Day 20 - Kanazawa, Zeniya and Souvenir Hunting

Our plan on the first full day at Beniya Mukayu was to head to Kanazawa for lunch and some souvenir shopping. Our trip to Kanzawa three years ago was a fantastic experience for Lauren and I, and this was highlighted by an amazing meal at the restaurant Zeniya, which is well known as one of the top places to eat in this part of Japan. Since our hotel in Kagaonsen was only 30 minutes away from Kanazawa by rail, Lauren had planned a lunch at Zeniya on our second day.

After a relaxed start and a lovely breakfast at Kaiseki Horin in the hotel, we caught the complimentary 10:45AM shuttle to the train station to board an 11:22AM train to Kanazawa, which is only about 25 minutes away by rail.

We arrived in Kanazawa around 11:50, and caught a taxi to Zeniya, which took about 15 minutes. The driver dropped us off at the door, where the hostess was already waiting to receive us. The meal at Zeniya, like the hotel follows a kaiseki format, so the ingredients and theme were both focused on spring.

We started our meal with some light broth that was salty and had kinome powder, followed by some tofu and yuba (soy milk skin) in broth. For those who don't know what kinome is, it is the leaf of the sansho pepper plant and has a vibrant flavor reminiscent of citrus and pepper. These courses were quite small, and were quickly followed by some seared tuna and sea bream sashimi, as well as a platter of local vegetables, a semi hardboiled egg and some unagi (freshwater eel). Our next course was the restaurant's speciality, a roasted piece of white fish, topped with fine shreds of wheat and kinome. This dish melts in the mouth, and perfectly conveys the flavors of fresh fish, easily demonstrating why Chef Shinichiro Takagi earned his 2nd Michelin star for Zeniya in 2017. After the speciality fish dish, we were served some local beef with steamed greens and bamboo shoot, topped by kinome leaf, followed by a rice porridge with ocean trout and ginger.

Zeniya's speciality dish. Absolutely amazing

 Stuffed to the brim, we walked out of Zeniya 90 minutes later and headed north, seeking the Contemporary Art Museum which we knew was close to one of our favorite souvenir shops, Imai Kinpaku who sell a variety of items containing gold leaf, which is one of Kanzawa's principal exports. On our last trip to Japan, we picked up several glass sakura flowers with floating flecks of gold leaf in them at this shop, and found them beautiful. Lauren wanted to get a few more as souvenirs, and luckily they still had them. We were able to get a handful more of these, and then headed back to the train station on foot.

On the way back, we stopped at a Tokyu Hands where I wanted to buy a few more Japanese pens and penils as souvenirs for my coworkers. While I was pen shopping, Lauren stumbled across packets of local mineral salts that can be used to make a regular bath more like soaking in the onsen, so logically, she purchased a massive pile of them.

After checking out at Tokyu Hands, we jumped in a Taxi to the station and caught a train back to Kagaonsen. A short ride in a taxi later, we were back at Beniya Mukayu, where we would spend the rest of the afternoon and evening eating delicious foot at Kaiseki Horin, and soaking in the Onsen.