses, lanterns glowing at dusk, the soft sound of footsteps on stone: everything feels lifted from another age. The geisha of Kanazawa, known as geiko, preserve a tradition that elsewhere has become performance. Here, it is still life.

Stepping into a chaya means witnessing a ritual that doesn’t need an audience. The shamisen’s trembling notes, the slow, deliberate dance, the tea served with gestures that feel like choreography — every detail is a fragment of an art form that survives in only a handful of places in Japan.

Higashi Chaya is unforgettable not because it is beautiful, but because it is true.

Kenroku-en: the garden that changes its soul with the seasons

Kenroku-en is not a garden — it is a world. One of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan, a place where nature is neither left wild nor forced, but guided with a sensitivity that borders on poetry. Each season transforms it into something new: snow draping the pines in winter, cherry blossoms in spring, deep greens in summer, fiery reds in autumn.

The central pond mirrors the sky like a sheet of glass, stone bridges seem to float, granite lanterns whisper ancient stories. It’s not a place to “see” — it’s a place to move through slowly, letting silence do its work.

Omicho Market: the living belly of the city

To understand Kanazawa, you must enter Omicho Market. It’s a maze of scents, colors, and voices. Fish arrives fresh from the Sea of Japan, and the stalls overflow with kani crab, oysters, sea urchins, tuna, salmon, seaweed, and seafood that looks like it belongs in a painting.

Eating here doesn’t require Michelin stars. A bowl of kaisendon — warm rice topped with fresh sashimi — costs between 10 and 15 euros and is worth every bite. Vendors speak to you as if you were a local, and there’s no distance between buyer and seller — only life.

Traditional food: the taste of the Sea of Japan

Kanazawa is famous for its cuisine. Fish is the star, but not the only one. The city is known for kaga ryori, an elegant, refined style of cooking that uses local ingredients like mountain vegetables, seaweed, tofu, roots, mushrooms, and delicate spices.

The signature dish is jibuni, a thick soup made with duck, vegetables, and soy broth. Then there are the traditional sweets, including the gold leaf ice cream — Kanazawa is Japan’s capital of gold leaf craftsmanship.

Eating here isn’t just nourishment. It’s ritual.

Culture and tradition: where the kimono still lives

Kanazawa is one of the few cities where the kimono isn’t a costume for tourists but a garment many women still wear on special occasions. The workshops that produce them are authentic, and the fabrics are works of art. The city is also famous for Kaga Yuzen, a dyeing technique that creates floral patterns of extraordinary delicacy.

Walking through these workshops means watching artisans work as they did centuries ago, with a precision that feels like meditation.

Kanazawa Castle: a white giant watching over the city

Beside Kenroku-en stands Kanazawa Castle, an imposing white structure that seems to float above the city. Its walls, corridors, and towers tell the story of the Maeda clan, one of the most powerful in feudal Japan.

The castle isn’t just a monument — it’s a vantage point over the city, a place where past and present meet without clashing.

Prices and atmosphere: an accessible Japan

Kanazawa is surprisingly accessible. Hotels cost less than in Kyoto or Tokyo, restaurants are reasonably priced, and many attractions are free or inexpensive. It’s a city that doesn’t ask you to spend in order to be experienced.

Kanazawa today: the destination the world is rediscovering

2026 has brought renewed attention to Kanazawa. Travelers seek authenticity, calm, and beauty untouched by mass tourism. And Kanazawa offers all of this effortlessly. It is becoming the natural alternative to Kyoto — not because it imitates it, but because it protects what Kyoto can no longer defend: intimacy.

For travelers who want to go even deeper into Japan’s quieter soul, far beyond the elegance of Kanazawa, the country’s rural regions are experiencing a remarkable revival. These landscapes — untouched, slow, and profoundly human — offer a different kind of journey, where tradition breathes and nature becomes the guide. Discover Japan’s rural renaissance →Japan’s Rural Regions Experiencing a Tourism Revival — Where Tradition Breathes and Nature Heals