The covered western entrance of Omicho Market in Kanazawa

Japan, checked in both languages

The part that didn’t make it into English

Japan’s official pages exist twice: once in Japanese, once in English. The times, the fees and the days a place is closed do not always survive the trip between them.

What a place in Japan costs and when it opens, read off the official pages and printed as numbers.

Every figure carries the date we checked it

Read in both languagesKanazawa and Nara
Every figure carries its own date
Facts in Japanese only
5
closures, exemptions and the reason behind a rule — none of them on the English page
Places checked7each one against the official pages, in Japanese and in English
Cities2Kanazawa, Nara — three to four places each, then the whole city by the clock
Press trips taken0no invitations, no free stays, no gifted tickets

Where we have been looking

One city at a time, three or four places in each. Every place gets the same treatment: what the official pages say in each language, and what only one of them says.

Nara奈良

Three places within a walk of each other, where the earliest gate opens at 6:30 and charges nothing, and the park in the middle publishes no hours at all.

Visitors standing on a path in Nara Park as several deer walk up to them

Nara Park

Published hours NoneDeer counted 1,687
The Great Buddha Hall at Todai-ji seen from the approach, with visitors walking towards it

Todai-ji

Great Buddha Hall 7:30Other halls 8:30
The vermilion middle gate at Kasuga Taisha seen from the approach, with the lantern-hung corridor running to either side and visitors walking past

Kasuga Taisha

Grounds open 6:30Special worship ¥700
The whole of Nara, by the clock →

Kanazawa金沢

Three places within minutes of each other, and a morning decided by opening hours rather than distance.

The covered western entrance of Omicho Market in Kanazawa

Omicho Market

First counters 7:00Published bowls ¥2,100–5,300
The Sannomaru plaza at Kanazawa Castle, with the white-walled Hishi-yagura and Gojikken Nagaya row along its southern edge

Kanazawa Castle

Park Free, every hourLast entry 16:00
An old pine with yukitsuri ropes strung from a post in a cone

Kenrokuen

Free before 7:00
Two-storey latticed teahouse buildings lining both sides of a street in the Higashi Chaya District, Kanazawa

Higashi Chaya District

All three built 1820Admission ¥500–750
The whole of Kanazawa, by the clock →

One city at a time

Gold marks a city where we have read the official pages in Japanese and in English, side by side, and written down what only one of them says. Grey is there for bearing: we have not covered it yet.

Tap a gold city to zoom in.

Tokyo → Kanazawa2h 28m by Hokuriku ShinkansenJR West (English site), checked 2026-09-13

Read in both languagesFor bearing onlyOkinawa is shown inset, not to scale.