Nagoya Pt. 2

Our second day in Nagoya was spent at the famous Nagoya Castle. It was pretty close to our hotel so we just decided to walk there. I love walking in Japan, everything is always so well designed for pedestrians. The boys don’t typically mind too much either, especially at the beginning of the day.

This was our first castle in Japan and it was really incredible. It doesn’t seem like the Japanese built anything back in the day that wasn’t beautifully designed. The castle itself was really impressive, built on its stone foundation with a full moat (sadly it’s no longer filled) surrounding it. We went on Sunday so they had weekend events going on, namely a show featuring samurai and ninja. I couldn’t understand most of it but it was still really cool (I loved watching the show, it felt surreal watching it…it’s been almost two years living here and sometimes it still doesnt feel like real life lol). They had lots of choreographed fights, and the actors kept trying to get our kids to participate by shouting English commands at them them. I’ve been interested in samurai, ninja, and the Japanese Edo period in general so this was pretty cool to watch.

Unfortunately, the main castle was closed at the moment (I think they were renovating it) but we got to walk around it, take some pictures, and get some ice cream in the courtyard. I think that was probably the kids’ favorite part. They really like ice cream.

For any Japanese history fans out there, Nagoya Castle was constructed by the legendary Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first shogun of the Tokgyawa Shogunate of Japan which ruled Japan from 1603 to the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Nagoya Castle and the attached mansion, Hommaru Palace, were built for Tokugawa’s ninth son, Yoshinao. Much of the castle and palace were damaged during WWII, but it has since been declared a national heritage site and much work has gone into restoration. Although we weren’t able to go inside the castle, we were able to take a pretty extensive tour of Hommaru Palace. This is where the samurai lived and entertained, and was absolutely stunning. I would have loved to see what it looked like when it was furnished and occupied, but it was still incredible to see.

After touring the palace, we left the castle to go check out downtown Nagoya. On our way out we went to some sort of festival that was going on. One of the tables there asked if I was interested in buying a house in Nagoya. Honestly, I’m used to the locals treating me as a tourist so it was actually kind of nice haha. The festival area was super muddy and busy though, so we didn’t stay too long.

Nagoya was really nice, and we found some cool spots on our way to the downtown area. Of course we stopped for more ice cream because it was really hot there that day. We also checked out a cool water fountain advertising Nagoya’s apparently famous local water and got a picture at the local tourist spot.

Downtown Nagoya had a park that was several blocks long surrounding a large radio tower. It was filled with open grassy areas, picnic benches, restaurants, bars, and nice shopping areas. Overall a very cool space with lots of diversity. I’m always really impressed with Japan’s integration of shopping, dining, residential, and park spaces.

We were having trouble deciding what to get for dinner, so we decided to just go to a TGI Fridays that was in the plaza. At first I thought it was a little lame to go to a American chain restaurant, but man was it awesome. The food was really good, the service was excellent, the menu straight from the US unlike some other American chains here, and the price was way lower than the US (and no tipping here!) Jackie and I got some drinks, the boys loved their huge kids meals, and we had a great time.

To wrap up the day, we checked out this weird mall. It was basically a big hole in the ground with a few shops underground around the edges, and a huge reflecting pool above ground a few stories up forming the ceiling. The mall was nothing special, especially compared to some other Japanese places we’ve been to, but the pool was pretty cool and offered a decent view of the area.

This pretty much wraps up our trip. We were planning on doing something Monday morning before taking the shinkansen back home, but basically everything we were interested in doing was closed on Mondays, so we ended up leaving early. There was lots left to do in Nagoya, so we may have to make another trip out there sometime. So much to do in Japan!

BRB, out to Japan – Taylor