Back on the culture trail with an early morning visit to Nagamachi Samurai district, a preserved area where samurai families used to reside.

The district is known for its narrow lanes, earthen walls and traditional samurai houses.

We went to an open house, the Nomura-ke residence, which offered an insight into samurai life and included beautiful traditional interiors and a modest, but well manicured & stunning garden.

The estate of a former upper-middle-rank samurai family, features a stream, waterfall, granite bridge and a 400-year-old bayberry tree.

Within the property were old letters sent by the former inhabitants, our ‘favourite’ is the one below which essentially translates to ‘we appreciate your efforts in killing one of the upper ranked soldiers in the battle….and we are very happy that you brought his head’. They just don’t write letters like this anymore!!

After the traditional samurai house, we went to the other extreme and visited the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. It’s known for its modern and interactive exhibits from both Japanese and international artists.

The highlight for us was Leandro Erlich’s ‘swimming pool’, an installation that creates the illusion of standing underwater in a pool.

We then witnessed a huge and diverse range of other art installations which we found a little harder to fathom which were a little more subtle.

After an enlightening hour or so we decided to go and explore the art installations that sat outside the museum. With the return of the sunshine, this proved to be a more uplifting experience and seeing the large mirrored steel sphere it reminded us of the ‘bean’ we saw years ago on a visit to Chicago.

From there we got back on our ‘walking’ tour of the city passing a samurai statue with his sword glimmering in the sun.

On our next stop was a visit to the Higashi Chaya historic district, a preserved geisha area lined with wooden tea houses that date back to the Edo period.

It was a fantastic place and we wandered around admiring the traditional architecture, where you can try a local delicacy, gold leaf ice cream. As it was almost three times the price of regular ice-cream we decided to pass!

We popped into a few of the local tea houses to get a real sense of life back in the Edo era.

We then returned to Omicho Market, to view all the local fish and sushi on offer.

We knew it would be a great place to go for lunch due to its buzzing atmosphere.

Despite all the seafood on offer, we had our eyes set on a visit to Kanazawa Curry Laboratory, where we decided to try the local delicacy and are now proper converts.

Andy went for the Kanazawa Curry and Michelle the Butter Chicken Curry (with Kanazawa Curry) which were both so delicious and get our recommendation.

The staff were so friendly and it was interesting to see how they prepare and cut everything right in front of you.

After our very filling lunch we returned late afternoon to the Kanazawa castle and Kenrokuen gardens to watch the light shows that are put on in autumn in the lead up to the festive period.

Around 5.45pm the sunset and the night shadows appeared alongside a magnificent light show illuminating the castle grounds and the adjoining Kenrokuen gardens. Both looked absolutely stunning and to our minds are the best we have seen in our time in Japan. Even if you’re not into gardens per se, you can’t help but be impressed with the scale and invention of what has been achieved in an artificial environment.

Everything has its place and has been thoughtfully positioned. They are truly wonderful.

We now know the reason for the ropes around a number of the trees, this is to protect the branches when the heavy snow arrives in the next month or so which will place a great deal of weight on the trees. The ropes help to strengthen the branches and avoid them snapping under the pressure. It’s not something we had thought of and we had foolishly thought it was either a decoration or a Japanese ritual.

Tomorrow is our last day in Kanazawa, so we plan to keep busy and see the remaining geisha areas and museums we haven’t visited so far, along with sushi for lunch.