Kanazawa Guide: From Garden Green to Local Gourmet in a Single Day

What’s on your checklist for your visit to Japan? A cup of frothy green matcha tea in a traditional Japanese garden? An authentic sushi experience? A temple steeped in romance? Refreshing sweets? Local sake tasting?

It sounds impossible to do all in one day, doesn’t it? In big cities (that have big traffic jams), such a jam-packed day would be a tall order. Luckily, Kanazawa City is just the right size to offer a sampling of all that in a single day.

Garden Greenery and Green Tea

A visit to Kanazawa City isn’t complete without a stroll through its remarkable garden, Kenrokuen. Named one of the top three landscape gardens in Japan, it’s well worth a visit. Head there right after breakfast to enjoy the peace and quiet. Several tea houses are inside the garden itself and there’s nothing like nibbling handmade sweets and sipping bitter matcha tea while surrounded by nature.

Kenrokuen spans an entire hillside. Start at the bottom and follow the winding paths up to the Kodatsuno Gate exit on the top of the hill. At this three-way intersection, you’ll be looking down the main drag of Ishibiki Town.

Historic Ishibiki Town

Ishibiki Town is so named for the stones (ishi) that were quarried from distant Tomuro Mountain – you can see it if you look down the street that leads away from the garden – for the purpose of building Kanazawa Castle. The men that each samurai family supplied for this venture pulled (-biki) the stones along this long, straight road and then down the hill (the garden hadn’t been built yet) and over to the castle site.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Ishibiki Town is that you’re stepping into Japan’s 1960s and 1970s: shop windows line the covered sidewalks, proprietors specialize in selling things like umbrellas or, in the case of the above photo, sweets.

Quintessential Sushi Experience

In these modern times of conveyor belt sushi, “real” sushi restaurants are a treat for the senses. A 15-minute walk from the garden will bring you to one of Kanazawa’s most renowned sushi restaurants, Sentori Sushi, where your chef will prepare one piece of superb quality sushi at a time, place it before you, and wait for you to finish enjoying it before making the next.

Thus, every piece is fresh and you can eat and chat with the chefs at your own pace. (I had a lively discussion in English with a chef whose hobby is cycling!) The sushi is made with real wasabi, which is not spicy at all. (Mass-produced wasabi is enhanced with horseradish, giving it that “green fire” feel on your palette.) Watch out for the pickled ginger, though – it is sharp! My favorite feature of the restaurant space is the small goldfish pond and fountain right in the dining area. (No, you won’t be eating the goldfish, but they look very happy swimming around in their little rock pool.)

Romantic Tentokuin Temple

After that incredible, slow-down-and-savor sushi experience, walk just 5 minutes further to one of Kanazawa’s most interesting temples. Its main entrance, the Mountain Gate, was built in the 1600s and still stands today while the remainder of the buildings in the temple compound were rebuilt in the 1700s following a devastating fire.

Tentokuin stands in memory of the feudal lord’s beloved wife. She was a very special lady as she helped prevent war between the shogun (Tokugawa Ieyasu) and the feudal lord of Kanazawa (Maeda Toshiie).

Back in a time when rice was used as money, any lord who could grow a lot of rice could become very wealthy, and it just so happened that the Kanazawa area was the largest rice producer in Japan. When the shogun heard a rumor that Lord Maeda was saving up his funds in order to rebel, the shogun mustered his troops for an assault. It was all a misunderstanding, thankfully, but to ensure peace prevailed, the shogun sent his 3-year-old granddaughter, Tamahime, to Kanazawa to marry Maeda’s 9-year-old son and second heir, Toshitsune.

It was a love match by all accounts and Tamahime grew up to be a compassionate and wise lady. (I’ve heard she counseled her husband ingeniously on how to stay on the shogun’s good side to prevent further conflicts.) When she passed away at the heartbreakingly young age of 24, her husband was inconsolable. He built Tentokuin Temple to commemorate her life (and many of her personal effects are on exhibit there) and Toshitsune further defied convention by refusing to remarry.

Crisp Candied Apples

That’s right – candied apples! When you imagine Japanese sweets, candied apples are probably not what springs to mind, but they are a festival staple all across the country. Luckily, you don’t have to hunt down a festival to try one. Next to the temple gate is Gorin no Ringoame, a small cafe that takes pride in its apple-based sweets, especially its flavored candied apples, like this one which is covered in cinnamon.

Go wild and try a candied apple rolled in coconut! Be brave and order an apple dessert pizza, too, or see how the classic baked apple compares to the ones in your memory.

Scrumptious Sake Tasting

After you’ve “appled-up”, backtrack 5 minutes to Fukumitsuya Sake Shop. Fukumitsuya is a sake brewer with 400 years of history in Kanazawa City. Their factory is right next to the shop and an English-speaking guide will be able to explain the basics of sake making and then take you around the outside of the factory to share some of the intriguing traditions and little-known facts associated with making high quality sake. (A reservation is required.)

Once you return to the shop and take your seats in the bar, Fukumitsuya’s own sake masters demonstrate how sake is made during a short but comprehensive documentary video. (You may be shown the film before embarking on the outdoor tour, depending on the day’s tour schedule.) After that, the real fun begins! You’ll be served a selection of Fukumitsuya’s own sakes with bite-sized samples of local nibbles that have been carefully selected to bring out the unique flavor of each sake.

Matcha tea in a Japanese garden, authentic sushi, a temple dedicated to a heroine and her love story, candied apples, and sake tasting… all can be experienced in a day, and all within a 30-minute walk, in Kanazawa City.

About Keri Yazawa

Keri Yazawa, a resident of Kanazawa City since 2005, guides bicycle tours specializing in good food, quirky history, local craft making, and gorgeous landscapes.

Article photos and written content © 2025 Keri Yazawa. All rights reserved.