Kanazawa or Yokohama?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Yokohama gives you more choice. Fast trains reach the Shonan coast at Zushi, Kamakura and Enoshima, and the Miura Peninsula, so a swim can be added to a temple visit on the same day.

Kanazawa has long sandy beaches at Uchinada and Chirihama, where cars drive on the firm sand. Getting there is less simple, though, and outside July and August that coast is windswept and grey.

Both cities eat very well, in different ways. Kanazawa is about refined regional Japanese cooking: snow crab and sweet shrimp from Omicho Market, Kaga dishes such as jibuni duck stew, kaiseki dinners, teahouse sweets and local sake.

Yokohama is more casual and more international. It has Japan's largest Chinatown, its own iekei ramen, a ramen museum and the small grill bars of Noge. For a special dinner, Kanazawa is the stronger choice.

Kanazawa is clearly ahead. Because the war spared it, the city still has Kenroku-en, the wooden teahouse streets of Higashi Chaya and the earthen samurai walls of Nagamachi, as well as the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art.

Yokohama tells another story, Japan's opening to foreign trade, through the Western merchant houses on the Bluff, the Red Brick Warehouses and the moored liner Hikawa Maru. Sankeien's garden of relocated temples is its finest sight, but the city has nothing to match Kanazawa's old streets.

Yokohama gives you more to do in the evening. Noge's standing bars and izakaya fill up after work, Kannai adds pubs and karaoke, and Minato Mirai has bars with views over the lit harbour. Even so, it closes earlier than its size suggests.

Kanazawa's evenings centre on Katamachi's sake bars and snack bars, plus a few quiet bars in old chaya houses. They are good for a slow drink after dinner and little more.

Yokohama has easier access to the outdoors. Wooded temple trails around Kamakura, coastal walks on the Miura Peninsula, the Tanzawa ridges and the volcanic valleys of Hakone are all reachable by train, and Mount Fuji shows on clear winter days.

Kanazawa's wilder country, sacred Mount Hakusan and the rugged Noto coast, is largely out of reach without a car. In town, the riverbanks make gentle walks, and the snowy winters suit skiers more than hikers.

Both are good bases, but Yokohama's outings are closer and more varied. Tokyo and Kamakura are each under half an hour away, and Hakone and the Edo-era streets of Kawagoe are easy to reach by direct train.

From Kanazawa, the highlights are the thatched farmhouse villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama, along with Takayama and the Zen monastery of Eihei-ji. They are memorable but mostly involve longer bus rides, so each one takes a full day.

With children the gap is wide. Yokohama has the Cup Noodles Museum, the Anpanman museum, a seafront Ferris wheel, the aquarium and rides at Hakkeijima and a large modern zoo, and the flat harbour is easy with a pushchair.

Kanazawa is just as safe and clean. In the city, though, the main draws for children are the playful installations at the 21st Century Museum and the trick doors of the ninja temple. The dinosaur museum and the zoo mean driving out of town.

Yokohama is much easier to get around. An underground line, JR trains, subways and private railways all take the same IC card, with English signs and fast links to Tokyo and Haneda.

Kanazawa has no metro or tram. Its sights sit within about 2km of the station, so walking or the bike-share scheme often works better than the slow loop buses, at least until snow makes the streets hard going.

There is little between them, but they sell different things. Kanazawa is the place for Japanese crafts: gold-leaf lacquerware, Kutani porcelain, Kaga yuzen silk and tea bowls by serious makers.

Yokohama offers easy, everyday shopping, with department stores and underground arcades by the station, waterfront malls, Motomachi's leather goods and Chinese teas in Chinatown. For luxury labels, both send you elsewhere.

The two cost about the same, with plenty of tidy business hotels and cheap noodle and set-lunch meals. What drives up the cost is different. In Kanazawa it is the speciality food, kaiseki dinners and snow crab, plus Shinkansen fares and ryokan nights.

In Yokohama it is the harbour-view hotels and family attraction tickets, though the Bluff houses, the parks and the harbour walks are free.

Yokohama has the wider programme. Minato Mirai Hall has a large pipe organ, the Kanagawa Arts Theatre stages opera and dance, arenas host touring bands, and old jazz cafés reflect the port's long jazz history. Tokyo's stages are also close by.

Kanazawa's offer is smaller and more traditional: Noh at the prefectural theatre, geisha dance in the chaya districts and the respected Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. Plan an evening around one of these.

Kanazawa is the better place to unwind, because its bathing is the traditional kind and is close at hand. Inns beside a mountain stream at Yuwaku and the three Kaga spa towns put a proper onsen stay within easy reach. In town, hotel baths and the old bathhouses mean you can have a hot soak without making a separate trip. The city is also never crowded, so the whole stay slows down.

Yokohama's version is more urban. Its big bath complexes, saunas included, are good for a long evening after a day of sightseeing. For an inn with mountain views you have to travel to Hakone, though, and the quiet of Sankeien and the Bluff gardens is something you go looking for rather than something that surrounds you.