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Kanazawa, Japan, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
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Top 10AsiaJapan

Top 10 Things To Do in Kanazawa

Country
Japan
Best months
Apr · May · Nov
Population
~460K
Language
Japanese
Budget / day
¥12,000–22,000
Quick answer

The best things to do in Kanazawa are Kenrokuen, the rebuilt castle beside it, the Higashi Chaya teahouse district across the Asano River, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art and the seafood counters of Omicho Market. All five sit on the loop bus route. Give the city two days, arrive on the Hokuriku Shinkansen rather than by air, and take the garden first thing in the morning before the coaches reach it.

Best of Kanazawa

▶ Video guideOpen the film page (6:56) →

Kanazawa was the seat of the Maeda lords, the wealthiest samurai house outside the Tokugawa. That money went into gardens, lacquer, dyeing and gold leaf rather than into war, and because the city was never bombed, most of what it bought is still standing: three chaya districts and one of the three great gardens of Japan.

The 10 best things to do in Kanazawa

Walk Kenrokuen at opening time, Kanazawa, Japan
1

Walk Kenrokuen at opening time

Garden· 1 Kenrokumachi, Kanazawa

Kenrokuen is one of the three great gardens of Japan, and the only one whose name is an argument: the garden of six attributes, qualities a Chinese treatise said no single garden could hold at once. The Maeda spent two centuries proving otherwise across 11.4 hectares. Come at opening for the Kotoji lantern without a queue.

Time1.5 hr
CostTicketed
Best atOpening time
TipThe yukitsuri ropes go up from 1 November and are the reason to visit in winter
Map↗ Website
2

Cross into Kanazawa Castle Park

Castle· 1-1 Marunouchi, Kanazawa

Maeda Toshiie took the castle in 1583 and his family held it until the domains were abolished. Fire took most of it more than once, so what stands is reconstruction in traditional joinery, with the interiors left open so you can read the frame. Walk in from Kenrokuen through the Ishikawa-mon gate.

Time1.5 hr
CostPark free, buildings ticketed
Best atLate afternoon
TipEnter through Ishikawa-mon from Kenrokuen, not from the station side
Map↗ Website
Take the lattice streets of Higashi Chaya, Kanazawa, Japan
3

Take the lattice streets of Higashi Chaya

Historic district· Higashiyama, Kanazawa

The largest and best preserved of Kanazawa's three teahouse districts, laid out in 1820 on the far bank of the Asano River, and not a reconstruction: geisha still work here. Two of the chaya open their upper floors, and the upstairs rooms are the point. Arrive before ten and the street is empty enough to photograph.

Time2 hr
CostFree to walk
Best atBefore 10am
TipPay to go upstairs at one teahouse; the street alone only tells you half of it
Map↗ Website
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (Wimup)
4

Circle the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

Museum· Hirosaka, Kanazawa

SANAA opened this in 2004 as a glass circle with no front and no back, which won the Golden Lion at that year's Venice Biennale. The outer ring is free and open like a park; the galleries in the middle are ticketed. The work everyone queues for is Leandro Erlich's The Swimming Pool.

Time2 hr
CostOuter ring free
Best atWeekday morning
TipThe pool interior needs the gallery ticket; the view from above does not
Map↗ Website
Eat at the counters in Omicho Market, Kanazawa, Japan
5

Eat at the counters in Omicho Market

Market· Kamiomicho, Kanazawa

Omicho has fed the city for roughly three hundred years and still works as a market first, which is why the fish is better than the setting. The order is kaisendon, a bowl of rice under sashimi cut that morning, at a fraction of the Tokyo price. Snow crab lands from November, and kobako-gani is the local order.

Time1 hr
CostFree to enter
Best atLate morning
TipSkip the first counter you see at the entrance and walk to the back arcades
Map↗ Website
Walk Nagamachi and go inside the Nomura house, Kanazawa, Japan
6

Walk Nagamachi and go inside the Nomura house

Historic district· Nagamachi, Kanazawa

Nagamachi is where the middle-ranking retainers lived, and the shape of it survives: earthen walls under wooden capping, lanes that bend to break a charge, and the oldest water channels still running. The Nomura residence is the one to enter, for a garden once ranked third in the country.

