Reminds me of the one episode of Tetsuko no Tabi I watched…

Continuing where I left off last post, Day 1 of issa-sa’s weeaboo end-of-summer adventures took me all the way to Nagoya… Which took a bit longer than I expected. From Kohata, took the Nara line to Kizu, where I transferred to another line to get to Kameyama and then to Nagoya. Getting on the train at Kizu kinda took me aback for a while… I blindly rushed onto the only train on the platform for Kameyama, only to realize that I’d entered one of those traditional one car ‘trains’ (more like a tram) when all the while I expected to be on a conventional long train for the long journey to Nagoya… Took a step back out on the deserted platform to ascertain that this was the right (and only) train to Kameyama and got back in quickly (after realizing the next one would only come an hour later -_-”)

It turned out to be quite an interesting train ride. The one car chugged itself through some scenic hillsides and villages (though at the start I was still worrying if I had gotten on the right train or if there was a faster option -_-”)

So anyways, Nagoya… Ooo… Big city… Great and all, but then I realized I’ve just arrived in a city I barely know anything about by myself, and there I was standing in front of the JR Nagoya station, crowd milling about me without a clue where to go… What’s a lost otaku to do?

Wander about and snap random pictures of course!

Pierce the heavens with a random spiral motif-ed sculpture!

Random all building randomly juxtaposed with random Nagoya monument Castle.

Funky place called the ‘Oasis‘, which is basically a small underground mall with a huge glass dish of water hovering over it. (Glad to see my inherent ability to describe things in the least elegant way possible is still here =P)

Said glass dish of water from below.

What was going on under glass dish of water at that time. Was pretty cool to listen to for a while (though I was pretty put off by this random comment from a random young couple that said the performers look like “weirdos in sailor cosplays” *disgusted look on face as they passed by*)

Just across the street, the Nagoya TV Tower (taken from atop dish of water)

Ooo, pretty fountain…

Ferris wheel! And the TV Tower again (The park surrounding it seems inspired by the New York one)

The Oasis, taken from TV Tower (all the rest of my night view shots from my time in the tower turned out like crap). I basically slacked off in the TV Tower’s observation hall until closing time (10:00) after dinner. Speaking of which…

From my limited research of Nagoya (i.e. I asked my friend who has a host family there), it seems foodwise, it’s good for unagi (eel). From the very fact that I was snapping pictures of my food, the waitress deduced that I had no idea how to have this dish, so taught me -_-” (ochazuke style - scoop the rice and eel out into the seperate bowl, and have drowned it in green tea from the flask)

Miso katsu on a stick. (I assumed Nagoya was famous for miso katsu since Mos Burger pamphlets here advertised a miso katsu burger only sold in Aichi prefecture - which Nagoya is capital of. This was to compensate that in my entire time in Nagoya I failed to locate a single Mos Burger outlet despite searching high and low -_-”)

Pokemon Centre Nagoya! Located in the Oasis, along with…

The NHK Character shop (for your Totoro goods, or lately that Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo movie that everyone seems to think is he cutest thing ever).

And the JUMP Shop (No Sadaharu T_T), which, I found funny because they were getting ready to close way before Pokemon Centre did XD

And after wandering about the place for a while, it was time to find the dodgy accommodation for the night, and if you didn’t get my memo, I found my cheap-ass self in an internet/manga cafe (with shower! But that cost an extra 500yen so I had to take it before I left the next morning -_-”). I do want to note that that first night in Nagoya was pretty scary on my own because it was past 10 (after the TV Tower closed) that I started tracking back through the same streets in search of the few ‘cafes’ that I spotted earlier, and it just so happened to be the most ‘active’ part of town for that time of night - at practically every corner of every street I had people accosting me and trying to get me into their shady night time establishments *shudders*

I was getting so flighty I began walking really quickly past everything and everyone trying to ignore their presence going “don’t look them in the eye, don’t look them in the eye!” in my head >.< In the end, I did manage to find a ‘decent’ establishment that let me stay for 7 hours, and I had a roof over my head (and internet access + free drinks!) until I could safely leave in the wee hours of the morning *phew*

(Note that this is no way supposed to imply that Nagoya is a dodgy place to wander about by yourself at night… I just happened to be in the part of town where the concentration of night-life and the old geezers was just a bit too uch for one lone naive little panda to handle -_-”)

Nagoya at dawn.

Early morning exercises??? God, I haven’t been up that early in ages.

Last place I had to visit (ironically, I planned it as my first stop, only I reached Nagoya station at 4 the prevous day… and the place closes at 4:30 -_-”) in Nagoya was Nagoya Castle. Hung about in the surrounding parks until 9 when it opens (I was there at about 8:30 and the front gate was empty. Back at 8:50 and already you have tour groups from Hong Kong/Korea waiting in line outside -_-”).

It’s definitely more ‘majestic’ than Hikone Castle which I visited last (that one was only a 3 floor remnant with steep stairs. Nagoya Castle is about 8/9 floors high if I remember right - and it has an elevator) (I find it embarassing that I can’t compare it to Osaka Castle since I’ve not been there, despite it beng the closest one and having a free ticket to use thanks to our school). The interior now mostly houses historical artefacts from the era it was built etc (don’t ask me for details, I have a horrible mind for History, though sometimes in Physics class I start to wish I could take Japanese History instead…) There was kind of a cool room that tried to recreate what it would be like to look out at the surrounding city at night back in time - kinda wish I had an Amatsuki moment there :P

A replica of the fish statues perched atop the castle’s roof (oops, I think I wasn’t suppose to use the flash indoors…)

View of Nagoya from the highest floor we had access to.

And that’s about it on Nagoya. I had a 6 hour train ride to Tokyo to ‘look forward’ to for the rest of the day, so I left town right after I knew I had enough pictures to last an entire post :P I’ll try to update on the next leg of the trip as ‘quickly’ as I can this time - what I have conveniently drawn from my large bag of excuses is the least savoury one of them unfortunately: exams T_T