We were expecting some rain. No big deal. We planned around it by going to Takada Castle yesterday, and putting off Takayama to tomorrow.

Today wasn't just rain however, it was just one torrential, relentless and frustrating downpour, which lasted the entire day, without letting up at all.

Looking across the weather radar, it seemed that much of mainland Japan was in the same wet, infuriating boat. It seemed to just be raining everywhere, so daytripping out of the city to escape it would have been a waste of time.

So the morning today was relegated to breakfast, shopping and catching up on laundry.

Some Japanese train stations have world class shopping facilities in, over, under and around them. Not Kanazawa station unfortunately. It has some shops, yes, but very few in comparison to most major train stations in my experience, so Kanazawa station area isn't a great place to pass time on a rainy day.

Kanazawa has a "site seeing loop", which is covered by a loop bus, running clockwise and counter-clockwise around the city, starting and ending at the Kanazawa train station. With not much else to do, and little time remaining to see the city, we grabbed full day bus passes, and boarded a loop bus to be shown around the city.

Charlotte has developed an unnatural obsession with Bikkuri Donkey, the Japanese style hamburg steak restaurant which we had a few days ago in Kyoto, and in previous Japan trips. So, with minimal convincing, after she tracked down a Bikkuri Donkey restaurant on the other side of town, our lunch venue was selected.

I love Bikkuri Donkey. If I had to pick a favourite restaurant in Japan, it would be in my top 5, easily. After another typically magnificent meal, it was time to head back to the hotel for the afternoon. Veronica, Angela and Isabelle headed to the bus stop, while Charlotte and I, partially out of spite and defiance of the unrelenting downpour, declared that we would walk home rather than waiting for the bus.

Yes we got lost. In our defence, it is partially Google's fault, since we were following a map which mid-way home went bananas and told us we were a few kilometers away from where we actually were. A reboot of the phone rectified the situation, but the damage was done, and what should have been a 30 minute walk was almost double that, done almost entirely with waterlogged socks and squishy shoes.

After a short rest, still watching the rain pounding down outside, in our second act of defiance for the day, Charlotte and I set out to visit Kenrokuen Garden.

This garden, originally a private garden owned by feudal lord, is situated next to Kanazawa Castle Park, and is considered one of the 3 most beautiful gardens in all of Japan.

I haven't seen a lot of gardens in Japan, but I can say without much doubt that Kenrokuen Garden, today, was among the 3 wettest gardens in all of Japan.

Access to the garden is simple. The bus drops you almost literally at the front door.

Adult entry fees to the garden is 310 yen, or around $3. Today however, there were people inside the ticket collection boxes, but as I stood there, unsure of who to pay, or how, the little person in the ticket booth would stick his head out of the window and look up to the sky, mutter something in Japanese after getting his face all wet, then he would retreat back into his box and shut the window to keep the rain out.

I watched this happen a few times before deciding this this poor guy had no interest in taking my money, so we kept our money in our pocket and just strolled in.

We weren't the only idiots strolling around a scenic garden on a freezing cold day during a torrential downpour. There were others in there, but not many.
I can only imagine that during full bloom in Sakura season, in decent weather, this place would be filled to capacity. Today however, we had it all to ourselves.

The park was absolutely huge, exceptionally pretty and displayed fanatical attention to detail, where every branch on every hedge was clipped for aesthetic perfection, and every rock arranged deliberately and creatively. I can only imaging the effort that it takes to keep this park looking picture perfect. The fact that the Sakura are in full bloom around the city, and the area around Kenrokuen and Kanazawa Castle Park has thousands of cherry trees, is simply the icing on the cake.

Since we had the park to ourselves however, it only took us an hour or so to walk through as much of it as we wanted to see, and begin to look for the exits. We did however get sidetracked by throwing 1 yen coins onto the roof of a mini cement pagoda shaped shrine, which seems to be the done thing as it was covered, and surrounded, by coins. I'm sure there is an interesting story behind what will happen if your coin stays on one of the pagoda tiers. I'm assuming your wish will be granted or something.

Charlotte is not the best shot. Her wish coins ended up on the pathways around the pagoda, a few landed in the trees and surrounding shrubs, and at least one coin ended up in the lake at the bottom of the hill. I doubt she'll be getting her wish granted.

Thankfully we made it out of the garden and down to the bus stop before last bus of the day, and were soon on our way back the hotel, without having to do so via a slow and very wet walk through town.

Tomorrow, we think, will be Takayama. There will be no Sakura, since it apparently hasn't bloomed there yet, but as we've seen so much Sakura over the last few days that I honestly wont be too worried if I don't see any more on this trip. Yes it would be nice to see it at Takayama, and I'd like to see some at Kyoto, to make up for all of the frustratingly closed buds at the beginning of the trip, but for the last few days we've been exceptionally lucky with our Sakura viewing. The blossoms at Nabana No Sato, Takada Castle and again today at Kenrokuen were exceptional.

Seeing Japan in cherry blossom season was an item on the bucket list, and I honestly feel like I've definitively ticked that item off the list now.