10 Things to Do in Kanazawa, Japan 👑🐷 Local Food, Shrines, & Epic Gardens (King Kogi Travel Guide)

10 Things to Do in Kanazawa, Japan 👑🐷 Local Food, Shrines, & Epic Gardens (King Kogi Travel Guide)

[Music] Love the idea of a trip to Kyoto, but 
want to avoid a super packed tourist spot? Well, come on down to Kazawa. It’s got ancient 
shrines, Tory gates, and a boatload of history. It’s all here in Kazawa. Indulge 
in cute cafes, delicious food, craft beer, and traditional tea rooms. Where? In Kanazawa, 
silly. Feast your peepers on elegant gardens, mossy paths, and this mustachio Daruma. I 
don’t actually know why he has this mustachio, but he’s fabulous. And the role here 
in Kazawa. So, join us as we explore the capital city of Ishiawa Prefecture. 
And who knows, you might have just found the destination for your next epic adventure. 
P.S., this video was not sponsored by Kanazawa. We just had a good time. All right, enough 
with the infomercial. Let’s go, baby. Here’s [Music] what I have bucket listed so far. We’re 
going to hit up the Hagashi Chaya District. This is like an old school area that’s still being 
maintained the way that it was back in the day. And it has lots of geishas and tea houses. And 
apparently this is where you can get everything covered in gold. That’s right. This is going to 
be a non-stop Austin Powers kind of day cuz I’m just going to be like, I love gold. And then 
outside that there’s like a samurai district where they have a home of famous samurai 
where they’ve kept the house and kind of go in and out and look at gardens and stuff. 
And they have a ton of amazing coffee shops and cafes here like brimming. So I don’t 
think I can hit them all at once or else this entire video I’ll be over caffeinated and 
I’ll be like yeah yeah. But I think we should get started on the Hagashi Chai district first 
since it’s closed after like 5:00 p.m. or so. So let’s uh let’s hit that up while we can 
and uh see how much gold we can find. Gold. [Music] After sitting on the train, I am excited to 
be exploring the city via bike. I just love a good bike rental system. I feel like 
every city in town all over the world, you have to kind of decipher how to rent the 
bike, but once you’ve got the bike going, you’re ready to explore the city. And I do think 
that Japan is quite ideal for getting around by bike. The world is my oyster. I shall now explore 
for pearls. Pearls coated in gold. [Music] So I see now why this area is called Little 
Kyoto. It’s very, very traditional Japan stuff. If you’re looking for like matcha, like whether 
it be tea to drink or like ice cream cones, um they’ve got soba, they have tea houses that you 
can have experiences with geishas in. This is kind of like the traditional place you could buy cups 
and plates and cutlery. So there’s like, you know, modern Japan and then there’s old school Japan. 
And and I saw a sign back there talking about the houses that are preserved. 1873. So, some 
of these houses have just like withstood all the stuff that Japan goes through and they’ve 
kind of redone a little bit on the inside, but like the outside is like heritage 
material. It’s pretty amazing like that people walked around and lived in this area and 
that we’re here now all modern with our phones and stuff like absolutely way less crowded than 
Kyoto. So, I think this is a good alternative for someone who loves sticker graffiti. I’d 
say this is probably not the neighbourhood to put it in because this area is kind 
of like old school. But I will point out a couple favourites. We got Nero. 
This is only good sht Nero. These guys here. Blue Owner. What I always think 
of Blue Boner. Uh it’s got some stars, which is a new addition. I don’t know this. 
I don’t know these. But like yeah, someone came all the way from either Osaka or Tokyo and 
they’re like, I’m going to stick that up here right behind you. It’s just like classic beauty. 
And then there’s like this little graffiti pole. And as promised, uh, I did tell you 
that Kanazawa does love its gold. I really hope you guys understand the 
gold reference I keep screaming out, otherwise you’re going to think I’m extra crazy. 
But, you know, I’m not a gold kind of person. I’m much more of a craft beer kind of person. 
That’s that’s my kind of gold. So, of course, we’re going to be heading over to a local craft 
brewery. It is located a footstep outside of this neighbourhood. Old and new coming together. It’s 
beautiful. This award winning craft brewery uses local ingredients like tea and pumpkins and the 
very soft, delicious spring water in Kanazawa. Their beers are amazing. Welcome to Oriental 
Brewing. Yes, that is the actual name of the shop. We love a good taster flight, so we each 
got four and four, which meant we got all eight beers to try. This was a delightful afternoon. 
Oh. Oh, that’s so nice. That is a dangerously drinkable stout. We’ve got eight types to choose 
from, including a pumpkin ale, which is kabucha. And it’s pumpkin time. Pumpkin poden. Let’s 
go to the pumpkin. Pumpkin. Cheers. Cheers. These are funky beers. That is fantastic. [Music] Night draws in on our first day, and 
despite this looking like the evening, it was only 5:30 p.m. Interesting fact, Japan 
