Kanazawa Jazz Festival and more

I visited Kanazawa at the beginning of September, some Irish ALT’s are there and they invited me to visit for the Kanazawa Jazz Festival. I am so glad I went because Kanazawa quickly became one of my favourite cities in Japan!

I was there for three days and we definitely did a lot in that time. When I arrived we went to the Kenrokuen (兼六園) gardens, which were very beautiful to walk around and so peaceful. There was a young couple who’d just gotten married and I was so amazed at how beautiful her dress was that I had to ask for a picture. Traditional Japanese wedding dresses are very different to Irish ones and I think I prefer the Japanese style. The colours are so stunning!In Ireland the dresses are lovely but there are always plain white/ivory/cream.

After that we had some Ramen and watched the Irish Rugby World Cup game at a friend house. The game ended in Ireland beating Australia 15-6, needless to say there were a lot of very happy Irish people jumping around that apartment!

The next day we walking around the city and found a lot of Jazz. There were small stages at different points and the music was brilliant. I have two videos below of my favourite bands.

In the evening a friend told us about a festival in a small town near Kanazawa called Tsubata. We went to see the festival and were surprised to find that the festival was different to most in Japan. It begun like shown in the video below, then two of the dragon teams took turns running at each other and fighting. We thought this wasn’t supposed to happen until we noticed there were referees. It was very unusual but I liked it a lot because it seemed so crazy but people weren’t taking it too serious. Everyone was shaking hands, hugging and laughing together at the end.

(NB. My video of this event isn't uploading, I will try and obtain another one from the ALT's I was with and upload it in the future)

A friend of mine recommended that I see the 20^th Century Museum because his favourite architect, Sanaa, designed it. This is the layout of the building, each gallery is a free standing room inside the whole circular glass frame.

I wasn’t disappointed; it is a beautiful building and has very interesting work on display. I couldn’t take pictures in the main exhibition but here are some images that I could take, the pool installation by Leandro Erlich was a highlight.

We then went to the tea district and visited the Geisha museum, which I was very excited about. I am really interested in Geisha traditions and the clothes they wear so I thought the museum very fascinating as you got to see all the items they used on display.

There was also a light festival and we went there in the evening. It was very beautiful and they had traditional Japanese music, which was breathtaking. (The video quality isn’t very good but I hope you like the music.)

I really enjoyed Kanazawa a lot and I am looking forward to visiting again in the future, I would recommend Kanazawa as a great place to visit to learn about Japanese culture both historical and modern.