Kanazawa

Kanazawa in Winter

Two and a half hours from Tokyo, and the one city that kept its teahouse streets intact. Ropes on the pine trees, grey light off the Sea of Japan, and almost nobody there between January and March.

Pine trees in a garden supported by cones of rope against snow — Kanazawa · February 2020

Kanazawa was never bombed, so the wooden districts that most Japanese cities lost in 1945 are still standing here: three teahouse quarters, a samurai district with earth walls, and a garden that has been maintained continuously since the seventeenth century.

It is also on the wrong side of the mountains for winter sun. From December to March the sky is grey, the rain turns to sleet, and the city empties — which is precisely when the wooden streets look their best.

At a glance

Getting there: 2h30 from Tokyo by Shinkansen, direct
Winter: Grey, wet, 3–8°C in the city. Snow comes and goes
What to see: Kenrokuen, the Higashi Chaya teahouse district, the castle park
Why winter: The rope cones on the garden pines, and no crowds
Umbrella: Buy one on arrival. Kanazawa has rain or snow on roughly 180 days a year

The ropes go up in November

Garden pines held up by cones of straw rope strung from poles, under a flat winter sky — Yukitsuri: the ropes are strung from poles each November and taken down in March, to stop wet snow breaking the branches.Kenrokuen, Kanazawa · February 2020

The rope cones are a working repair, not an ornament. Kanazawa's snow is heavy and wet — the kind that snaps three-hundred-year-old pines — so every autumn the gardeners raise poles and string ropes from them, and every spring they take them down again.

They are also the single most photographed thing in the city between November and March, and they are at their best in flat grey light, which is the only light on offer.

The teahouse streets

A street of two-storey wooden teahouses with lattice fronts — Higashi Chaya. The lattice is called kimusuko: you can see out from inside, and not in from the street.Kanazawa · February 2020

A narrow lane of dark wooden buildings under a low grey sky — Two streets away from the main lane, and the visitors stop.Kanazawa · February 2020

Wooden teahouse fronts lit warmly at dusk — The lanterns come on about four in the afternoon in midwinter.Kanazawa · February 2020

Three teahouse districts survive, and only one of them — the eastern — is on the tour route. The other two are ten minutes' walk away and almost always empty. Go to the famous one first thing, then walk to the others and stay there.

Arriving

A large glass dome and a wooden gate at a railway station entrance — The station's wooden gate and glass dome: 2005, and an argument the city had with itself for years.Kanazawa · February 2020

The Shinkansen runs from Tokyo in two and a half hours, which makes Kanazawa a feasible overnight from Tokyo and a natural stop between Tokyo and Kyoto if you are willing to go the long way round.

What winter actually asks of you

Waterproof shoes. Not boots — the snow is wet and the pavements are clear. Shoes you do not mind soaking.
An umbrella, not a hood. Everyone here carries one; the rain is light and constant rather than heavy.
An earlier dinner. Kanazawa is a seafood city and the good counters fill by seven, especially in crab season from November to March.