does not participate in daylight savings. So, in the autumn, the evenings start quite early. 
With the cooling temps come the return of Odin, my favourite Japanese comfort food. And lucky 
for us, Kanazawa is known for an especially tasty version of this food. And after much 
nerdy research, I made reservations at Chobei, a super local izakaya known for exceptionally 
delicious oden. If you’re not familiar with oden, think of it as a type of Japanese hot 
pot where everything has been cooked very slowly over many hours in advance. This 
allows the food to absorb the delicate broth, infusing it with a subtle salty taste. You 
pick out which types of oden you’d like to eat, and it’s served in a shallow bowl with 
a little bit of broth and spicy mustard. While fish cakes are very much 
part of what you can order, Oden can also be a tofu dumpling filled with 
veg or it might be a skewer of boiled octopus. We indulged in stewed cabbage filled 
with ground meat, fresh ginko nuts, shitake mushrooms, and of course, daikon 
radish. My personal favourite. [Music] This doughnut looking thing here is wheat flour 
gluten called a kuruma-fu. and it’s very regional to Kanazawa. We also enjoyed a 
savory bowl of motsu or stew intestines which like many things in Japan tastes 100 
times better than it actually sounds. Yummy. If you’re looking for a real local experience, 
I highly recommend Chobi. Just be aware that the three lovely women running the store, they 
don’t speak any English. So, it will be a true adventure for those of you unable to read or 
speak Japanese. Oh, and of course, it’s cash only. After our delicious Oden, we just went for a 
stroll around the city. And a few hours later, we decided to have some nice evening sashimi 
as a night cap. Now, you can’t go wrong ordering sashimi if you ask for whatever is in 
season. Just the daily recommended the sashimi, and it’s going to taste fantastic. You can go 
wrong, however, if you add a little too much wasabi, like I’m about to. What What kind 
of amateur move am I doing right now? Gosh. [Music] With the cleanest sinuses in the entire 
city, it’s time to go to sleep. And tomorrow, adventure awaits. See you guys in the morning. [Music] Another [Music] day, another adventure plan to look at some 
historical stuffs. Since we’re going by bike, I’m going to need some coffee. Now, what’s 
funny is I came to this espresso bar because they had incredible reviews for 
their ability to pull an espresso shot, but lately they’ve gone viral for their 
interesting looking cheesecake. We didn’t have the cheesecake, so I can’t comment 
on that. But the coffee was fabulous. Come for the cheesecake. Stay 
for the coffee. to the next. If you’ve been to a convenience store in Japan, 
you’ve probably had those little triangles called onigiri. Now, they are very tasty, but they’re 
even better if you can find a specialty shop. Having onigiri made in front of you is something 
fantastic because you can choose from so many different toppings and they’re putting it 
together right in front of you. Most of the time it’s served taishoku style which means 
it comes with a little miso soup and a little bit of side bites for you to enjoy. Yummy. 
And don’t worry if you don’t read or speak Japanese. They have an English menu available and 
they’re super friendly. Onigiri two thumbs up. [Music] [Music] on the bike adventures around Kanazawa today 
stumbled across an absolutely beautiful shrine. It has all those Tori gates, the red ones that 
you see in the emojis and it is a beautiful selection of them that goes up a hill and wanders 
around a corner and it’s not that steep. So, it’s kind of something I was able to walk up and 
do comfortably and it’s just not crowded because it’s just not as well known and as popular. Like, 
there are still people here visiting, but it’s just not jam-packed with people. I think one of 
the hard parts about going to Kyoto is people go, “Well, if you want to go there and get a picture, 
you got to go at like 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning, but kind of like sets your whole trip off on 
a weird note that you’ve got to get up early to do all these things.” Like, it’s just nice for 
things to unfold naturally. I mean, Kanazawa has been very very surprising. So, yeah. Anyways, 
also I went to the Onigiri shop and afterwards the guy’s like, “Here, you can have a candy and 
guess what’s inside of it?” Gold. Can you see? or a dinosaur. It’s one or the 
other. It looks kind of like amber. Afterwards, I looked this shrine up online 
and found out that it was built in the year 700. That’s like blowing my mind right now. It 
was moved in the 1800s to the location we’re at now. But that makes it the oldest shrine 
in Kanazawa. What a happy little accident. And the shrines aren’t the only beautiful 
things in Kanazawa. Just the views looking over the bridges are absolutely beautiful. And 
uh sorry… is that a UFO or am I losing it? Greetings, Earthlings. Cower before 
your conqueror. It is I, Captain DUH! I bet you’re wondering how after landing on your 
world I could get what you call data anywhere on the planet so easily. We the smarter species are 
using Saily the Esim technology of the future. I just download the Saily app, pick the 