Time1 hr
CostDistrict free, house ticketed
Best atMorning
TipThe upstairs tea room over the garden is worth the extra few minutes
Map↗ Website
7

Follow a guide through Myoryuji, the Ninja Temple

Temple· Nomachi, Kanazawa

The nickname is wrong and the building is remarkable anyway. Because the shogunate limited what a domain could fortify, the Maeda built defences inside a temple: a well shaft with a side passage, a staircase behind paper, floors that read as two from outside and are four. Visits are timed guided tours, so book ahead.

Time45 min
CostTicketed
Best atEarly afternoon
TipTours are guided and timed, so reserve before you travel rather than at the gate
Map↗ Website
D.T. Suzuki Museum, Kanazawa, Japan (Wimup)
8

Sit with the water at the D.T. Suzuki Museum

Museum· 3-4-20 Honda-machi, Kanazawa

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki was born here in 1870 and spent his life explaining Zen to readers with no Japanese. The museum built for him has almost nothing in it: three low pavilions, a small room of manuscripts, and a shallow black basin that ripples and goes still. The contemplative room has no exhibit, which is the exhibit.

Time1 hr
CostTicketed
Best atWeekday afternoon
TipSit in the contemplative space until the basin ripples again; the interval is the design
Map↗ Website
Walk Kazuemachi along the Asano River at dusk, Kanazawa, Japan
9

Walk Kazuemachi along the Asano River at dusk

Historic district· Kazuemachi, Kanazawa

The third chaya district is the one most visitors miss, a single run of latticed teahouses pressed between the Asano River and a wall of stone steps. It is a preservation district like Higashi Chaya and about a tenth as busy. There is nothing to enter and nothing to buy, which is the appeal. Come at dusk.

Time30 min
CostFree
Best atDusk
TipReach it from the Naka-no-hashi footbridge, not from the main road
Map↗ Website
Oyama Shrine, Kanazawa, Japan (Wimup)
10

Look up at the gate of Oyama Shrine

Shrine· Oyamamachi, Kanazawa

The shrine was built in 1873 and honours Maeda Toshiie and his wife Matsu. The reason to walk up is the Shinmon gate, which a Dutch architect designed and which nobody would guess belongs to a Shinto shrine: two upper storeys of coloured stained glass that once worked as a lighthouse. The garden behind is older.

Time30 min
CostFree
Best atAfter dark
TipThe stained glass is lit at night, which is when the gate makes sense
Map↗ Website

All 10, mapped

Kanazawa · 10 spots
AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

Kanazawa travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Kanazawa?+
Two. The first covers Kenrokuen, the castle park and the 21st Century Museum, all within a few minutes of each other; the second covers Omicho, Nagamachi and the chaya districts across the Asano River. One day is enough only if you accept seeing the garden and skipping the teahouses.
Is Kanazawa worth stopping at between Tokyo and Kyoto?+
Yes, and the Shinkansen makes it easy: about two and a half hours from Tokyo, and one change to reach Kyoto since the line reached Tsuruga in 2024. Kanazawa gives you what people go to Kyoto for, teahouse streets, gardens and craft, at a fraction of the crowd.
What is the best time of year to visit Kanazawa?+
April for blossom in the garden and the castle park, May for the clearest weather, November for the maples and for the yukitsuri ropes going up. Winter is cold, grey and heavy with snow, which is also when the crab is in and when Kenrokuen looks like the photographs.
Do you need a car in Kanazawa?+
Not in the city. The loop bus links the station, Omicho, the castle, Kenrokuen and Higashi Chaya every 15 to 20 minutes, and the old centre is flat enough to walk or cycle. A car earns its keep only for the Noto Peninsula, where public transport is thin.
Can you day trip to Shirakawa-go from Kanazawa?+
Yes. Express buses run direct from Kanazawa Station and take about an hour and a quarter, with Gokayama about an hour away on the same corridor. Book the seat in advance in high season, and check the last departure back before you settle in for lunch.
Where to eat

Best restaurants in Kanazawa

Five kitchens, from two Michelin stars to the counter that owns the local dish.
Two stars
Katamachi

Zeniya

Kaiseki

Shinichiro and Jiro Takagi buy at the market each morning and build the courses around what came in. Two Michelin stars, and where Kaga cooking makes sense.

