Rainy day things to do in Ishikawa with kids 4 spots
Ishikawa centers on Kanazawa, an old castle town the war never touched. Kenrokuen garden, the Omicho fish market, and a museum with a pool you walk under are all close together, and the soft serve comes covered in gold leaf.
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
A contemporary art museum ringed by lawn, with fourteen galleries no two alike.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Among the largest insect museums on the Japan Sea coast, centered on a subtropical butterfly house.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · checked Aug ’26
Kanazawa's museum for the philosopher D.T. Suzuki: three wings, three gardens, all on one floor.
Stroller OK · Changing table · Family restroom · checked Sep ’26
Omicho Market is Kanazawa's roughly 300-year-old food market, with narrow, maze-like lanes lined with shops.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Oct ’26
Both the ticketed exhibition zone and the free public zone are inside the building, and so are the Kids Studio and the Art Library with its picture books. The twelve horn-shaped speaking tubes and Wrapping, the pavilion children can go inside, stand out on the lawn.
The sights are the first-floor exhibition hall with the “Butterfly Garden” butterfly house and the second-floor exhibit corners, and the building is walkable by ramp.
Ishikawa's tourism federation lists the museum as an indoor sight that works on a rainy day, and the long corridor to the Exhibition Space is kept dim, which makes it easy to settle down. One of the corridors between the wings runs outdoors, though, so part of the route is still in the open.
Rain changes little, because the market stands under a covered arcade and the prefectural tourism federation lists it under "Rainy-day OK! indoor sightseeing." Also, a local guide notes that the buses it recommends from Kanazawa Station's east-exit terminal to the Musashigatsuji-Omichoichiba stop, two stops away, let you off at an entrance where you can get into the market without getting wet.