The Hokuriku Region

Japanese people are ever so stylish. It seems as if many people around the world too find Japanese people to be stylish. Having lived in Japan for about 5 years now, I’ve noticed how good Japanese people are at matching clothes and always looking well dressed. Even if they're clothes from the Japanese clothing store UNIQLO, which one might call the Japanese GAP or OLD NAVY (now with stores popping up all over the world), Japanese people are very good at coordinating the clothing they wear and making themselves look fashionable. Even when just hanging out with a friend, Japanese people take care in what they wear on a daily basis, always look smart and in clothing that suits them. I’m influenced by all of the stylish Japanese people around me and have started to make more of an effort to dress more stylish, and make more of an effort to wear clothes that suit me.

But what’s stylish in Japan is not just what people wear. In Japan, buildings are also rather stylish. For those who’ve visited Tokyo before I’m sure you know, but Tokyo is one very stylish city. Of course there’s Ginza and Roppongi, but even areas of Tokyo that aren’t major tourist attractions such as Kichijoji and Shimokitazawa too have a number of stylish cafes and stores lining their streets. For those of you who are looking to take a little bit of a breather in Kichijoji, I highly recommend visiting CAFE ZENON. At this cafe there are a number of deserts in which only a certain number are made per day, along with my favorite matcha (a type of powered green tea) flavored drinks. For those looking to have a bit of a breather in Shimokitazawa, I highly recommend the Shirahige Shu Kurimu Kobo. At this cafe there are cream puffs in the shape of Totoro from the Studio Ghibli movie ‘My Neighbor Totoro’. These Totoro cream puffs are so cute you won’t want to eat them.

This may be a bit of an unusual phrase, but there is one foreign brand here in Japan that I find suits Japanese people. That foreign brand is Starbucks Coffee. Almost all Starbucks Coffee are inside of stylish buildings with a clean atmosphere. On top of that the staff working there are beautiful, stylish women and men who give of a sense of being fussy about cleanliness. It comes as no surprise, but for a nation that loves to be fashionable and stylish there are a number of Starbucks Coffee locations across the country. Me and my girlfriend often go to Starbucks Coffee at the end of a date, and I love it because they serve matcha flavored drinks that I just can’t get enough of.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but in Japan there are 3 Starbucks Coffee locations that have won design awards. Despite the fact that there have been 3 locations over the years that have won design awards "the most beautiful Starbucks Coffee in the world" is still considered to be the Toyama Kansui park Starbucks Coffee in Toyama prefecture. For a while I’ve wondered what makes this location "the best in the world", so about a month ago I made a trip to this Starbucks Coffee. Since I was going to go all the way there I decided to visit what’s known as 北陸 (hokuriku) and visit the 3 prefectures of Toyama prefecture, Ishikawa prefecture, and Fukui prefecture. This is my small 4 day vacation to the Hokuriku region of Japan.

Toyama prefecture is famous for a bowl of ramen known as "black ramen".

This bowl of ramen is referred to as black because the soup is exactly that color. This is a soy sauce based soup. This was one bowl of ramen that's flavor was too rich for my liking.

Fujiko·F·Fujio is a famous comic book artist from Toyama prefecture. Because of this, there's a small museum there based around him.

Seeing as the Hokuriku region in Japan is famous for seafood, I decided to have conveyor belt sushi for dinner. Yum!

This ice cream bar can apparently be only found in the Hokuriku region.

This is the famous Starbucks Coffee that's still today considered the most beautiful in the world.

Whenever I visit Starbucks Coffee, I have no choice but to order food and drink that's matcha flavored.

For those that know me, you’ll know that I’m a Japanophile. Because of that, I love traditional areas in Japan and am interested in traditional Japanese handicrafts. Almost every year I visit Kyoto and in the apartment I live in I have a collection of traditional Japanese handicrafts. On top of this, I believe that the traditional ways in Japan that people once lived are very important. I feel as if Japan should try to protect these traditional ways of life while continuing to globalize. Seeing as this is the sort of person that I am, seeing as I love the more traditional side of Japan, after visiting Toyama prefecture I headed out to a more traditional part of the country and visited the city of Kanazawa in Ishikawa prefecture.

