The trip to Kanazawa was coming to an end, and we’d managed to tick off most of the main sites: Kanazawa Castle, Kenrokuen Gardens, Nagamachi Samurai District, and Higashi Chaya District.

The bonus was stumbling upon another district along the beautiful Asano River, which is lined with, you guessed it, loads of cherry blossoms, plus old wooden tea houses reminiscent of Higashi Chaya, which were very scenic, but with virtually no tourists.

We found this river right after walking around Higashi Chaya. We walked down one side from the big Asanogawa Bridge, admiring the scenery, and crossed the river at the Shusui no Michi street bridge, and then walked back up to Asanogawa Bridge.

We would later find out that this area is called Kazuemachi Chayagai, another historic entertainment area with tea houses and geishas, but less famous than Higashi Chaya. It’s very quiet and it seemed like all the shops and tea houses were closed. In Higashi Chaya, many of the tea houses are open just for tourists to experience tea ceremony or listening to shamisen, but I got the impression that in Kazuemachi, this was still the real thing, for locals only.

If visiting Higashi Chaya, I’d highly recommend taking a detour here afterwards to see this district without the tourist crowds getting in the way in every photo!