[steven]

I live about a 40 minute drive away from Kanazawa. I go there sometimes for errands or for fun. It has a nickname that roughly translates to "little-kyoto" because it has a lot of that atmosphere. The big park in the city is called the "Kenrokuen". There is a castle right across the street and an old town kind of surrounding it. The train station is quite big and actually kinda famous -- there is a giant mall outside of it.

I don't ride the trains around here too much, but I think there is a 'thunderbird' that goes to Kyoto/Osaka in a couple of hours. I do know that the train can be a little bit complicated... as in if you're riding "jiyu-seki (non-reserved seats)" then you could run into the trouble of being in the wrong car when the train splits and goes into two different directions. You might want to look into that before you decide to take a trip somewhere (it would happen on the return I believe... but it could happen after Kanazawa station, I don't remember).

It's in the "Hokuriku" region, which in my opinion has the best food in Japan. There is a lot of rice and vegetables grown around there. Ishikawa-ken has a lot of shell-fish and Toyama has a lot of fish that is great. So if you like sushi and sashimi, you are in for it. They also have a festival in a town called "anamizu" every year called the "kaki-matsuri". That is basically "oyster-fest". You may want to check that out as you can buy big oysters for relatively little money and grill them up yourself. The liquid (or 'soup') in the shells can get extremely hot and feels like molten lava, so take caution. It is fun though.

That being said, although Kanazawa is a big city, it is mostly surrounded by 'inaka'. You could easily get by in Kanazawa without a car, but if you want to adventure around a little bit more, the trains wont cut it (especially in Toyama). With that in mind, driving in Kanazawa is one of the most frustrating things in the world for me. I've driven a lot in Japan, and Kanazawa is probably the hardest place to navigate (the roads are sometimes numbered... ie "8". Although many of the roads share identical numbers... parallel or intersecting). I've even talked to people who live there and they say it's hard to navigate.

It also snows there in the winter and can snow quite a bit. If you live more in the mountains it will be more of a problem but if you are in the city I think it doesn't pile up too much. It also rains a lot there. I live a little east there and I can say that it rains most of the time. (That might have to do with the agriculture being so prevelant). It also has "thundersnow" which is apparently a rare occurance (I guess the whole Toyama-bay area gets it). If it's really cold and thunder and lightning happen, snow or hail will likely fall. The hail there can also get kinda gnarley. (I was in Kahoku once and quarter sized hail was coming down like you would never believe). It also gets pretty humid there.

There is also a semi-strong dialect there. If you will live in the city it might not be as big of an obstacle than living in a more rural area. Overall it's similar to Kansai. It also has some interesting intonation (It's kinda similar to where I am which is pretty intense intonation wise).

It has a zoo which I enjoyed quite a bit. There is also an aquarium (on "notto-jima") (notto penninsula is basically the top half of ishikawa-ken. Notto-jim is on the eastern side of it). There is also supposedly the longest bench in the world somewhere on the coast there, which I have never seen. If benches are your thing you could check that out. There was the Kirin beer factory there, but it may have shut down in the last year. They also have horse racing and boat racing kinda nearby the city. If you travel down south there is a place called "kaga-fruit land". You can pick and eat as many fruit as you want, they have apples, grapes, and probably something else. They have plenty of onsen if you look for them. If you like sake, I will recommend "Tateyama". That is actually from Toyama, but it's the best (it's on the karai end of the spectrum). Ishikawa has some unique sakes as well... although I've indulged I don't remember what they're called. There's also like a big fishery type place I think... as in it's like a market with a lot of fish and sushi for sale as well as some import shops. If you get a car, or you have a friend who has a car (who doesn't mind this idea), you can go to a place called "Chirihama". It is a beach on which you can drive. (like the opening scene in the goonies with less cars). People have picnics there so don't crash into them, and be careful of other cars who aren't being careful. I've been there many times, and one time must've been after they cleaned the beach, because it looked kind of like hawaii. Most of the time it's a little on the dirty side, though. The water is actually surprisingly warm. If you decide to go in the water, try to avoid the off-season as the dreaded 'jellyfish' will come to get you.

I hope you pass your test. If you end up coming please: try as much stuff as you can. Have fun (while not making an ass of yourself). Get to know some of the Japanese people in your area. Be careful of strange men (as in weird salary men or dudes from bars looking to lure you in). You can take advantage of some of those men (free drinks, etc), but I'd say use caution and don't let it go too far (or farther than you want things to go).

This comes from the perspective of someone living in the west-side of Toyama-ken who is originally from southern California. I am a huge fan of this area of Japan. The lines on the map and the lines in my head are a little different. I sometimes tend to group Kanazawa and that area with the western side of Toyama and split the eastern side of toyama with "over there", so I do consider Kanazawa very much part of 'my area'. I hope this helped. Let me know if you have questions.