The entryway to the Nezu Museum is pretty cool.
The Nezu Museum was hosting an exhibit of rare and culturally important Japanese swords, and featured works gathered from all over Japan. It might even be possible to say that a more distinguished collection of Japanese swords has not been assembled and shown since the Tokugawa Shogunate started buying up all the nice ones several hundred years ago. Blades from the most famous swordsmiths in Japanese history were well represented, as were ones owned and conceivably wielded by some of the most famous figured in Japanese medieval history. Often, these were the same ones. There were dozens of designated National Treasures of Japan on display, and the only really unhappy thing about it is that we were not allow to take any pictures whatsoever. As mechanical engineers all, we can probably stare at expertly worked metal somewhat longer than the average individual, though by the end it was becoming harder to get excited about yet another eight-hundred-year-old masterpiece sword. There were some styles, patterns and inlays that we had not necessarily expected to see either, which was nifty.
The Nezu Museum also has a fairly nice garden behind it, so we walked through there before heading out. We were pretty sure it was safe to take pictures there.
After the museum, we went to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Tokyo, to the unbridled amusement of our guests who live in Arizona and apparently have access to Mexican cuisine of unparalleled excellence. They humored us, and were also a bit interested to see just what kind of stuff was being passed off as Mexican cuisine in Japan. I think Salsita avoided embarrassing us because as usual it was tasty and reasonably priced, if perhaps not entirely authentic. We also stopped into the international supermarket next door to get peanut butter and snacks for the train.
One of the better Mexican places in Japan. I mean, there can't be more than a few dozen, and we've only been to three. Of the three, this one is the best.
The rice is Japanese sticky rice, but overall it works.
The train trip was of course not so new for us, and Ana and I read,
knitted, and slept through most of it. We arrived in Kanazawa at just
about dinner time, and took our guests to the restaurant floor of a
nearby department store so that they could choose between the
fifteen-odd restaurants there for a place to eat. We walked around the
whole floor and ended up going to an all-you-can-eat shabu shabu place.
Ana and I have had shabu shabu before, but that was at a far more upscale restaurant. Aside from the tables being a bit too small, it turned out pretty well.
For shabu shabu, they bring you a pot filled with a broth or broths, and a burner to make it bubble. This being an all-you-can eat place, there was also a buffet which had some pretty decent sides, and was where you went to pick up more meat and vegetables to cook in the pot.
The noodles proved fiendishly difficult to get out of the broth, even for veteran chopsticks users like ourselves. We felt better to see a nearby table experiencing the same difficulties. Once in your bowl though, the noodles were very tasty after being cooked in the beef broth.
Beef, pork, and chicken were available in unlimited quantities on small trays - the beef and pork in very thin slices and the chicken in small chunks.
We attacked with vigor for I believe the whole ninety minutes we were allowed, and then some since they didn't kick us out.
Between the bubbling broth, the constant influx of new food from the buffet, and fighting the noodles with chopsticks the table ended up a bit messy at the end, but I don't think it was anything out of the ordinary for a place like this. I thought the restaurant was a solid value for about $25 each.
After dinner, tired and stuffed, we lugged our luggage onto a bus and back to our apartment, before gratefully getting some sleep.
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