Snow...

People milling about outside "Ninja-dera", the very funky 300-or-so-year-old temple with hidden levels, concealed escape routes, secret rooms, and more traps than you can shake a samurai sword at...

An ojiisan pushing his bike up the hill

Tengu.  One very dodgy character.

Tom, pretending he's a samurai, in the samuarai district

Us, with Sumiko-san - the crazy drunk.  

He bought us drinks, he gave us all his shopping (except the gift for his wife - he "loves her too much"), tried to get us to phone our parents on his mobile phone, and talked at us in a mix of broken English and (broken) Japanese for nearly 2 and a half hours!  

It was a fantastic night, and very, very random.  As Tom said: It's experiences like this that make life what it is. 

In Japan, you learn to expect the unexpected...

...we saw this guy putting on the costume the day before, and he gave us a look which could only mean:

"I'm not getting paid enough for this."

Food festival and snow

   
The famous "Kenroku-en" garden - famed as the third most beautiful garden in Japan.  This is THE postcard shot, and how the Kanazawa Tourist Information Board would have you believe it looks...
  

 
This is how it actually looks.  People.  Everywhere.  People.  Tour groups.  Random stragglers.  Kids running riot.  Gaijin running riot (a-hem...it was only a small snowball fight.... :| )  

    

One of the many tour groups.  Well...it is Japan.  

A good example of the rope-and-bamboo defences used to keep the branches up under the weight of the snow.  

Tom, pondering the thatched roof...

Some manic photographers.  

They all seemed to be wearing really bright clothes...

Last shot:

Some torii