Map
Two stars

Kataori

Omakase

A counter built on Hokuriku fish, a dashi drawn over forty hours and whatever Kaga vegetable is in season. Two stars and a handful of seats, so book far ahead.

Map
Michelin listed

Otome Sushi

Sushi

Two currents meet off this coast, which is the argument for eating sushi here rather than saving it for Tokyo. Otome is the address locals name first.

Map

Ishiya

Jibuni

Jibuni is Kanazawa's own dish and Ishiya is the name attached to it, to the point that locals use the two interchangeably. Order it and nothing else on your first night.

Map
Kanazawa Station

Kagaya

Kaga cuisine

Inside the station building, which sounds like a compromise and is not: the Kaga set covers jibuni and the local seafood in one sitting.

Map
Where to drink

Best sake stops in Kanazawa

Two working breweries in the city, and the street the small bars are on.
Ishibiki

Fukumitsuya

Brewery, founded 1625

The oldest brewery in Kanazawa, brewing junmai only, on rice and the groundwater under the city. The cellar can be visited year round.

Map↗ Website
Higashi Chaya

Yachiya Shuzo

Brewery, founded 1610

A brewery inside the teahouse district, in a building registered as a cultural property. The house style is light enough to turn up at tea ceremonies.

Map↗ Website
KatamachiKatamachi

Katamachi

Bar district

Kanazawa drinks along the Sai River: a counter for eight, a fridge holding whatever the owner rates, and Ishikawa labels poured by the glass.

Map
Culture

Best museums in Kanazawa

Six collections, and four of them are within a ten-minute walk of Kenrokuen.
21st Century Museum of Contemporary ArtHirosaka

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

Contemporary art

The SANAA circle, open on every side, with a free outer ring and ticketed galleries at the core. Erlich's pool is permanent.

Map↗ Website
National Crafts MuseumDewamachi

National Crafts Museum

Craft and design

The craft wing of the National Museum of Modern Art left Tokyo for Kanazawa in 2020, which measures how seriously this city is taken on the subject.

Map↗ Website
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of ArtDewamachi

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art

Kutani ware and Kaga art

The prefecture's own collection, strongest on Kutani porcelain. Its centrepiece is Ninsei's pheasant-shaped incense burner, a National Treasure.

Map↗ Website
Kenrokumachi

Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Traditional Arts and Crafts

36 designated crafts

All thirty-six crafts the prefecture designates, in one room each: Wajima lacquer, Kutani porcelain, gold leaf. Its west door opens into Kenrokuen.

Map↗ Website
Kanazawa Yasue Gold-Leaf MuseumHigashiyama

Kanazawa Yasue Gold-Leaf Museum

Gold leaf

The city museum on the craft that made it. It shows the tools and the beating process rather than the finished souvenirs.

Map↗ Website
Kanazawa Nakamura Memorial MuseumNear Kenrokuen

Kanazawa Nakamura Memorial Museum

Tea utensils

A sake brewer's private collection of tea ware, given to the city and shown in rotation. The best place to see what the Maeda taste looked like.

Map↗ Website
Green space

Best gardens in Kanazawa

Four gardens, and the smallest of them is the one people talk about afterwards.
KenrokuenKenrokumachi

Kenrokuen

11.4 hectares

The circuit garden the Maeda built over almost two centuries, and one of the three great gardens of Japan. Different in every season, and genuinely different in snow.

Map↗ Website
Marunouchi

Gyokusen'inmaru Garden

Inside the castle park

A hillside pond garden inside the castle park, reconstructed from excavation and old drawings. Free, and almost empty compared with Kenrokuen.

Map↗ Website
Kosho-machi

Gyokusen-en

Terraced hillside garden

A private garden on a steep slope, built in tiers so the whole thing reads from the tea room at the bottom. Moss, maples and a scale that makes Kenrokuen feel municipal.

Map↗ Website
Nagamachi

Nomura Residence garden

Kobori Enshu style

Perhaps twenty paces across, with a stream from the city's oldest canal, a waterfall and a four-hundred-year-old bayberry. Once ranked third in the country.

