Alien Registration

Today I went to the local municipal office to register my status as an Alien. I guess we foreigners look like we came from another planet? When I got my photos taken in an automatic booth I was told to wait 27 seconds for the photos to be printed - Japanese precision. Thankfully the photos were within the allowable +/-2mm tolerance after I snipped around them.

After this I hovered across the river:

And landed in the Giesha district:

I beamed inside one of the Geisha houses to take a look around:

This is a tatami mat room where quests are entertained. Here is a close up of the cute room heater and drums they play:

And the garden:

Next it was time to head home. Along the way I saw this strange-looking house. Note the clever use of concrete to guide visitors to the door:

In the next couple of days, we are expecting the cherry blossoms to be in full bloom. Some people can’t wait and are starting to party and camp out by Kenrokuen park already :

p.s. if you are into Temples, Kanazawa has plenty (the green blobs on the map are locations of temples):