Kanazawa is often called Kyoto without the crowds, which is a lazy comparison. Kyoto was the emperor's capital. Kanazawa was the seat of the Maeda lords, who ruled the Kaga Domain from here for 14 generations and, instead of building an army, poured their money into gardens, lacquer, ceramics and gold leaf. Before them a Buddhist league ran the province as a self-governing "Peasants' Kingdom" until Oda Nobunaga's generals broke it in 1580. Most of the samurai, merchant and geisha streets that followed still run where they did in the Edo period.
It is compact, wet and good to eat in. In November the pines in Kenroku-en are being tied into rope cones for the snow while the first snow crabs land at Omicho Market. Three days is the right length: day one is the garden, the castle and the museum, day two the market, the samurai quarter and the geisha districts, and day three the thatched farmhouses of Shirakawa-go. Any more and you are padding.
Start on a Wednesday. The 21st Century Museum and several small museums close on Mondays, Omicho shops set their own closing days, often Wednesday or Sunday (so the market lands on Thursday), and Shirakawa-go falls on a Friday, calmer than a weekend. The Hokuriku Shinkansen takes about 2.5 hours from Tokyo (see our Tokyo guide), and from Kyoto you change at Tsuruga (see our Kyoto guide). More on the country is on the Japan page.
Every stop from the plan below, colored by day. Pick a day to see its route.
The garden early, the castle grounds and a shrine gate with stained glass, then the contemporary art museum and a Kaga dinner.
Seafood at the market, a samurai lane and a walled garden, then gold leaf and the geisha streets on the river at dusk.
A reserved bus into the Gifu mountains, a walk through the thatched village, the viewpoint above it and a late bus home.
Everything today sits around the castle. The garden closes at 17:00 from mid-October to the end of February and the sun sets before that in November, so do the garden in the morning and keep the indoor sights for the afternoon.
Kenroku-en is one of Japan's Three Great Gardens, and the one that most obviously belongs to a castle. It began as the outer garden of the Maeda lords' castle, and its ponds and streams are fed by a canal built in 1632. The name means Garden of Six Attributes: spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, waterways and panoramas, which the old Chinese text behind it says are almost impossible to combine in one place. Kenroku-en tries anyway.
Walk it slowly: the big pond with the two-legged Kotoji lantern, the Flying Geese Bridge of eleven red stones, the Karasaki pine and Japan's oldest fountain, which runs on natural water pressure alone. From November the gardeners tie the pines into cones of yukitsuri rope that keep snow from snapping the branches. The work usually starts on 1 November and runs to mid-December, so a visit in November sees it half done. The Seisonkaku villa, built in 1863 for a lord's mother, is a quieter extra next door.
Inside the garden, the Shigure-tei teahouse is the place to sit down. It was first built by the fifth Maeda lord, Tsunanori, and rebuilt on its present spot in 2000. It is open 9:00 to 16:30, with last entry at 16:00.
Take the tea at the end of the walk, not the start. Matcha comes with a small wagashi sweet, which is the point.
A short walk through the Ishikawa Gate brings you into the castle grounds. Kanazawa Castle was the Maeda family seat, and it burned repeatedly: the keep was lost in 1602 and never rebuilt, the castle burned again in the Great Kanazawa Fire of 1759, and most of what remained went up in 1881. The Ishikawa Gate, built in 1788, is an original. The Hishi Yagura turret and the long warehouse beside it were rebuilt in 2001 with traditional methods.
The roof tiles are the detail to look at; legend says they could be melted into bullets in a siege. Go inside the Hishi Yagura and the Gojukken Nagaya (9:00 to 16:30, last entry 16:00) to see the timber construction. Then walk the grounds. There is no keep to climb, which is more honest than a concrete copy.
On the other side of the castle stands the shrine to Maeda Toshiie, the first lord of Kaga, moved here in 1873. Its gate is the reason to stop. It was finished in 1875, and mixes Japanese, Chinese and European elements; the third floor has Dutch stained glass and is said to have served as a lighthouse too.
It is a strange, wonderful building to find at the end of a samurai city. The grounds are small, and twenty minutes is plenty.