Map↗ Website
Make something

Best craft workshops in Kanazawa

Kanazawa makes nearly all of Japan's gold leaf. Four places let you handle it.
Higashi Chaya

HAKUZA Hikari-gura

Gold leaf storehouse

A storehouse at the south end of the teahouse district with every surface finished in gold leaf. Free, and the fastest way to see what it does to light.

Map↗ Website
Higashiyama

Hakuichi Higashiyama

Leaf pasting and gold soft serve

The shop behind the gold leaf soft serve, where a whole sheet is laid on the cone with bamboo chopsticks. It also runs leaf-pasting sessions.

Map↗ Website
Kaga Yuzen Kimono Center

Kaga Yuzen Kimono Center

Silk dyeing

Kaga Yuzen is hand-painted silk in five traditional colours, and the centre walks the process from sketch to finished bolt with artisans working.

Map↗ Website
Utatsuyama

Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo

City craft studios

The city runs studios above Higashi Chaya where young makers train in ceramics, lacquer, dyeing, glass and metal. You can watch them work.

Map↗ Website
Where to base yourself

Best neighborhoods in Kanazawa

Five quarters, and what each is actually like once the day trippers leave.
Higashiyama and Higashi ChayaNorth of the Asano

Higashiyama and Higashi Chaya

Teahouses, gold leaf

The most photographed streets in the city and the busiest between ten and four. Stay here and you get them at either end of the day.

Map
South bank of the Asano

Kazuemachi

Riverside teahouses

One lane of latticed fronts between the river and a stone stair, with a handful of ryokan in it. Five minutes on foot from Higashi Chaya.

Map
NagamachiBehind Korinbo

Nagamachi

Samurai quarter

Earthen walls, running water channels and preserved houses, immediately behind the main shopping district. The shortest walk to Kenrokuen.

Map
Along the Sai River

Katamachi and Korinbo

Eating and drinking

Where the city goes out. Korinbo is the department stores; Katamachi behind it is the bars, and the only part of Kanazawa with noise after ten.

Map
Kanazawa Station and Nishi ChayaWest side

Kanazawa Station and Nishi Chaya

Arrivals and the quiet chaya

The station side is hotels, the Tsuzumi-mon gate and the glass dome. Nishi Chaya, the smallest teahouse district, takes almost no visitors.

Map
Beyond the city

Best day trips in Kanazawa

Six trips, five of them doable in a day on public transport.
Shirakawa-goGifu, about 1 hr 15 by bus

Shirakawa-go

UNESCO village

Steep thatched gassho-zukuri farmhouses in a valley cut off by snow for most of its history, listed by UNESCO in 1995. Direct buses run from the station.

Map↗ Website
GokayamaToyama, about 1 hr by bus

Gokayama

UNESCO village

The other half of the same World Heritage listing, over the prefecture line and far quieter. Two hamlets, and a tradition of washi paper and folk song.

Map↗ Website
Ishikawa, about 40 min by limited express

Kaga Onsen

Hot spring towns

Four hot spring villages south of the city, with public bathhouses you can use without staying the night. Yamanaka pairs its bath with a gorge walk.

Map↗ Website
Fukui, about 2 hr

Eiheiji

Zen monastery

One of the two head temples of Soto Zen, founded in 1244 and still a working monastery. Seventy buildings on a cedar hillside, connected by covered stairs.

Map↗ Website
TakayamaGifu, on the Shirakawa-go bus route

Takayama

Edo merchant town

The preserved merchant streets of Sanmachi and a morning market, on the same bus corridor as Shirakawa-go. A long day, better as an overnight.

Map↗ Website
Ishikawa, car recommended

The Noto Peninsula

Coast, salt farms, Wajima lacquer

The coastline north of the city, with the Senmaida rice terraces and the lacquer town of Wajima. Recovery from the 2024 earthquake is uneven, so check what is open.

Map↗ Website
What's on

Festivals & annual events in Kanazawa (2026)

Time your visit around the garden's seasons and the June festival.
Apr

Cherry blossom at Kenrokuen and the castle

Ishikawa blossoms a little after Tokyo, usually in early April. The garden and castle park hold several hundred trees.

Jun

Kanazawa Hyakumangoku Matsuri

The city's biggest festival, three days in early June, marking Toshiie's entry into the castle in 1583.

