金沢: Kanazawa

Just a brief jaunt north of Fukui is a city nicknamed, "Little Kyoto". Kanazawa features some nice temples, some of the most beautiful gardens in Japan and a fairly decent Mexican restaurant.
Don't think I ever saw a Halloween decoration that grand in the States.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, a few friends and I made the brief train ride up for some sightseeing and shopping. The weather wasn't kind enough to allow us a nice view of the gardens, so we stayed indoors for the most part.
Kanazawa has some very scenic side streets. This particular non-descript alley leads into the secretive temple that has come to be nicknamed, "The Ninja Temple". It has no connection to Ninjutsu, the secret art of the ninja (or so they say), but it is an amazing piece of architectural trickery.

This isn't a very good photograph, but it does allow you to see how simple the building appears from the outside. Simple 2-3 story temple, right? Wrong! Inside it is has nearly 30 stairwells twisting and turning about a multi-layered den of traps and pitfalls constructed to befuddle government spies. Imagine a 6 or 7 story building trapped inside a 3 story building's body. Every turn, every door leading into a trap or some guard just waiting to spear, slice or stab unsuspecting trespassers.
And it also served as a religious center for the local nobility.