Full of friendly faces, Ishikawa is one of the most hospitable places I’ve been in Japan. Photo: Matt Wiseman
Mountainwatch | Matt Wiseman
If Japanese cities were ski resorts, Ishikawa prefecture would be the best backcountry zone you’d ever laid your eyes on. It’s capital city Kanazawa essentially a pillow zone with enough things to do, and all in such close proximity to one another, that you can and will return again and again. Far removed from the crowded lift lines and haemorrhaging rental stores that might be Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka in this extended ski metaphor, the rural foothills, seaside fishing villages and remote mountain temples that surround what has become ‘Japan’s fourth city’ in Kanazawa is a Japan waiting to be explored.