The 21st Century Museum opened in 2004, and it is a glass circle 112.5 meters across designed by SANAA. It has no front and no back, and you can enter from any side. That is the whole idea: the city walks through it. The public zone is free and open from 9:00 to 22:00, and holds Leandro Erlich's Swimming Pool, a courtyard pool that looks full of water from above; the water is only about 10 centimeters deep.
The ticketed exhibition zone is open 10:00 to 18:00 (to 20:00 on Fridays and Saturdays) and closed on Mondays. In November it shows a paid exhibition and two free ones. See the building and the free works first, then decide whether the paid show earns its 1,200 JPY. A long renovation closure from May 2027 has been reported, so check the dates if you travel then.
Finish with Kaga ryori, the cooking of the old domain, built on local Sea of Japan fish and Kaga vegetables. The dish to order is jibuni, duck (sometimes chicken) simmered in broth, the first dish people mention when they talk about Kaga cooking.
Kaga Hyakumangoku no Aji Genkan in Honmachi, about five minutes from the station, serves seasonal fish with Hokuriku sake. If you eat one regional dinner in three days, make it this style: it is where the history in the garden turns into food.
Today moves from west to east: the market in the morning, the samurai lanes before lunch, the geisha streets in the afternoon. Each Omicho shop sets its own closing days, and Wednesday and Sunday are common, which is why this day belongs on a Thursday.
Omicho has fed Kanazawa for more than 300 years, and about 170 stalls and shops line its narrow lanes. The Sea of Japan fish is the draw, and the November attraction is the snow crab: the female kobako-gani, small and full of roe, and the larger male, whose season usually opens around 6 November and runs through the winter.
Order a kaisendon, a rice bowl topped with sashimi, or crab dipped in a vinegar sauce. A crab costs 1,000 to 20,000 JPY depending on size and sex. Go early and avoid the lunchtime crush; most shops open from around 9:00 and many close by late afternoon, though each sets its own hours.
A ten-minute bus ride from the station to Korinbo, then a short walk, takes you to the lanes where the middle-ranking retainers of the Kaga clan lived. The earthen walls, cobbled alleys and the small Onosho canal look like a theme park, but the layout matches Edo-period maps and people still live behind most of the walls.
In winter the walls wear komogake, straw mats that protect the earth from snow. Walk a zigzag over the canal bridges: it is a one-hour loop with stops for sweets or Kutani ceramics. Do not peer into private gates.
The Nomura-ke is the best-known samurai residence in Nagamachi, and the way to see how a retainer's family lived. Its garden has been awarded two Michelin stars, which is a slightly absurd thing to say about a garden, until you sit in front of it.
Take the full ten minutes with the garden before you go through the rooms. From October to March the house is open from 8:30 to 16:30 (last entry 30 minutes before), and it is closed on 26 and 27 December and 1 and 2 January. A sweets shop shares the courtyard.
Across the Asano River, Higashi Chaya is Kanazawa's best-known geisha district. A chaya is a teahouse where guests were entertained by geisha with music, dance and conversation. The tall, narrow wooden houses have lattice fronts and a second-floor room for guests, and many still work at night as private clubs.
Walk the main street and the side alleys slowly. By day most of what is open is shops and cafes, so have tea and a sweet in a converted house. It is busy at midday.
Ochaya Shima was built in 1820, and is a National Important Cultural Property. It is the teahouse you can actually enter: a second-floor guest room without a closet or storage, built only for entertaining, and a front room where guests sat with their backs to the alcove as the sliding doors opened for a performance.
Sit in the tea room overlooking the garden for matcha and sweets at an extra charge. It is open 9:30 to 17:00 from December to February and until 17:30 the rest of the year. Bags are not allowed inside, so use the free coin lockers. Kaikaro, a larger teahouse nearby, was listed at 750 JPY (4.24 EUR) with tea charged separately; check its hours and closed days before you go.
Kanazawa produces 99% of Japan's high-quality gold leaf, and the gold that covers Kyoto's Golden Pavilion was made here. The Maeda lords poured their wealth into crafts rather than weapons, and the craft stayed.
