There are some days when your body tells you that you've tried to fit too much into one day.

There are other days when your body, your wife and your children tell you in no uncertain terms that you've tried to cram too much into a single day.

Today was well and truly the latter.

It all started out innocently enough. We knew we wanted to go and see Takada castle park and the "Sakura for 1 million people" event on a clear day. This event is considered one of the "top 3" nocturnal cherry blossom viewing events in the country, so we assumed it much be pretty special and, considering we were more or less in the area (~ 100 miles away, give or take a few miles) we knew we had to check it out.

But, we knew there definitely wasn't a full day of activities to keep us amused at Takada, where the cherry blossom viewing was being held, so we planned to make it an afternoon/evening event. This meant that we had the morning to kill.

Kanazawa has a few places of interest within walking distance of the station (and our hotel). A couple of those are the castle park, the Omi-cho fish market, and Kenrokuen garden, which is considered one of the 3 best gardens in Japan. Time was short, which means that the garden was off the list for today, and will have to be tackled tomorrow or Wednesday. This morning however, we decided to head for the fish market, then the castle.

My wife has absolutely, positively zero interest in the fish market. Actually, even less than zero. But, humouring me, since apparently it is easier than dealing with my sulking, she agreed to go for a walk through the markets while I pointed out all of the fishy things I recognised like a National Geographic documentary commentator.

Unlike Tsukiji fish market on the last trip, this market didn't leave me with an overriding sense of anger and disappointment. Yes there were a hell of a lot of fish, crustaceans and invertebrates in various stages of deadness, ranging from very much alive and kicking/swimming, to very much dead, hanging upside down, and inside out. But, there wasn't the overriding sense that this market would have a million tonnes of wastage every single day when the merchandise failed to sell.

There were a hell of a lot of huge snow crabs at the market. Every second or third stall had these monster crabs on ice, still just alive usually, or in buckets of water, slightly more alive than the ones upside down on the ice.
Among the snow crabs, but less common, there were also big horsehair crabs and king crabs.

The crabs seemed to range from $50 to $180 each. Yep....each.

Seafood lovers would be in paradise, as pretty much everything for sale could also be sushimi'd if you asked nicely enough, and of course, handed over sufficient yens. There were also vendors grilling chicken and various fish products, usually on sticks, for sale to hungry market goers.
Not us though. Fish for breakfast still doesn't appeal, even after all of these trips to Japan, so after 20 minutes or so of viewing pre-prepared seafood, we were done. Exiting the market on the opposite side to the way we came in, we continued on towards Kanazawa castle park.

Not far from the market, rows of cherry blossom trees, some very narrow streets and a moat signaled that we'd reached the outskirts of the castle grounds.
Kanazawa castle park, from what I've read contained a castle which burnt down a few hundred years ago, and was never rebuilt. The castle grounds however are gigantic, and sakura trees line every pathway.

The castle was not very busy, but we also did not want to spend hours exploring the complex, which you could probably do if you wanted to see all of it, we made our way to the castle, and looked around some of the inner grounds for about an hour, before turning and backtracking the 20 minute walk to Kanazawa station.

Takada castle park, including the train change time at Joetsu, is about an hour and a half in travel time from Kanazawa. The majority of the trip is covered by shinkansen, followed by a 5 minute trip South on a local line to get from the shinkansen station to Takada station.


I've caught a lot of shinkansens in my 4 Japan trips, but the shinkansen's I caught today were by far the most comfortable I've ever been on. These trains were clearly a step above the usual shinkansen carriages we're used to catching around Kansai.

Today's shinkansen, called the Hakutaka, which is a shinkansen service running between Kanazawa and Tokyo. These shinkansen carriages have been in service for 2 years, since March 2015, and it shows. The feel new. Not the fastest shinkansen, at a max speed of 260km/h, but exceptionally comfortable and roomy.

The shinkansen journey itself was also one of the prettiest train journey's I've ever taken, as it sped through the narrow strip of land between the ocean to the North, and the snow covered alps just to the South.

The walk through the small and quaint but unremarkable town of Takada led us down to the castle grounds. We knew we'd arrived when we were confronted with the masses of cherry blossom trees, and the massive moat surrounding the castle grounds.

