My First Bike Ride Since the Noto Earthquake 🚲 ⛩️ Cycling to Shrines for Hatsumode in Kanazawa 金沢 初詣

My First Bike Ride Since the Noto Earthquake 🚲 ⛩️ Cycling to Shrines for Hatsumode in Kanazawa 金沢 初詣

Welcome to 2024! This happens to be my first  bike ride of the year and also my first bike ride since a really big and scary earthquake  we had on New Year’s Day. The epicenter of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake was a couple hours away  from us on the Noto Peninsula

And has been a really terrible situation for some cities farther up the  coast from us. Thankfully, Zeb and I were safe here and our apartment was mostly fine except for  some broken pipes. On this ride we’ll see four shrines in downtown Kanazawa, including Oyama Jinga,  the most popular Shrine in the city.

As an aside I have to mention how grateful I am for Japan’s  many free public bathrooms, especially during our time without water. Having been in countries  where you have to pay for public bathrooms it’s something about Japan that I never take for  granted.

I’m still not that comfortable venturing out on a regular bike ride yet with the frequent  aftershocks still happening, and the potential for landslides. Plus I hadn’t done my hatsumode  yet, or my first shrine visit for the year.

So, I thought it might be fun to take it easy with a ride on my mamachari bike to see a few shrines in Kanazawa. There were often helicopters  flying overhead providing relief to the hardest hit cities, and sometimes the emergency vehicle sirens could be heard.

But otherwise, I was happy to see how normal the ride felt. The weather was really nice for early January, and I was riding along the Asanogawa, or the Asano River  from Uchinada. As I left Uchinada I was relieved to see minimal signs of earthquake damage.

Some roads and bridges are damaged, but not the route that follows the train line into the city. It was pretty scary there for a little bit, that was my first really big earthquake. The first shrine I  stopped at was one very close to Kanazawa Station called Yasue Hachimangu.

Hachiman is one of the  most popular Shinto deities in Japan and is the ancient god or kami of war, divination, and  culture. This Shrine was founded in the year 939 in a neighborhood that used to have a lot  of swordsmiths. There’s a hachiman okiagari doll at the front

Or one of those Daruma dolls that  rights itself after it falls over and the doll symbolizes getting back up if you fall. It says that this statue particularly is modeled after the image of the god hachiman just after he was  born when he was wrapped in Crimson swaddling clothes.

These dolls are the same ones that our  prefecture’s mascot hyakumansan is modeled after Offering a 5 Yen coin is common because the  way you say 5 Yen “go en” is the same way you say the word for fate or chance kind of like extra good luck when making your prayer

I got a goshuin here, or an honorable seal to add to my book and commemorate the first shrine I visited in 2024. afterwards I continued biking towards  the center of Kanazawa. This time of year the post office mailboxes will dedicate one side  to just New Year’s postcards, or nengajo.

If you put your New Year’s card on the left side before the  first, the post office will hold them until New Year’s Day when they deliver them all at once. This is a huge feat according to NHK, Japan Post prepared 1.65 billion cards s for 2023.

If you’re late you can still put your New Year’s cards in the mail to have them delivered until January 7th, but anything later would be considered rude or just a winter’s greeting card instead. this is Oyama Jinga, a larger and more popular Shrine

So there was already a line down the stairs for people wishing to pray there. Oyama Jinja is a shrine dedicated to Maeda Toshiee, the first Lord of the Maeda family who ruled the Kaga domain for hundreds of years, now present day Ishikawa and  Toyama prefectures.