Hakuza Hikarigura is a gold leaf shop with a storehouse covered in gold and platinum leaf, and a workshop where visitors have been able to cover their own souvenirs with gold. The shop is open daily, 9:30 to 17:30 in winter. The gold leaf workshop inside was listed as closed until further notice, so the storehouse and shop are what you can count on. The Yasue Gold Leaf Museum nearby is the more thorough option; check it is open.
Walk west along the Asano River to Kazuemachi, a smaller geisha district of wooden houses on the riverbank across from Higashiyama. It is quieter than Higashi Chaya, and its lane takes ten minutes to walk.
Come at dusk, which falls at about 16:45 in November, then cross back to the center for dinner. Treat it as a walk, not a visit: the houses are teahouses and homes.
Shirakawa-go is a UNESCO World Heritage village of steep thatched farmhouses, about 1 hour 15 minutes by bus from Kanazawa. The bus needs a reservation and the last return buses leave in the afternoon, so do not plan an evening there. Gokayama, the quieter neighbor, is a separate trip, not a second stop the same day.
Start under the huge wooden Tsuzumimon gate at the station's east exit, then walk to the west-exit bus terminal. The Hokutetsu bus leaves from stop 4 at 8:40, 9:10 and 9:40 in the morning, and at 13:00 and 14:00 in the afternoon. Buses back leave Shirakawa-go at 10:25, 10:55, 11:25, 15:10 and 15:55. The Japan Rail Pass does not cover it.
Reserve by phone on +81-76-234-0123 or through Japan Bus Online. The bus runs via Gokayama between April and November, but you cannot get on or off there. Take the 8:40 out and the 15:10 or 15:55 back: that gives you about five hours in the village and gets you home around 16:25 or 17:10.
Ogimachi is the largest of the three villages in the Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama, listed together by UNESCO. The valley gets heavy snow, and the steep thatched roofs of the gassho-zukuri houses are built to shed it. When the village was listed it held 152 households, and 117 buildings are protected.
You are in a living village, not a museum. People live and farm among the houses, so stay on the paths, respect no-entry signs and keep your voice down. Walk the main lane, then drift along the back lanes for the photographs.
Wada-ke is the largest gassho-zukuri farmhouse open to visitors and a designated Important Cultural Property. It is the one house to go into if you only enter one: you see how the family lived on the ground floor and how big the timber roof structure is above.
Take your shoes off, climb the narrow stairs and look up into the roof. Hours are around 9:00 to 17:00, with irregular closing days. Kanda-ke and Nagase-ke, two more houses within a few minutes' walk, are an option if you want a second look; check their closing days before you go.
Lunch is a set meal in a farmhouse restaurant or a bowl of noodles at a village shop. Menus lean on soba, mountain vegetables and, often, Hida beef from Gifu. It won't be the best meal of the trip, but eating in a thatched house makes up for it.
Eat before the midday group crush, ideally by noon, and leave time for the viewpoint.
The postcard picture of Shirakawa-go is taken from the Shiroyama viewpoint, on a hillside above Ogimachi on the site of a former mountain castle. It is free in the daytime and reached on foot from the village.
From the top you see the whole village in its valley, which is the view in every tourist poster. Go in the afternoon for the light, but start down in good time to catch your return bus. During the January light-up evenings a timed ticket is needed to enter the viewpoint, and tickets go only to overnight guests and selected bus tours.
What didn't fit, and where the Noto Peninsula stands now.
A small museum for the Buddhist philosopher Suzuki Daisetz, who helped spread Zen in the West, built around a contemplative space meant for sitting. Open 9:30 to 17:00, 300 JPY (1.70 EUR). It is at the back of the Honda Forest and not easy to find, so read the access notes.
Getting there: About 1 km south of Kenroku-en, a 15-minute walk
Official website
Nishi Chaya is the smaller, quieter twin of Higashi Chaya, effectively one street, where you can enter the shops but not the houses. A short walk away is Myoryu-ji, the Ninja Temple, with 23 rooms, 29 staircases and hidden passages. It has nothing to do with ninja, and the guides say so. Check the temple's reservation rules first.
