Daishoji Days (10/3-10/4)

My friends Anna, Daniel and Mike live in Daishoji, a small town south of Kanazawa in the Kaga area. It’s only 45 minutes to an hour away by train. Leah and I went to visit them on Friday night and Saturday. We ordered some interesting yet delicious pizzas (it’s always hard to tell what the toppings are just by looking at the pictures so you never really know what you're going to get) and headed to the one bar they have in town, which is unfortunately closing soon. After enjoying some small town Japanese hospitality, we headed back to Anna’s where we decided to watch Kindergarten Cop. Let me just say I wasn’t thrilled about having Kindergarten Cop be the first movie I watch in Japan, but it was hard to make a decision between that and the other not-so-great movies available. They had picked up ten videocassettes for $10 at a nearby secondhand store. You can’t argue with that kind of deal, even if the quality of the movies isn’t the best!

The weather the next day was absolutely beautiful so after a tasty pancake breakfast we headed to the coast in Anna’s car. I would be really nervous driving in Japan but Anna’s Scottish so she already had the driving on the left thing down before she came here. The scenery was gorgeous and we’ve made plans to go back for lots of picnics.


From there we went to Side Burger, purported to be the best hamburger joint in Ishikawa. I’m happy to say that I believe it! I ate a delicious cheeseburger that came with fries and onion rings while listening to American music from the 1950s and sitting on sparkly vinyl chairs. The only thing that could have possibly made the experience better was if they had served milkshakes.

After stuffing ourselves with Americana, we headed to Second Street, an overwhelmingly huge second-hand store that sold anything you could want and much much more. We helped pick out ten more videos and I got a new bag and hat. Then we stopped at the grocery store to buy ice cream and chocolate snacks so we could fulfill our milkshake cravings back at Anna’s while watching The Princess Bride. What a perfect Daishoji day!