In the city of Kanazawa there are two areas known as 茶屋街 (chayagai), literally meaning ‘teahouse cities’. These two chayagai are split up into the west and east chayagai. If I remember correctly, the west chayagai was small and there weren’t many stores there. The west chayagai is a little bit far, and to be honest I don’t feel as if it’s a must visit area on your trip to Kanazawa. I’m sure that it’s a recommended spot for sightseeing in the Kanazawa sightseeing guides, but the east chayagai is the area I recommend sightseeing in for those planning to visit Kanazawa. For those who’ve visited Kyoto, there’s no doubt that you’ve made your way to Gion. The east chayagai in Kanazawa resembles Gion in Kyoto. Here traditional houses resembling 町家 (machiya) line the streets and there are a number of stores serving traditional Japanese sweets, known as 和菓子 (wagashi), and my favorite matcha. Somewhere along the way I heard that the city of Kanazawa is a little Kyoto, and that’s exactly what the city feels like! It’s as if Kanazawa is a condensed Kyoto and you can visit pretty much all of the tourist spots in a day. For those who’ve never been to the city of Kanazawa before, please take a trip to Ishikawa prefecture and come in contact with traditional Japanese culture.

This is one beautiful structure, and though it may not look like it this is actually Kanazawa station.

Kanazawa castle

In this city of Kanazawa, there's Kenrokuen. Kenrokuen is considered one of the 3 best Japanese-style gardens in the entire country.

For lunch, I ate a local dish known as hanton rice.

This is the east chayagai

This is the famous gold leaf ice cream. This is exactly as it's name suggests, vanilla ice cream wrapped in a gold leaf. For those wondering, gold leaf doesn't have much of a flavor.

In that afternoon I took a break while enjoying wasashi and matcha.

In the city of Kanazawa there are apparently 芸妓 (geiko), or as you might better known them 芸者 (geisha). While wandering around, I spotted one lady who looked like she might be a teacher to apprentice geiko.

One of my favorite TV shows has apparently filmed in Kanazawa, a show known as モヤモヤさまぁ〜ず (moyamoya samazu).

After spending the night in Kanagawa, I made my way to the Omicho market and enjoyed lots of delicious food!

There was so much delicious food at the market that it was difficult to decide what to eat. I made my way into a conveyor belt sushi restaurant that was there and decided to try out a number of fresh seafood at once.

I don't know who these kids are, but this is a 3D map of Kanazawa.

The west chayagai

After enjoying the city of Kanazawa, I made my way to my next destination while enjoying an 駅弁 (ekiben), a type of boxed lunch sold at train stations.

The last prefecture I visited was Fukui prefecture. When searching for famous tourist spots in Fukui prefecture, I didn’t really find much. If I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t really expecting too much from Fukui prefecture. For those who’ve done some traveling across Japan I’m sure you’ll know, but other than major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and so on, most of the tourist spots in Japan are centered around major train stations. For example, most of the sites to see in the city of Kanagawa are not too far from Kanazawa station. Near Fukui station is a small museum about the prefecture itself and a Japanese-style garden, but other than of course the famous Fukui prefectural dinosaur museum, I wasn’t able to find many any other sights worth seeing. But just because the sights to see in Fukui prefecture were limited, doesn’t mean that I didn’t have a good time. In a number of locations near Fukui station is what’s known as Fuku chari, ‘Fuku’ being short for Fukui prefecture, and ‘chari’, short for ‘mamachari’, a particular type of bicycle in Japan used mostly by housewives and elderly people. It had been a number of years since I’d rode a bike, but I rented one and while riding it was able to enjoy the scenery of Fukui prefecture. For those who are thinking of visiting the Hokuriku area, Fukui prefecture is one prefecture that’s difficult to recommend. Having said that, seeing as you’re going to make all the trouble of going to the Hokuriku region, it might be fun to stop by Fukui prefecture as well.

Seeing as Fukui prefecture is known for dinosaurs, there are a number of them outside Fukui station.