Fukui, Ishikawa & Gifu

I love traveling and I love taking photos. What I am not so keen on, is the chore of having to go through the pics. I've a backlog of them, of which I will post eventually. First off, are photos of my trip to the prefectures of Fukui, Ishikawa and Gifu from back in July.

Fukui

  [Eihei-ji is one of the two main Zen Buddhism temples of the Soutou sect in Japan. As it so happened, during my visit, the main temple was being renovated and was partially covered up by some ugly scaffolding.]

[Toujinbou are basaltic cliffs that are a suicide hot spot.]

Ishikawa

I went up Gozengamine, the highest of the three peaks of Mount Haku at 2702m, from Bettodeai and stayed overnight at Murodo Hut. Since I'm better at going up than I am going down, I took the steeper Kankou Trail going up and the not so steep Sabou Trail going down. If time had allowed, I would have loved to do all three peaks.

I was lucky to have clear weather on my second day on the mountain, the views from the top were absolutely breathtaking. I got a little teary eyed, it was just so stunning. The pictures are nothing in comparison to the real thing.

 [Mountain flowers on the Kankou Route.]

 [Murodo Mountain Hut]

 [As the sun rises in the east.]

 [A sea of mountains]

 [I can see the hut from up Gozengamine.]

 [Pools of melted snow and ice.]

 [Sabou Trail]

I was based in Kanazawa for most of the trip, and stayed in a hostel called Pongyi which I recommend. The staff were lovely, the place was small but clean, and we had a makizushi (sushi rolls) party.

For the most part, I didn't find Kanazawa to be very exciting. Myouryuji temple, the ninja temple, was definitely worth seeing, but everything else like the merchant and geisha districts, Omi-cho Market and Kenroku-en Garden were smaller - and not so interesting/appealing - versions of similar places in other parts of Japan. Tsuzumimon, the main entrance of Kanazawa Station was quite impressive though.

[Station entrance]

Gifu

I've been to Gifu before, when I went to Takayama during my first winter in Japan. Back then, I had wanted to visit Shirakawago, but buses were cancelled because of the snow, so I didn't get to go. I was quite disappointed, seeing the village all covered up in snow would have, I'm sure, been very magical. Anyway, this time around I got to see the next best thing, Shirakawago on a marvellously clear day.

[Shirakawago, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.]