We awoke this morning for our last traditional Japanese breakfast at the minshuku. Afterward we relaxed for a little bit and then headed out to wander the main street of Shirakawago on our way back to the bus station for our bus to Kanazawa. We browsed through many of the small shops, picking up a few souvenirs along the way.

Once we got to the bus stop and retrieved our luggage, we got on our bus and headed to Kanazawa, where we had a 2-hour stopover on our way to Kyoto. The Kanazawa bus & train station is brand new and very nice architecturally. We got on the local city bus to head for the Kanazawa Castle. The castle was massive, and they are in the process of rebuilding parts of it back to the original style. The main gate is the original building dating back to the 17th century. The roof of the main gate that we went through was made of pewter. Apparently they did this so that in the event of a battle, they could melt down the pewter to make bullets if supplies were running low.

After the castle, we walked down the check out the local market. The market mostly consisted of vendors selling fresh seafood, as well as fruits and vegetables. We wander around the market for a bit, checking out some of the items for sale, and then picked up some fresh sashimi to take with us on the train to Kyoto. Once we had our lunch, we headed back down to the station to catch our train.

The train ride was about 2.5 hours long, so we ate our lunch and then relaxed for the rest of the trip. We both managed to sleep for a portion of the ride, so that made it go by quicker.

We arrived in Kyoto and took a taxi to our hotel. After checking in and putting our luggage in the world's smallest hotel room, we headed out with the group for a little tour of the area and to see if we could spot at Maiko or Geiko heading out to work. These are more commonly known around the world as Geisha's, but they don't like that title and it is not used in Japan. We were quite lucky to see a few in taxis, and then Christine was very lucky to catch a Geiko coming out of a sweet shop and got a great picture.

After a little more time exploring the area, we headed down to our restaurant for dinner. Many of the restaurants are down small back alleys, and this place was no exception, except for the fact that the alley ran for many blocks and was packed with restaurants on both sides. We finally made it to our restaurant and headed in. The place served the food one piece at a time (a style called Kushikatsu) until you tell them to stop. Each piece they brought out was deep-fried, but what was under the crunchy outside was different every time. Christine's favourite was a deep-fried onion with a piece of ham on top, and Kent's was the deep-fried quail's eggs.

On the way back to our hotel, we spotted a Maiko (which is an apprentice Geiko) walking down a back alley.

Once dinner was done, we had to go to the local coin laundromat and get ourselves some clean clothes. The machines were all in one type of machine that both washed AND dried, which was different, but after one big load of washing and several short dryer runs all our clothes were done and we headed back to the hotel, and a late bedtime.

Tomorrow we explore Kyoto some more!