You Say Hockey, I Say Hakkei

This is what greets me when I come bounding out of the Kanazawa-hakkei station enroute to Dr. T's office. I am aiming for the Seaside Line near that tall cream-colored building in the background. The red awning on the left shelters customers who always seem to be standing at least two deep to buy yakitori (meat on a stick). I am working up the nerve to get in that line.


Here's a better shot of the 8K-Aoki bakery. Wait just a minute, is that a restaurant on the second floor? Be still my heart.

This is a bicycle corral at the foot of the steps ascending to the Seaside Line. As you can see, baskets are standard equipment on most bikes here. I have never run across a bicycle store in all my wanderings. That's odd.

The bicycle parking facilities at the hospital are a bit more upscale. This might be the staff lot between the hospital (left) and medical school (right) since there are more motorcycles than bicycles parked here. Not a Mercedes or Lexus in sight, though, so I might be wrong.

And here is the lot in front of the hospital. That walkway runs from the hospital lobby to the train station entrance. Yes, the hospital lobby is on the second floor, making access most convenient for mass transit users.

If I understood Reiko correctly, hakkei means eight views. She was comparing Kanazawa-hakkei with neighboring Kanazawa-bunko at the time. I thought I heard her say that these two areas of Kanazawa were so famously competitive that Kanazawa-bunko translates to "Kanazawa rivalry." "Isn't that sort of sad," I opined, "to be saddled with a name like that." "What are you talking about?" asked Reiko (and not for the first time). "Rivalry," I replied. "It doesn't seem fair that one town gets to be called 'eight famous views' and the other gets stuck with 'rivalry.'"

Reiko sighed. "Books. Many books. Li-bra-ry. Home of famous library."

Oh.