Getting there: About 3 km south-west of Kenroku-en, across the Sai River; 10-15 minutes by bus or taxi
On 1 January 2024 a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the north of the Noto Peninsula and caused 743 confirmed deaths by June 2026, counting those from the aftermath, with the worst destruction in Suzu, Wajima, Noto and Anamizu; heavy rains in September 2024 added to the damage. Kanazawa is open to visitors, and everything in this guide was open when checked. The peninsula is recovering unevenly. As of August 2026 the middle (Chirihama, Keta Taisha, Notojima) has largely reopened, and the far north is reopening slowly: some road sections are closed or detoured and some inns in Wakura Onsen are shut. The Wajima Morning Market was reported in mid-2026 as not yet operating and expected back in 2027. Check the Ishikawa road information site before driving; the Noto desk at Kanazawa Station helps in English from 9:00 to 15:00.
Getting there: Chirihama and Notojima are 1 hour to 1.5 hours by car from Kanazawa; the JR Nanao Line and the Noto Railway reach Anamizu in just under 3 hours
Official website
Gokayama is the other half of the UNESCO listing, with the hamlets of Suganuma and Ainokura in Toyama Prefecture. The Hokutetsu bus from Kanazawa calls there only from April to November, and you cannot get on or off. Treat Gokayama as a day of its own, by bus from Takaoka or Shin-Takaoka, not as a second stop on the Shirakawa-go day. Check the winter timetable before you go.
Getting there: About 30 km south-east of Kanazawa as the crow flies; the Kaetsuno World Heritage bus serves Suganuma and Ainokura from Shin-Takaoka and Takaoka
Kanazawa eats from the Sea of Japan, the Kaga farmland and the Maeda tea table.
The winter star. The female kobako-gani is small and full of roe; the male kano-gani is bigger and pricier. The season usually opens around 6 November. A blue tag on a male crab names its port. Eat it with a vinegar sauce.
Where to try it: Omicho Market stalls from the first week of November; in restaurants as a crab course.
A bowl of rice topped with sashimi from the morning's catch, the best-value meal in town. Pick a bowl where you can see the fish being cut.
Where to try it: The restaurants in and around the Omicho Ichibakan building.
Sushi here leans on Sea of Japan fish. The local oddity is kabura-zushi, a fermented winter dish of turnip and yellowtail, not sushi in the usual sense. It is an acquired taste.
Where to try it: Sushi counters near the station and Korinbo; kabura-zushi in Kaga cuisine restaurants in winter.
Duck, or sometimes chicken, simmered in broth; the dish most associated with Kaga cuisine. The name is often linked to the sound of the simmering.
Where to try it: Kaga cuisine restaurants, such as Kaga Hyakumangoku no Aji Genkan near the station.
Kanazawa recognizes 15 traditional Kaga vegetables. Kaga renkon, lotus root, is the one to try, grated into steamed cakes or fried in tempura.
Where to try it: Kaga cuisine and tempura restaurants; ask for the seasonal vegetable plate.
Kanazawa is one of Japan's three great centers of Japanese confectionery. Matcha comes with a seasonal sweet, and the pair is cheap and good in a teahouse.
Where to try it: Shigure-tei in Kenroku-en, Ochaya Shima and the Murakami cafe in Nagamachi.
Noto beef is wagyu beef from the peninsula, and Omicho sells it in small portions, a cheaper way to try Japanese beef than a steakhouse.
Where to try it: Noto Beef Takumi in Omicho; hours and closing days vary, so check before you go.
A vanilla soft serve with a sheet of real gold on top. It is mostly a photograph, because edible gold has no taste, but it is the cheapest way to eat Kanazawa's best-known craft.
Where to try it: Kanakan Joy in Omicho; check its hours, which vary by day.
A local roasted green tea made from the stems as well as the leaves. Hojicha is the nearest familiar thing. It is a good souvenir and a good drink after crab.
Where to try it: Tea shops around Higashi Chaya and Kanazawa Station.