Being only mid afternoon, the park was not at all busy yet. The main event for the castle kicks off after sundown, when the illumination starts, so before then we were able to look around through the hundreds of street vendors, and take a walk through the park to explore it and get photos of the castle, parkgrounds and most importantly, some of the 4000 sakura trees.

Sakura in Takada castle park was in full bloom. Every single tree was in bloom with flowers, making the entire park a canopy of pink and white on most pathways. Full bloom for Takada castle park was officially today, 10th April, so our timing, and the weather, were perfect.

After a few laps around the massive castle grounds, and still an hour or so to fill in before sundown, Veronica and the 2 youngest girls headed for the playground, while Charlotte and I wandered off in search of interesting ways to drain our camera batteries and fill our memory cards.

It is very easy to see why this is considered one of the top cherry blossom viewing spots in the entire country. The sheer number of trees, and the layout of the park, with the castle in the centre mirrored by its surrounding moat, is pretty special. And this was still only in daylight. The main event hadn't even started yet.

At these sakura viewing events, street food vendors in little tent-stalls are everywhere, selling all manner of Japanese street food imaginable. With an hour or so to kill before sundown, we grabbed a variety of snacks, which doubled as our late lunch / early dinner, and ate under the cherry blossom trees, as we watched the sun sink slowly behind the snow covered alps to our West.

Clearly, after dark is the big drawcard for this event. Even though the sakura viewing in the daytime was spectacular, and easily the best cherry blossoms we've seen on the entire trip, after dark the scene transforms into something on another level.

We thought it was weird when tripods began staking out prime positions by the side of the moat pointed towards the castle at 3pm in the afternoon. DSLR cameras worth many thousands of dollars were left sitting on tripods, unattended, for hours on end, in order for their owners to stake their position for the evening photo shooting. Anywhere else other than Japan and these expensive cameras would each find a new owner after being left alone for 20 seconds, but each camera sat there for hours, untouched.

I'm still not entirely convinced why these enthusiasts set up these camera tripods pointing at the castle. Sure, they want to get a nice photo of the castle from a prime position after the sun goes down. But once they have that nice photo, what the hell else are they going to shoot from that one spot? Surely they're going to have to move the camera to a different location, right? This means that they're staking out a spot for hours and hours, just to get a single photograph?

I just don't get it.

I worked well for me though. After dark it made it really easy to find the best shooting locations. I'd simply look for a popular spot with a lot of tripods pointed in a certain direction, then I'd go and put my camera in between the spaces between their tripods, and take the exact same photo they were getting. The difference is that each photo took me about 10 seconds to get.
 
Nightfall signaled the start of the illumination, as lights in the cherry blossom trees came on, and pink lanterns lining the parks paths were switched on, bathing the entire park in a pink glow.
The illumination also seemed to attract the crowds, like moths to an incandescent lightbulb. Once it got dark, seemingly out of nowhere the crowds exploded. What had been a very relaxing, peaceful and uncrowded day was suddenly blown away by a sea of people all wandering through the narrow park pathways, usually looking up at a tree or down at a camera, instead of where they were going. I lost count of the number of people that crashed into me not looking where they were going. I was always prepared for it, so it didn't bother me at all, but it never failed to surprise the hell out of them.

It wasn't hard to see why the crowds turned up in such numbers though. It was quite simply spectacular. One particular natural tunnel of cherry blossoms was lit up with purple floodlights, making for an indescribable scene. And the castle itself, with the mirror pond surrounding it, and cherry blossom trees on its banks, looked every bit like an artistically staged Japanese mural. It's a hard thing to put into words.

Another full lap or two around the castle grounds, and we'd seen and photographed just about every one of the 4000 cherry blossom trees on display, so there was no other option than to head for home, which was still over 100 miles away. Fortunately, that distance is quickly and comfortably covered by the same magnificent shinkansen that we caught this morning, which made the greatest challenge on the way home staying away. Some of us weren't successful.

Tomorrow, it is supposed to be raining, so we will most likely just confine our activities to Kanazawa and it's surrounds. Might use the opportunity to walk through the Kenrokuen gardens while it is raining and uncrowded. Takayama is probably then on the agenda for Wednesday unless we come up with a better plan.