Furukawa or Kanazawa

Hi,

Will be in Japan mid March and will be spending 1 night each in Takayama and Shirakawa. We have another night to spare and torn between Furukawa or Kanazawa. On this 3rd night, we will be arriving in either Furukawa or Kanazawa late in the day and will have to leave before 11AM the next day to make it to Miyajima before sunset. Given the tight timelines, does it make more sense to go to Furukawa instead of Kanazawa? I am not quite familiar w/ both places and have only considered them as we had to cancel our Magome-Tsumago plans. One of the reasons we are interested to go to Kanazawa is to be able to try the snow crabs (which I read should still be available by March 20th and a bit cheaper in Kanazawa). One of the reasons I am considering Furukawa is for the Hida Beef. Although I know this will be served both in Takayama and Shirakawa, I have read somewhere that the Hida Beef in Furukawa is one of the best.

Any thoughts on this? Is it worth the side trip? Does it make sense to go to either one or should we just stay another night in Takayama?

I've been past Furakawa (it doesn't look anything from the train, but then Takayama doesn't really either) but haven't been there. You'll get plenty of beef at Takayama and also Hiroshima, I'm not sure that I'd make the trip just for beef. I was at Kanazawa for several days and didn't find crabs to be cheap at all, but it is worth visiting for Kenroku-en alone. But then you'll have to take the Thunderbird back to Kyoto which is a long trip, and it isn't particularly special (unlike the trip from Nagoya to Takayama). Just to be a pest, I'd suggest as an option coming back and staying at Hikone overnight. It is handy to the Maibara shinkansen station, you get great beef there, and the castle is really nice. But any of those places would be good.