Sake is the drink to pair with the fish. Fukumitsuya, founded in 1625, is Kanazawa's oldest brewery. Tedorigawa, brewed in nearby Hakusan, is crisp and best cold.
Where to try it: Fukumitsuya's shop or Kanazawa Jizakegura at the station, which pours sake from Ishikawa breweries.
Kanazawa is small, and where you sleep changes little. Pick by the train and the evening.
Best for: The shinkansen, the Shirakawa-go bus and a late arrival
The shinkansen, the bus terminal and a tourist information lobby with English-speaking staff are all here. The catch is that the old city is a bus ride away.
Best for: Walking to Omicho, Nagamachi and Kenroku-en, and evenings out
The center of the city, with restaurants and izakaya, and a short walk to the market, the samurai lanes and the garden. The best base for a first visit. It can be noisy on weekend nights.
Best for: Quiet mornings in the geisha district
You get the streets before the day groups arrive and after they leave. The catch is that dinner options are fewer and the station is a bus ride away.
Pinpoint: click each country on the world map - inside the border for full points, the closer the more you earn.
The practical stuff that makes the first day in Kanazawa easier.
From Tokyo the fastest Kagayaki trains take about 2.5 hours and need a reserved seat; the Hakutaka takes about 3 hours. The fare is around 14,000-14,800 JPY (79-84 EUR) one way, so check the current price. From Kyoto or Osaka take the Thunderbird to Tsuruga and change.
The village is lit on four winter evenings, and entry is by advance reservation only. 2027: 11, 17, 24 and 31 January, 17:30 to 19:30. Regular buses do not run that evening. Go by bus tour, with a parking reservation if you drive, or by staying overnight; the 2027 accommodation lottery has closed. Details are with the Shirakawa-go Tourist Association.
Kenroku-en takes cash only, as do many small museums, houses and market stalls. Carry yen in small notes and coins.
Kanazawa is wet and gray in winter. Bring a compact umbrella, a waterproof jacket and shoes for wet cobbles. Sunset in mid-November is around 16:45.
A long renovation closure of the 21st Century Museum from May 2027 has been reported, but its own site did not show it when checked. If you travel then, check the dates. The garden, the castle and the districts are unaffected.
The Tourist Information Lobby at Kanazawa Station has English-speaking staff and free maps. The Noto desk there is open 9:00 to 15:00.
Osaka's great summer festival, held every 24 and 25 July since 951: a land procession from Tenmangu Shrine, then about 100 boats on the Okawa river with fireworks.
24–25 Jul 2027
Huge illuminated floats of warriors and mythological scenes parade through Aomori for six nights in early August, ending with a sea parade.
2–7 Aug 2027
Yes. Two days cover the garden, the castle, the museum, the market and the old districts, and the third goes to Shirakawa-go. Add a fourth day for the Noto Peninsula or Gokayama.
Yes. The earthquake of 1 January 2024 struck the north of the Noto Peninsula, and Kanazawa is open to visitors. The Noto Peninsula is recovering unevenly; see the Noto entry under More time.
The gardeners usually start on 1 November and finish in mid-December. No official 2026 start notice turned up when this was written, so check the prefecture's notice.
The season usually opens around 6 November, and the female kobako-gani is the first to arrive. The exact day depends on the weather, so ask at Omicho Market.
Not realistically by public transport. The Hokutetsu bus stops at Gokayama only from April to November, and you cannot board or alight there. Treat Gokayama as a separate day.
Not by Japanese standards. The garden is 320 JPY (1.81 EUR), Nomura-ke 550 JPY (3.11 EUR), the Shirakawa-go bus 2,800 JPY (15.84 EUR) each way. The shinkansen and hotels cost the most.
Find Kanazawa on the map, learn the flag and check how much you really know about Japan.
A former kingdom with its own food, a hard history and warm water. Five days on Okinawa's main island, with a car.
Bases: Naha, Onna, Motobu
A city that chose to remember, an island that floats at high tide, and the best pancake in Japan.
Street stalls, pork-bone ramen, a castle with no castle and a shrine for exams. Three days in Fukuoka, planned properly.
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