country I’m invading, I mean visiting, and then I purchase the amount of data needed 
for my trip. My trip to take over the Earth. What? They already know about esim technology 
and they can download s to their primitive compatible phone device. Who told them that? 
Captain Ugh that betrayer. Okay. Well, I bet he didn’t tell them to use the code King Kogi to 
get an exclusive 15% off their first purchase. He did. But I bet they’ve totally forgot and now just happen to be traveling soon. So 
this is like totally perfect timing. Scan the QR code on the screen or 
go to saily.com/kingkogi Now minion, redo this recording. I wish to edit you out. What 
do you mean this is a live stream? The stream is live? What stream are you talking about? Well, 
this is the weirdest live stream Hacker Woman’s seen in a long time. And Hacker Woman has seen a 
lot of weird things. You know what, I’m going to head back to the King Kogi video. Captain Duh “Not 
rivers, streams. What are you talking about? Well how am I supposed to know?” Well, thanks for the 
reminder about Saily Captain Duh. After a long day of biking around, we are ready to get on it. 
And lucky for us, there is a pop-up food truck clustered outside of our hotel. We’re going to go 
explore, see what kind of delicious, greasy foods they have, have a couple of lemon sours, and just 
enjoy the beautiful autumn evening. Nomi Masho~ day. Come bite. [Music] Round one, we got kushiagi, which is just fried stuff on a stick. Cucumber 
salad. And what’s this? It’s my old favourite. Japanese potato salad. What’s that? You’re 
looking for a recipe? I just conveniently happen to have a video. Anyways, enough 
of that. On to round two. Come. [Music] Round three. A quick game of rock paper scissors 
on who’s going to buy the next round. I photo. That’s a one arm scissor. That’s the 
Korean version. The one Nothing cuts with the one arm scissors. Yeah. You 
put your finger in the scissors and you come by. Something feels different. I just can’t 
put my finger on it. Oh, is it the mega? Oh, that is a mega high ball. I supposed to 
get onions and cabbage with this. [Music] onion. She’ll get it one day. Don’t worry. Yes, 
this is it. No, it’s too many pieces. Oh my god. [Music] This is like Japanese yaki-samgyap. So yummy. [Music] If you’re a vinyl collector like 
we are, we’re always on the hunt for record stores when visiting a new city. Kanazawa 
only had this one shop that we could find and it’s called Record Jungle. And what a 
jungle it was. It felt completely untouched by time with a huge selection of genres. 
There are plenty of gems to be found here, but you’ll need to brush up on your Katakana as 
almost nothing was written in English. Honestly, my neck hurt from turning sideways, but it was 
such a great experience. We spent hours here. [Music] We’re biking on over to Nagamachi, which is the 
name of a neighborhood in Kanazawa where samurai and their families used to reside during the 
Edo time period. Dubbed the Samurai District, you are free to just wander about and explore 
the beautifully preserved gardens and homes, living your best samurai fantasy life. [Music] Look at this absolutely gorgeous 
area. This garden is being maintained. There’s a lovely groundskeeper that’s just 
dusting everything off and keeping all the moss happy. It’s just beautiful. 
And I have that in Animal Crossing. Now, in walking distance from the Samurai 
District is a cafe that we’re going to grab some lunch at. And and I just want 
to point out here that on this lantern, it actually says Moran Cafe. We’re going 
to just double check my Japanese on this… “Moran Cafe”. As I thought it says Moran Cafe. 
Unfortunately, it does not say the same thing in English. Welcome to the Moron Cafe. Uh 
a slightly different meaning than Moran, but what can you do about it? But despite the 
spelling blender, the cafe is actually quite lovely. And I ordered the avocado toast, 
which is called an avocado open sand on the menu. So sometimes in Japan, they take 
the word sandwich, and they’ll shorten it to like sand or sand dough. It’s not covered 
in sand. It was covered in delicious cheese, walnuts, served up on a sourdough slice of 
bread. And it was a pretty scrumptious meal. Now, things can get a little subjective when it 
comes to underrated versus overrated things in Japan, but the one thing that we have always 
enjoyed are the Team Labs art exhibitions. We had no idea that an exhibition was taking 
place when we arrived in Kanazawa, but my gosh, it was quite breathtaking. This installation 
was dubbed digitized Kanazawa Castle and it transformed the grounds and the historic castle 
walls into an interactive art space. Team Lab’s goal was to show that you can transform a place 
without physically altering it by using digital means and I would say the alteration was 
a success. Great music, very pretty, very emotional. 10 out of 10. would highly recommend 
any Team Labs exhibition if you’re lucky enough to get the chance to see one. And at the very 
end, a delightful surprise awaited us. We were able to pick out a historical figure and colour 
it in. Then they scanned it and digitized it, and it joined a whole wall of people’s coloured 