Jun

Kaga Yuzen Toro Nagashi

Thousands of candle lanterns made from paper and Kaga Yuzen silk float down the Asano River. Free to watch from the banks.

Jun

Hyakumangoku Cha-kai

Tea sittings during the festival weekend at the tea houses around Kenrokuen, the one time it is publicly offered.

Jul

Asanogawa Kawadoko

Dining platforms go up along the Asano River from late July into early August. Reserved through the participating restaurants.

Oct

Autumn illuminations at the castle and Kenrokuen

The garden and the castle park are lit after dark from late October through November, timed to the maples.

Nov

Yukitsuri goes up

From 1 November the gardeners rig the rope cones that hold Kenrokuen's branches against the snow, tree by tree.

Nov

Snow crab season

The Sea of Japan crab season opens in November and runs into March, and it reshapes every menu in the city.

Getting around

Kanazawa transport & airports

How to arrive from Tokyo, and how to cross the city once you have.
KMQ

Komatsu Airport

The region's airport, about 40 minutes from the station by bus. Domestic flights mostly, so for most visitors the train beats it door to door.

Map↗ Website
JR

Hokuriku Shinkansen

Kanazawa joined the network in March 2015, putting Tokyo about two and a half hours away. The 2024 extension to Tsuruga shortened the run from Kyoto and Osaka.

Map↗ Website
Hokutetsu

Kanazawa Loop Bus

Two loops, left and right, every 15 to 20 minutes between the station, Omicho, the castle, Kenrokuen and Higashi Chaya. A day pass pays for itself in four rides.

Map↗ Website
Machi-nori

On foot and by bicycle

The old city is compact and flat, and Machi-nori docking stations sit at most of the sights. Rain is the catch: Kanazawa gets a lot of it, in every season.

Map↗ Website
Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Kanazawa, Japan

What the Sea of Japan and the Kaga kitchen put on the table.
Jibuni, Kanazawa (Wimup travel guide)

Jibuni

Duck dusted in flour and simmered with wheat gluten until the coating thickens the broth.

Wagashi, Kanazawa (Wimup travel guide)

Wagashi

One of Japan's three great cities for sweets, with Kyoto and Matsue. Eat them with matcha in a tea house.

Kaisendon

The market bowl: rice under sashimi, roe and shellfish landed that morning. A fraction of the Tokyo price.

Nodoguro

Blackthroat seaperch, fat enough that people compare it to toro. Grilled with salt, as sushi, or over rice.

Kano-gani and kobako-gani

The Sea of Japan snow crab, November to March. The small female kobako-gani is what locals order.

Kaburazushi

A winter ferment: yellowtail and carrot layered between slices of turnip and left to work with koji rice.

Kaga vegetables

A certified list of local varieties that turns over through the year. Ask which one is in and order it.

Gold leaf soft serve

A whole sheet of gold leaf laid over an ice cream. A photograph rather than a flavour.

Kanazawa fact sheet

Kanazawa at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Japan
Region
Ishikawa Prefecture, Hokuriku
Population
About 460,000 (city, 2025)
Founded
Kanazawa Gobo temple settlement, 1546; Maeda seat from 1583
Nickname
Hyakumangoku, the million-koku city
Language
Japanese
Currency
Japanese yen (¥)
Time zone
JST (UTC+9)
Calling code
+81 76
Airports
Komatsu (KMQ), Noto Satoyama (NTQ)
Power
100V, type A
Emergency
110 police, 119 fire and ambulance
Ideal length
2 days
Getting around
On foot, by loop bus, by bicycle
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • Kanazawa beats about 99% of Japan's gold leaf. The damp Hokuriku air is what lets a sheet go that thin without tearing.
  • The city was never bombed in the Second World War, which is why three chaya districts and a samurai quarter are still standing.
  • Erlich's The Swimming Pool holds ten centimetres of water on glass. The people apparently underwater have walked into a room beneath.
  • Roughly 2,180mm of rain falls on Kanazawa in a year. The local advice is that you can forget your lunch but not your umbrella.
  • The Maeda were assessed at more than a million koku of rice. Rather than arm, they patronised lacquer, dyeing and metal inlay.

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