EN: The 12th of June 2014 was the last day of the JR Pass validity. I was really tired after 20 days of almost non-stop daily traveling, I visited Hiroshima, Miyajima, Nagasaki and Kumamoto in a 3-days long trip and I also had to work every evening. But I said to myself that I could probably not have an option to do this again, so I decided to find a place to go. I selected Kanazawa, therefore I had to wake up really early (4:30AM) to catch the Business Thunderbird from Osaka station. That was the last drop, after all these days I had 5 days without all the hectic moving across the country.
SK: 12. jún bol posledným dňom platnosti môjho JR Passu, s premáhaním som sa predsa len niekam vybral, pretože som si povedal, že nepremrhám zbytočne možnosť vidieť ďalšie nové miesto. Po návštevách Hirošimy, Miyajimy, Nagasaki a Kumamota som mal cestovania naozaj dosť, okrem toho som musel popri tom po večeroch aj pracovať a samozrejme kvôli vlakom skoro vstávať (v prípade Kanazawy to bolo 4.30 ráno, keďže som chytal Business Thunderbird vlak s dvomi vozňami), takže mi to všetko už popravde liezlo krkom. Práve preto som si dal teraz 5 dní pauzu od cestovania, mal som veľa práce kvôli blížiacim sa MS vo futbale, takže napokon mi to plánovanie vyšlo celkom dobre. Neskôr spravím aj nejakú štatistiku o kilometroch, ktoré som precestoval a cenové porovnanie, koľko by som musel v prípade, že by som JR Pass nemal, za vlaky zaplatiť.
EN: Kanazawa was my last target mostly because of the Kenrokuen garden, which is the second from the list of Three Famous Gardens of Japan (I visited the one in Okayama as well, missed the Ibaraki). Except that, there is a significant part of the city, which used to be an old Samurai district and it is preserved until today. As Kanazawa was one of the lucky places in Japan which were not bombed during the WWII, all the local buildings ale authentic. But let’s start with the garden – it is really, really beautiful. And massive. The only downside was the number of tourists – they arrived on buses, I think they were from China or from some Chinese speaking place. Even though I was there really early in the morning, I think just around 9AM, the garden was full of people, who were quickly taking pictures of themselves on every corner. Well, I am a tourist as well, but I wanted to do different kind of pics, I had to wait for quite a long time in several places until they disappeared. I wish I could relax in quiet parts of the garden, just like I did it in Hiroshima, but I guess not everything can be perfect. The worst part is that the Higashi-Chayamachi Samurai district was full of tourists as well. And I strongly believed that those were the same guys I met in the garden. Later on I moved to the local castle, which is being completely renovated and rebuilt, once it is finished, I believe it will be massive and really nice. My original plan was to visit the Yuwaku onsen, which served as the inspiration for one particular anime, but it started raining and the bus service was not very frequent. Since I was running out of time, I just walked around the city, took some more pictures and caught the train back. One-way journey took more than 4 hours, so it was really enough. This was my last day of JR Pass usage, I thought that the hectic travel time was over. JR Pass is the best thing you can buy before coming to Japan, if you don’t plan to stay on one place and if you want to see as many parts of the country as you can. There are other convenient passes, I found them later on and I purchased the Kansai Wide Pass, but I will mention that in later posts.
SK: Ako posledná prišla teda na rad Kanazawa, hlavne kvôli záhrade Kenrokuen, ktorá patrí medzi tri najslávnejšie v Japonsku (ďalšiu navštívim neskôr v Okayame), okrem toho sa v asi polmiliónovom meste nachádza aj zachovalá časť, kde v minulosti bývali samuraji a aj hrad. Mesto malo počas druhej svetovej šťastie, ako jedno z mála väčších nebolo bombardované, takže budovy sú autentické. Záhrada Kenrokuen bola naozaj krásna a veľká, no dojem z nej kazili hromady turistov (a to som tam bol relatívne skoro ráno) z Číny, ktorí to tam doslova zavalili a cvakali sa navzájom ako zmyslov zbavení na každom kroku. Ak by bol deň pokojnejší, človek by tam mohol aj relaxovať, tak ako som to spravil pred niekoľkými dňami v Hirošime. Samurajská časť Higashi-Chayamachi trpela rovnakým problémom, boli jednoducho všade. A to aj napriek tomu, že práve v tom čase začalo popŕchať. Neskôr som sa presunul k hradu, ktorý ale od základov renovujú, keď bude dokončený, určite bude impozantný. Mojím pôvodným plánom bola aj návšteva kúpeľnej dediny Yuwaku, ktorá bola predlohou istého Anime, no vzhľadom na to, že autobus šiel smerom hore iba raz za hodinu a ja som bol časovo dosť obmedzený, som to napokon vypustil z hlavy. K tomu všetkému sa úplne rozpršalo a mne sa naozaj nechcelo moknúť. Napokon som sa ešte pokrútil po meste aj napriek dažďu a potom som sa vybral domov, cesta trvala približne 4 hodiny tam a 4 hodiny smerom späť, takže tak. Ukončil som teda sériu cestovania, hoci neskôr ešte plánujem kúpiť JR Kansai Wide Pass a pobrať sa smerom na juh, kde je najvyšší vodopád v Japonsku a aj do Himeji a spomínanej Okayamy. Fotky nižšie.
