My wife is Japanese and I am a German American. We met in New York City and have been living in Northern California pretty much all our adult life. Now it's time to make serious plans as far as where we want to retire. We have excellent retirement benefits (money + health) from working for the State of California for decades and are considering Kanazawa as a place to spend our final years in.
Although my wife was born in neighboring Toyama, she very rarely visited Kanazawa. She only remembers a school sporting event. We both visited the city once a few years ago (before the Shinkansen arrived) and fell in love with the place (although to be sure, it was from a tourist perspective). In searching for Kanazawa on the nets and YouTube, all I find are the incredibly repetitive and boring "5 Things to Do in Kanazawa" or "10 Things to Do in Kanazawa" or "2 Days in Kanazawa"… sigh… I find nothing on the day-to-day life there. So, now I circle back to the title of this post…
What is daily life like in Kanazawa?
Just a quick run-down of who we are so you can get a feel for which neighborhood(s) might be right for us. My wife is a PhD clinical psychologist and I am a former university art instructor with a Masters in Painting. We will be looking to buy a house, not rent. Car?… not sure yet. Being in a part of town with good local family-owned coffee shops and cafes along the side-streets and back alleys is important. Neither of us drink, so bars and clubs are not important. I will most likely volunteer to give English language tours at any nearby art museums. We will also need room for in-laws (my wife's mother and sister) to come and stay with us for extended periods of time.
Any advice will be much appreciated.
by TheRealAlbrechtDurer
2 comments
In retirement you are not bound to a neighborhood for work or schools, so maybe try an extended stay in a few different places before settling down. Choose a number of places you might be interested in and spend a month or two in each. In each place, explore and walk around. Find the parts of each place you like and maybe put that on the list for a deeper exploration. A car may be helpful in getting around in some places, but in others it maybe a burden, so maybe start without a Carin cities it is not needed, and then add it for places you need one to get around.
If anyone has any knowledge of the daily life in Kanazawa, I’d like to hear it. If you just want to give off-topic random advice, please refrain.