characters dancing about. People were chuckling and laughing, and it was such a nice way 
to end this very beautiful art exhibition. Now, one thing to note about Kanazawa, a lot 
of the places we went to were closed midweek and the places that were open were cash only. So, 
we asked our taxi driver for a recommendation and he took us to this chicken barbecue place. We are 
so glad that he did because this place was cheap and scrumptious. Yes, this is raw chicken and you 
have to cook it yourself. And the part that was a bit scary for us was they recommended that we cook 
it a little bit under. We’re not saying that it’s raw, but to us, it felt like it was something 
very dangerous that was going to murder us in the middle of the night. Luckily for us, that 
did not happen. Everything was really buttery and tasty. And no, we did not cook it to an 
absolute crisp. I can just feel the spirit of Gordon Ramsay hovering about me, whispering 
sweet nothings into my ears. It’s raw. It’s raw. No, it’s not. Poor Ramsay. It’s so buttery. 
Definitely cooked. We have a lot to grow. [Music] It’s our last day in Kanazawa, and we’re off to 
enjoy some much needed coffee and breakfast. And much to our delight, the Angolo Cafe is open from 
8:00 a.m. Finding an indie coffee shop open this early is quite the rarity in Japan. The cafe is 
located inside a beautifully renovated old home and it has a super nice atmosphere. And speaking 
of super nice, look at this croissant witch. One was made with prosciutto and the other with ham 
and they were both fresh and soft. We also enjoyed their lattes, great espresso and perfectly steamed 
milk. Altogether 10 out of 10. Would recommend. [Music] Now, historically, I have a very poor track 
record of showing people parks on YouTube. I’ve been making YouTube videos since 2008, and 
every single time I take you guys to a park, people just click away. See, I can see 
it happening already. Just hang. Hold on a second. This is one of the top three 
most beautiful parks in all of Japan. all of Japan. We’ve got waterfalls. We have moss 
gardens. There are historic things popping up everywhere. And if that is not enough to keep you 
around, look, look at my pretty dress. It’s such a such a pretty dress. Look, I can do twirlssss 
in it. It’s such a pretty dress. But seriously, you guys, visiting gardens in Japan is 
something special. It’s not your average garden where there’s just like a trash can and 
and just like cigarette butts everywhere and people hanging out. You’re going to stumble 
across many magical things like this cafe we stumbled across that we had no plans on visiting 
but it shielded us from an incoming rainstorm. So it started crazy thundering outside and uh 
the rain started to come down and we’re like what’s that little shop there in the garden? And 
so we popped inside and it has a beautiful view of the city. There’s nobody here and we’re having 
a little sweet set. I don’t know what the sweet set is. So I’m going to get something with azuki 
and maybe warabi mochi which is big here. But no idea. So we’re going to get some uh tea and some 
sweets and see if we can avoid a little bit of the rain. This place is just so beautiful. 
Simply simple but very beautiful. Lucky. Are they sweets? Mmm. They’re quite sweet. 
They’re not normally sweet. They have a nice sugary kind of feel to them. Really? 
I wonder if that’s a Kanazawa style. These are definitely sweeter than normal. 
I have I have never had anything like this before. You should give it a go. It’s 
those clear noodles which are lovely, but it’s got a really strong yuzu taste 
to it. It’s scrumptious. Go. It’s beyond refreshing. It’ll be summertime perfection. 
at all. It’s really strong yuzu smell. Yeah, I know. It’s like a jelly. Yeah. But it’s kind 
of like It’s very The texture is really lovely. What is that? And that bean chew. It’s like yuzu soup, like broth almost. It’s 
like a a yuzu ramen. Yeah. But like chili. And I I I’ve never had anything like it. It’s 
great. And we got the view of the clouds coming in. [Music] I think when you’re visiting 
Japan as a tourist, you’ll often make an effort to seek out something like a tea house. But 
when you’ve been living in Japan for a while, you kind of forget that you have such lovely 
little spots available to you. So, I’d really like to thank the rain in this case for forcing us to 
seek cover. This was such a delightful and serene way to end our trip to Kanazawa before getting on 
the Shinkansen and returning to busy, busy Tokyo. Well, thank you for watching to the end 
of this video. I will award you now with discounts. Discounts galore. First, thank 
you very much to Saily for sponsoring this video. I love using their esims and I hope 
you give them a try. You will get 15% off your first purchase when using the code 
king kogi. And speaking of secret codes, we have a Kanazawa guide available on our 
website to buy. It has over 50 locations and it also comes with our Japan companion guide, 
a little digital magazine that we have also hand illustrated. What’s that? You want a discount? 
Sounds good. Use the code “Ilovegold” and you’ll get a discount on checkout. Keep keeping it cool 
on the King Kogi airship. Captain Martina out.

