{"id":11677,"date":"2026-05-01T04:32:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T11:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11677"},"modified":"2026-05-01T04:53:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T11:53:30","slug":"japan-2026-day-16-toyama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11677","title":{"rendered":"Japan 2026: Day 16 (Toyama)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mistakes were made.<\/p>\n

Kanazawa station doesn\u2019t have many options for breakfast. I was counting on going to Tully\u2019s and getting a breakfast hot dog but it turns out they don\u2019t open until 10am. My train was at 9:07am. I just went to the 7Eleven and grabbed a coffee and a melon pan. My sister said, \u201cI bet it wasn\u2019t as good as the one in Juso.\u201d Ha.<\/p>\n

Oh, I downed the coffee while standing in line waiting for the train because the whole trip is only 18 minutes. I really didn\u2019t need to rush. 18 minutes is plenty to enjoy a melon pan and coffee.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Arriving so early meant I could actually get a morning set in Toyama. I went to a litlle bakery hoping to get some toast. THEY WERE OUT OF TOAST. I got a cold hot dog and cold hash browns. I could\u2019ve gone to Mickey D\u2019s. I even asked two businessmen who both had McCafe coffees about how the coffee was at a Japanese Mickey D\u2019s and they said it was good. The bakery coffee was not as good as the coffee I get at my Mickey D\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The weather forecast called for thunderstorms but I headed out anyway. Went to the Loft to ask about the pen I\u2019m looking for. I guess I haven\u2019t mentioned I\u2019m looking for a limited edition Uniball Zento Signature. I already got a silver one for my sister. I kind of want the brass one but I\u2019m probably going to have to order it online for twice the price. I\u2019m OK with that. I keep looking for it because it\u2019s kind of a fun quest.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it was off to the castle (a reproduction of course). There\u2019s a history museum inside the castle and lots of SE Asians inside (about a third of the patrons). The only person who actually ran into me was a family speaking Chinese, though.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I also went to the art museum on the casle grounds. It had some very nice scrolls and screens.<\/p>\n

I wish I could post the live photo of this but it was really coming down and it was also quite blustery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Anyway, I decided to walk the 15 minutes to the Glass Art museum and on the way there was a Daiei department store where I went to look for my pen. Of course, no dice. Everyone is pretty nice about it, though. They were also having a Hokkaido food fair and I looked through that as well.<\/p>\n

I spent a couple of hours making my way through the Glass Art museum. It was pretty cool. I was kind of weirded out when the first exhibit was all by Dale Chihuly. I thought, I know that name. Born in Taco Town, I mean, Tacoma and got his MFA at RISD. Interetsing work. Unfortunately I did see some signs requesting that you not post pictures online. I only took one photo anyway. Here\u2019s one of the museum from the top floor though.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The next floor down was an exhibit by Jiri Suchi, an instructor from the Czech Republic who was about to move back to Europe. I kept seeing a guy standing around and though, is he the guy or am I just being that Asian guy who thinks all white guys look alike? I finally asked him and it was him! He answered all my dumb questions about his art and I even got a selfie. I do not know why my eyes are closed and I was talking during the picture. I guess I never take selfies and I was a little nervous talking to an artist at his exhibition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After seeing four floors of glass art, I was feeling a liitle off. I realized I hadn\u2019t eaten any lunch and it was 2pm! I decided just to get a snack at the art museum. Brewing a cup of coffee and cutting a piece of cheesecake (who am I kidding, the pieces are pre-sliced) took them over 20 minutes. I think they just forgot about me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Would anyone with any sense go to the beach on a day with thunderstorms and high wind warnings? Second question: do I have a lot of common sense?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are fishing boats near the beach and I asked a guy walking around if anyone goes fishing in this weather and he looked at me like I was nuts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Norm from Tokyo Lens has shamisen lessons and there\u2019s a shop around here where he gets the shamisen. I decided to go take a look and walked the 20 minutes in the wind and rain. My Wirecutter-recommended folding umbrella held up incredibly well. I guess you shouldn\u2019t just walk to a store during Golden Week and expect much (I wasn\u2019t expecting much, just messing around.) It was closed. That\u2019s OK. I had to get my steps in (didn\u2019t hit 15k today).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I did get my steps in. I got on the tram to head back to the station.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m embarrassed to say that I pushed my way through the people who seemed to be standing around thinking they weren\u2019t getting off. I didn\u2019t look back but thinking about it they were probably all getting off but were being incredibly patient.<\/p>\n

I got my local EkiTag (an electronic stamp-collecting game) and headed to the hotel.<\/p>\n

I had to juggle hotels at the last minute to see friends and I switched to the JAL Hotel for two nights. I guess I splurged because it\u2019s $283.91USD for two nights and I\u2019m on the top floor. I\u2019m sharing a wall with the elevator and I hear nothing. I have a Nespresso machine in my room and they gave me barley tea and two rice crackers.<\/p>\n

I was busy writing this nonsense until I realized I\u2019d better go get dinner. I told the guy at the front desk I wanted to try Zetteria and he said BUT YOU\u2019RE IN TOYAMA (great fish). So I went to their suggestion, Toyama Sushi. There\u2019s two next to each other and one has sushi on a track. I picked the non-track restaurant and waited in line for a long time. It was worth it. I spent more on dinner than any other point of the trip but it was a whole $35!<\/p>\n

Oh, and remember how I didn\u2019t get much breakfast and had no lunch? I ate two pieces of the sushi before I remembered to take a picture. Same with the white shrimp tempura. (So good.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As I was leaving I asked the lady next to me if I could take a picture of hers since she got the same thing. She was taking pictures with her phone and I gook a quick pic. Then she got out her DSLR and said she had to get a good picture. Hahaha.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I was still hungry and I thought about BK and Zetteria. There were way more people at Burger King so I decided not to get Zetteria or to backtrack to the BK. I went and bought sweets. Not one but TWO. A cake from Fujiya (and the \u00a55 fork) and a financier from the German Bakery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

They packed the cake with a mini cold pack!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The cake wasn\u2019t too sweet. The financier was a financier.<\/p>\n

And oh boy, I forgot to look for something my sister said she wanted. I still have time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mistakes were made. Kanazawa station doesn\u2019t have many options for breakfast. I was counting on going to Tully\u2019s and getting a breakfast hot dog but it turns out they don\u2019t open until 10am. My train was at 9:07am. I just went to the 7Eleven and grabbed a coffee and a melon pan. My sister said, \u201cI bet it wasn\u2019t as good as the one in Juso.\u201d Ha. Oh, I downed the coffee while standing in line waiting for the train because the whole trip is only 18 minutes. I really didn\u2019t need to rush. 18 minutes is plenty to enjoy a melon pan and coffee. Arriving so early meant I … Continue reading Japan 2026: Day 16 (Toyama)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11677"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11682,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11677\/revisions\/11682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}