Kanazawa (金沢) part 2

The Japanese summer has certain icons, things that are recognized by anyone as "ah...summer."  They appear in literature, in film, in art, in advertising.  Sounds, like the cicada or a furin (wind chime), fashion, like yukata, geta and uchiwa (flat fan), tastes, like kakigori (shaved ice), Ayu (Japanese river trout) and ramune soda, and spectacles, like hanabi (fireworks).

Summer for me seemed to start in Kanazawa.

A matcha-flavored kakigori on a shady bench in Kenrokuen Garden.  The same color as the garden moss.  It's so simple - shaved ice and flavoured syrup.  It's so summer.  Your teeth hurt a bit, but you feel cooler.  And a smile.

…

It's been a long time since I've gone to see a fireworks show.  There are, of course, firework shows all year round, everywhere.  But there is something quintessentially summer about fireworks.  In California they always followed days at the beach, bodysurfing, barbecues, Hawaiian shirts, suntanned skin, swimsuits, watermelon.
Americans will shoot off fireworks for any occasion - baseball games, concerts, the grand opening of just about anything.  Indeed, Disneyland has a nightly fireworks show.  But in Japan, like cicada and yukata, they only happen in the summer.
Because of heavy rain on Saturday the fireworks show in Kanazawa was postponed until Sunday, the day I arrived.  Luck.  People gathered along the banks of the Sai River to watch.  It was a really local event, that is, I was the only gaijin.  I get a perverse joy being the only non-Japanese person at an event.  I feel strangely invisible and everyone and everything seems somehow more Japanese.

…

Kanazawa's western border is the Japan Sea.  The nearest beach is just 9km (5.5 miles) from Kanazawa Station.  I wanted to see the sea.  So on my second day I set out for, not the nearest beach, but one in a different prefecture more than an hour away.  
Amaharashi is a little beach town in Toyama Bay.  It has incredible scenery including the famous Onnaiwa, a giant rock (tiny island?) with a cluster of pine trees 100 meters from the shore.  A life-size bonsai.  On a clear day Amaharashi offers spectacular views of Tateyama Mountain (part of the Japanese Alps).  Strange that, while this beautiful coastline has inspired dozens of poets over the centuries, it was all but deserted when I went.  There were a few old men sitting on the promenade in the shade of an old pine.  Some overturned rowboats that hadn't seen water in years offered clues to the amount of activity here.  I was quite content with the quiet - just the buzzing cicada and miniature waves lapping up on the beach.  I went for a swim.