Culture Shock Kanazawa

In December last year, we went to Kanazawa to visit John and Yoko, the legendary couple...or not (not yet).

Billed as the Little Kyoto, Kanazawa is a lovely historic town on the Japan Sea side, some 4 hours away from Tokyo by train. I was looking forward to some sightseeing for a couple of days. Not to miss one of the tourist attractions, I made a phone call to book two spots for the ninja temple (Myoryu-ji) right after getting off at Kanazawa Station.

Ring ring...
Receptionist: "Yes."

Me: "Is this Myoryu-ji?"

Receptionist: "Yes."

Me: "I'd like to make a reservation for two people for tomorrow."

Receptionist: "What time?"

Me: "How about two?"

Receptionist: "OK, how are you getting here?"

Me: "Oh, um...I think we'll get dropped off by our friends."

Receptionist: "You can't drive here."

Me: "No, we're just getting a ride from our friends."

Receptionist: "You can't have somebody drop you off."

Me: "OK, what are the options, then?"

Receptionist: "..."

Me: "Public transportation?"

Receptionist: "We are easily accessible by bus."

Me: (Which bus? From where? What stop??)

"...OK, we'll come by bus."

Receptionist: "See you then."


Okay. So she was a little blunt. Weird for a tourist destination, but just weird. Maybe.

The next day, we got dropped off a block away from the ninja temple and walked inside. There was no sign to be seen to lead us where the tour started. The compound was not big, so we figured we'd follow the crowd. It was a cold day, and it began sprinkling. We removed our shoes where everyone was doing so, and asked if that was where we were supposed to wait. It apparently was, and we waited until they called.

We went through the reception to check in. They asked, looking at my partner:

Receptionist: "Is he from overseas?"

Me: (What is the intention of this question? He lives here, but he is originally from the US...?)

"Um...what do you mean by that? He's from the US, but he lives here."

Receptionist: "There is no English spoken here and you are not allowed to translate word by word."

Me: "Do you mean I should keep quiet?" (Is she trying to kick us out?)

Receptionist: "Read this." (and hands us a folder.)

We started walking with the file in hand to read in the waiting area.

Receptionist: "Oh, read it here."

Us: "Okay..." (Browse the file briefly.)

Receptionist: "Please follow me."

"...Sit vertically here."

Me: "What? What do you mean by 'sit vertically'??"

Receptionist: "Please sit here so we can find you later."


To this day, I still have no idea what we were supposed to do, but it turned out that they wanted to give us an English guidebook so my partner could follow the tour and understand what to look at.

Was I the only one not understanding their Japanese? Yes, they were rather curt and even rude, but we seemed to have had complete communication breakdowns. Could 4 hours be such a distance that we don't understand each other?

That night, we had dinner with our friends and their friends, and we told them about the day's experience. We learned that there is a thing called Kanazawa hospitality, featuring pride mixed with bluntness and occasional impoliteness. One of them said it wasn't the first time he had heard about rudeness at Myoryu-ji. He even told us that when he worked on a website for a tourist agency that arranged expensive private tours for foreigners, the tourist agency refused to include Myoryu-ji in their itinerary.

We weren't crazy.

Nobody, either Japanese- or English-speakers, however, could decode what "tate ni suwatte kudasai (sit vertically)" meant.


After this experience, we assure you, we had wonderful encounters and delightful conversations with people of Kanazawa.