Later in the week, some friends and I decided to take a walk down to Higashichaya, the historically preserved geisha district nearby. It was about a 30 minute walk, or a short bus ride, but the day was so pleasant we decided to walk. Higashichaya was absolutely beautiful, especially for fans of the more traditional side of Japan. The buildings were mostly made of wood, and behind them loomed a picturesque mountain.

Walking down one of the main streets

It was early and we didn't have any solid plans for the evening, so we wandered around slowly and stopped in several shops. One was a souvenir shop, but the most interesting was one selling gold leaf (緊迫）artifacts. Gold leafing is a traditional craft which Kanazawa is famous for. We couldn't take pictures of the things in the shop, but some of the most memorable were compacts with gold leafing on them, and chocolate cakes with flakes of gold baked into them (gold leaf is apparently edible). However, behind the shop was a building covered entirely in gold leaf, which I fortunately was allowed to take a picture of:

After that, we wandered around in a near-fruitless search for food, before ending up in town again.

A couple of days later, though, I had one of the most memorable meals of my life--it was the program's first long weekend, and I decided not to go anywhere. On Saturday night, there was a dinner with locals from Kanazawa we could go to, preceded by a cultural exchange. The cultural exchange part was mostly just everyone sharing a little about their hometowns, and then getting to know each other, before getting to the part we were all really interested in: this incredible meal.

We were served tea and a sweet first, while we were waiting for the room to open up. It was very pretty:

It also tasted great, of course. When we entered the room we'd be dining in, we saw that a small tray had been set up for each of us individually, with appetizers and drinks already set up. That was only the beginning--it was something like a five-course meal. I was in food heaven.

The fish in the center of the floor there was a very special fish, usually eaten at formal occasions like weddings. It was stuffed, and the most delicious part of the fish was the head, which we all played rock-paper-scissors to get to eat. Guess who won (spoiler alert: it was me).

I mean, of course every day the food here is incredible, but that was a night I'll remember for a long time.