Captain Duh says, “Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Use code KINGKOGI at checkout.” Download the Saily app, or go to https://saily.com/kingkogi

Let’s explore 10 Things to do in Kanazawa, Japan: from trying the local craft brew to eating special oden, we’ll also visit the Samurai Districts 長町武家屋敷跡 and the Kyoto-like Higashi Chaya Geisha District ひがし茶屋街 famous for GOOOOOOLD. We’ll eat tea and snacks in the legendary Kenrokuen Garden 兼六園 and later on, let’s grill raw chicken over hot coals and enjoy local sashimi.
Often described as “Little Kyoto”, I’d like to present the argument that you should go to Kanazawa because it’s just a cool city in itself.

Get the Kanazawa Digital Travel Guide – with over 50 locations at – https://www.kingkogi.ca/travel-guide-home
* ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　👑🐷　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Explore more adventures: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLokI_2Dwldd_45Om8hxxpxWuujbseNVfY&si=cr8dUJpwsdsaK62u

* ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　👑🐷　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/king.kogi/
Digital Travel Guides, Recipes, and more: https://www.kingkogi.ca

* ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　👑🐷 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Hi, Captain Martina here!
We are but a two person team. If you like the videos and the vibes we’re creating, please consider joining as a member. It directly supports the channel and the continued creation of these videos.
You’ll get extra special perks as a huge thank you~★

YouTube Membership: https://www.youtube.com/@KingKogi/join
Patreon Membership: https://www.patreon.com/kingkogi

* ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　👑🐷 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

00:00 KANAZAWAAAAA!
02:05 Higashi Chaya Geisha District ひがし茶屋街
04:29 Oriental Brewing
05:38 Oden Izakaya
08:40 Coffee
09:27 Onigiri
10:20 Shrine
11:45 Captain DUH
14:14 Street Food
16:15 Record Shop
17:18 Samurai District
18:05 Cafe Food
19:05 Kanazawa Castle
20:26 BBQ Chicken
21:33 Coffee and Cafe
22:15 Kenrokuen Garden Cafe 兼六園
25:39 Discount Galore

#Kanazawa #JapanTravel #KanazawaFood #TravelGuide #JapanVlog #kingkogi #兼六園 #Kenrokuen #OmichoMarket #SamuraiDistrict #HigashiChaya #JapanItinerary #TravelTips #Ishikawa #Top10 #martina #japan #japanesefood