Thursday, May 31, 2012

Kenrokuen Gardens in Kanazawa Prefecture, Japan

 There is a castle next to Kenrokuen Gardens. We didn't go inside since we didn't have a lot of time left, but we did enjoy the gardens!


 The weather started out overcast and strong rains, but by the time we had lunch it had turned into a beautiful day! It was sunny and warm!

























Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Kintaro Onsen: The Food!

 This painting was in our room. It's a picture of Kintaro which is also the name of the onsen! I loved the feeling of fun in this painting.


 The food was amazing! There was tuna, sweet shrimp, squid, yellow tail and abalone!





 Hotaru Squid is famous in this area. Hence, the museum that I blogged about in a previous post. They were delicious! We ate them shabu-shabu style!





The shabu-shabu pot!

The dessert was really simple, but after the really big meal I was glad it was small and relatively light.


Sunday, May 27, 2012

The View Around Toyama, Japan

 The mountain ranges were beautiful with the snow covering.


Unfortunately, sometimes power lines got in the way...




 This is the view from our room at Kintaro Onsen.





 I enjoyed sitting here and looking out the window towards the mountain ranges.





 The sunset that day was beautiful! I got to enjoy it right before our dinner. Which I will show some of the food that we ate in the next post.



Friday, May 25, 2012

Hotaru Ika Museum: Toyama, Japan

 This was a museum for the Hotaru Squid which is a really small squid. It is famous in Toyama, it's so famous that they made a museum! The musuem is fun for kids, but the gift shop is great for adults! They offer a lot of different snacks made from squid!





 Okay, this photo might be a little freaky for some people.....looking at it now it creeps me out a little bit. lol





 There was a pond in the middle of the room with crabs, some fish and anenomes. I think everything in the pond was dead so the kids could touch them....one kid actually fell into the pond. It was pretty funny. I felt bad for the kid, because he started crying once he realized that everyone was staring at him in surprise, but otherwise funny. He was soaked! So a word of caution watch your step around the pond.








You can see the ocean on the back side of the museum. The light was beautiful bouncing off the water.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Toyama, Japan: Beach side and Joganji River

 Facing the mountain cascades and Joganji river.


 The beach! It was really windy near the beach though.





 A grandfather and granddaughter were playing on the beach. I guess when it was time to go home his granddaughter was a little tired so he gave her a piggyback ride.


 These two were fishing from the beach. I wonder if they caught anything...


 remnants of oysters left on the rocks of the beach


 The water isn't very pretty, but the waves were.





 It was soothing to see the water run through the rocks and sand on the beach.





Walking back from the beach you see a lot of green land. Toyama has a lot of farms around this area.