Three Days in Ishikawa: Kanazawa's Gardens and the Road to Noto

The second thing that shaped the city is what did not happen to it. Kanazawa was not bombed during the war, so the street plan and much of the fabric survived — which is why the teahouse districts and the samurai quarter are continuous rather than reconstructed.

Directly across the road is the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, which is the deliberate opposite — circular, glass-walled, no front or back, free to enter in the outer ring with tickets for the exhibition galleries. Doing both in one morning is the point rather than a compromise.

Spend the afternoon in Higashi Chaya, the best preserved of the teahouse districts, where several gold-leaf workshops sit among the old buildings. Kanazawa produces the overwhelming majority of Japan's gold leaf, and watching it beaten and handled is genuinely a place-specific thing to see; the leaf is thin enough that a draught destroys it.

Then Ōmichō market, which has been the city's kitchen for centuries and still functions as one. This is Sea of Japan seafood at the point of landing, and the seasonal thing to know is that winter is crab season here as it is all along this coast.

In the afternoon head south to the Kaga Onsen villages — four historic hot spring settlements — and stop moving. A ryokan night here is the right way to break the trip before the long drive north, and it is also where the region's craft turns up on the table, because Kutani ware and Yamanaka lacquer are both local.

Wajima is also the home of Wajima-nuri lacquerware, and the thing worth understanding is that its reputation rests on the ground layers beneath the finish rather than on decoration: repeated coats, repeated polishing, built up until the piece is durable enough for daily use. That is what the price is for.

One practical note: parts of Noto are still recovering from significant earthquake damage, and the situation for individual businesses, roads and the market itself has been changing. Check current conditions before you build the day around it.

The efficient shape is therefore two days on foot in the city and a rental picked up for the run south and north, rather than a car sitting in a hotel car park for three days.