He died in 1599 and a spirit became deified at nearby Mount Utatsu before the shrine was relocated here in 1873. the shrine has a unique gate that combines Western and Eastern  Styles since it was designed by a Dutch architect. the stained glass at the top is really beautiful

Especially when it’s lit up at night. There were some food stalls getting set up here and also  a huge tent for omikuji, literally “sacred lot.” This is a random paper fortune you can get starting at 100 yen. They can be different levels of good, neutral, or bad,

But if you get a bad fortune, you can tie it with the others at the shrine and leave your bad luck there. Usually you tie them  on or near a pine tree, since matsu means Pine and the same pronunciation is used for the verb  “to wait”

As in wanting your bad luck to wait and not follow you home. I got suichi or good luck to  come. I think a future blessing is a pretty good sign after such a crazy start to the New Year. My fortune also said that there would be shaking in a big tremor,

Which is a little spooky but I’ll just  take it as metaphorical. Some of the stone lanterns and railings had been toppled from the earthquake but thankfully there wasn’t much visible damage. Next to the shrine is a peaceful garden which is so nice, lush, and quiet. It’s one of my favorite spots in Kanazawa,

And understandable  why it’s such a popular spot for hatsumode. As I left the shrine and headed down  the street I noticed a lot of shimekazari on the doors which is a New Year’s decoration  made from shimenawa or sacred rope. You’ll see these a lot during this time of year in Japan

To ward off evil spirits and bring luck for the new year. On my way back home I biked on a different route back towards the station to visit two more small shrines. Shirahige Jinja means white beard shrine and is just a couple blocks from the East entrance of Kanazawa  station.

It’s small, but there are pretty golden ginko trees here during late summer and fall and there’s a swing set and some benches. To get to the final shrine on my way home I passed under the Kanazawa train station tracks and arrived at Hiraokano Jinja.

This is one of the easiest shrines to walk to since it’s just outside the station, but it feels a little less peaceful since it’s surrounded by tall hotels. there was no one at this shrine either  but it was still nice to see.

You have to walk your bike through the West exit on this part  of Kanazawa Station but from here I was heading back to the Asanogawa to ride back home. my short ride into town brought me a lot of peace to see how things were relatively undamaged

And it was a relief to have things feel like they were getting back to normal. Things are still very difficult for towns north of us on the peninsula though and I hope they can feel  a sense of stability and peace soon.

I have some ways to donate, linked in the description, as well as more information about each of the shrines I visited. Thanks for joining me on this  ride and I hope you have a safe new year! [Music]

A few days after the Noto Earthquake happened in Ishikawa Prefecture, I went on a bike ride from Uchinada to some visit some shrines in Kanazawa (金沢), and see how things were doing outside our immediate neighborhood. Initially I was just going to one shrine for my hatsumode (初詣) – or first shrine visit of the year – but there are so many in the city that I was able to cycle by four different shinto shrines.

You can support the cities hit hardest by donating to Noto’s Earthquake Relief Fund: https://www.pref.ishikawa.lg.jp/suitou/gienkinr0601.html
More ways to donate are listed here (non-exhaustive list): https://www.vogue.co.jp/article/noto-earthquake-support

Shrines I Visited in This Video:
Yasue Hachimangu: https://www.yasue-hachimangu.or.jp/
Oyama Jinja: http://www.oyama-jinja.or.jp/
Shirahige Jinja: https://www.ishikawa-jinjacho.or.jp/shrine/j0007/
Hiraokano Jinja: https://www.ishikawa-jinjacho.or.jp/shrine/j0056/

Realtime earthquake information and data: https://www.data.jma.go.jp/multi/quake/index.html?lang=en

🎙️ Want to keep up with the rest of our adventures? We have a podcast! : https://www.ramblingramsbothams.com

More videos about Japan Cycling here: 
Riding from Kanazawa to Shirakawa-go: https://youtu.be/f-j3oMr7LEE 
Kanazawa cherry blossom tour on a mamachari bike: https://youtu.be/Xjn89S64iXE 
Biking from Kanazawa to Matsumoto and back: https://youtu.be/OOgtL6N20mY?si=1BK6W8XnFOwWn66V
Noto Peninsula Cycling Tour: https://youtu.be/AtgQuM1PLaI

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