Some of Kanazawa’s most precious districts are overshadowed by more famous areas – but seeing the city through a local’s eyes creates a new perspective. Explore a quiet residential area where pastel-colored Rakugan confections – a Kanazawa specialty – are produced, and learn more about mysterious geisha at the geisha museum and training ground. Visit Utatsuyama Park – an expansive forest in the middle of the city with over 100 types of wildflowers – then forego crowded Higashi Chaya in favor of storybook Kazuemachi, a small riverside district lined with wood-built, feudal-era buildings where ethereal geisha play music and locals move between trendy taprooms and galleries (why not let your host recommend a hidden haunt for a quick coffee?). 

In central Kanazawa, you’ll follow your local host between the fascinating districts that are often overlooked. At Utatsuyama Park, a breathtaking green slope northeast of the Asano River, stroll among the flowers and search for multiple Shintoist and Buddhist shrines, then cross Asonawa Bridge and explore Kazuemachi, where traditional and modern Japan coexist in harmony, less than a mile away. Walk between perfectly preserved wood-built architecture, unaltered by the events of WWII, and snap pictures of colorful street murals by local artists, before heading two miles south across Sai River to the west geisha district, compact Nishi Chaya – a single residential road where geisha and maiko (apprentice geisha) live and train.