Tokyo to Hokuriku, Japan

Tokyo to Hokuriku, Japan
Be a part of the aboriginal to ride the 281-mile-long Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet-train band abutting Tokyo and Kanazawa, a UNESCO City-limits of Crafts and Folk Art. The new account launches March 14 and extends the absolute Tokyo-to-Nagano accelerated railway band west by 143 miles. Sleek ammo trains barrel cartage at speeds of up to 160 afar an hour amid Tokyo and Kanazawa in about two and a bisected hours (one-way). The cruise includes amazing angle if bridge through the Japan Alps and forth the Sea of Japan. Located on the beneath visited north-central bank of Honshu, Japan’s basic island, Kanazawa and the surrounding Hokuriku arena anchorage a abundance of accustomed and cultural treasures, including civic parks and accustomed hot springs, acceptable Japanese art and crafts such as lacquerware and gold leaf, samurai and geisha ancestry districts, castles and age-old ruins, and celebrated agriculture and fishing villages.
How to Get Around: Buy a Japan Rail (JR) Canyon afore your trip. Designed accurately for adopted visitors, the canyon provides one, two, or three weeks of absolute biking on a lot of Japan Rail routes, including Hokuriku Shinkansen. The JR Canyon is aswell accurate on a lot of bounded bus routes and on the Tokyo Monorail from Haneda Airport to Hamamatsucho Station. Take the Hokuriku Shinkansen Kanazawa from Tokyo to Kanazawa Station. From Kanazawa, use bounded buses and trains to biking about the region.
Where to Stay: The eight-room Sumiyoshiya ryokan (traditional inn) in Kanazawa’s city-limits centermost (a 20-minute airing from the alternation station) has been affable guests for added than 300 years. Rates cover breakfast and common hot baths (separate men’s and women’s baths). Onsite bike rentals and the able bounded bus arrangement accomplish it simple to appointment accepted attractions such as the Omi-cho Market and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art.
What to Eat or Drink: Himi, a baby fishing anchorage on Toyama Bay, is Hokuriku’s seafood capital. Bounded fishermen convenance the age-old art of fixed-net fishing to “herd” a actual seafood sampler—yellowtail, marlin, mahimahi, sardines, squid, and dozens of added varieties—into a arrangement of commutual nets. Sample the beginning bolt and account from breadth sakagura (sake cellars) at bounded sushi restaurants such as Manyo and Yauchi.
What to Buy: Airing the asphalt lanes of Kanazawa’s celebrated Higashi Chaya and Kazue-machi Chaya Districts (named for the lattice-front, board ochaya, or teahouses, area geisha entertain) to appointment acceptable artisan studios. Kanazawa-made articles for auction cover bean-paste sweets, “good luck” Kaga Hachiman Okiagari dolls, lacquerware boxes busy with gold leaf, and kimonos adorned with kaga-nui embroidery. Some studios action hands-on workshops (reservations required).
What to Read Afore You Go: Nobel Prize-winning biographer Yasunari Kawabata’s internationally acclaimed Snow Country (Yukiguni) (Vintage, English edition, 1996) is set at an abandoned hot bounce in the Japan Alps and opens with a alternation arising from a adit into the snowbound backcountry.
Helpful Links: Japan Civic Tourism, Tourism Ishikawa, and Kanazawa Tourism
Fun Fact: The Hokuriku arena is home to the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, accepted as the “roof of Japan." The 56-mile avenue through the Northern Alps, which includes cable car, train, and alley sections, is bankrupt from December to mid-April due to abundant snow. From April 16 to June 22, the accomplished area of the avenue (elevation 8,038 feet) reopens for breathtaking bus rides and Yuki-no-Otani (Snow Wall) walks. The arduous snow walls adjoining the alley can be as alpine as a five-story architecture in April.