GO TO 金沢!

Vacation #1!

Destination: 金沢 Kanazawa, Ishikawa-ken (prefecture)
Date: Sep. 18-20 (Sat-Mon)
Cost: ￥22,000 - ￥24,000

Highlights:
5-hour train ride!

View of (not the ocean, but) Lake Biwako
it's humongous O_O

Kanazawa JR (Japan Railways) Station

Local streets

random art :)

cool building in the shopping district~

Kenroku-en

Shirakawa-go 

Late Summer in Shirakawa~

Light Festival & other special events

we watched dance performances by local college groups at this festival.. めっちゃ楽しかった~ (meccha tanoshikatta, very enjoyable)

Accommodations:
(all reserved through Hostelworld.com, all heartily recommended, especially Pongyi and Namaste~)
Guest House Pongyi
Guesthouse Namaste
Ryokan Shibaya

Summary:
I wouldn't consider Kanazawa an "essential" stop if your time in Japan is short, but for a last-minute planned trip (don't wanna waste those 3-day weekends...), it was nice~  Shirakawa-go (about an hour-long bus ride from Kanazawa, round trip￥3200) is definitely worth a visit if you're in the area!  The sights can be seen, in a fairly relaxed manner, in about 3-4 hours...but if you want to spend longer there (which you might, it's really lovely~), it's not hard at all. :)

shrinkage

I have much pleasanter things to record later, when there is time to spare, but right now....

the USD-JPY ($ /￥) exchange rate is deeply saddening to me.

US$1 = ￥83.5 (thank you google.)

That's market price....so if I go exchange my traveler's checks at a local bank, the rate I receive will be 1 or  points(? don't know this terminology..) lower.  ￥82 or ￥81 per US$1.  It's pretty close for the post office's international ATM, too....

should I try and wait it out for a better rate, or just get some money?  The highest it's been this month is about ￥86, I think.  Bahhh..... my wallet's going to be emptied tomorrow (paying for insurance), and I'm going to Osaka for a field trip on Saturday, so I'll probably just suck it up and do that ATM-thang.  Cash disappears so quickly...really forces me into consciousness of how much I'm spending and how constantly I'm buying.

*sigh*