I’m combining days 6 and 7 of our trip into one post here since we’ve mostly been hanging out with my friend who flew in from Korea, who we’ve not seen since he left the US 2 years ago. However, here’s what we’ve been up to the past two days.
Arriving in Nagoya:
October 5th we left Shinjuku to Nagoya by bullet train, which was about 1 hour 45 minutes, once we got to Nagoya station we made a quick transfer to a subway line and to our local station in Kanayama. We had a little time to burn before our room would be ready to check into so we grabbed lunch in the nearby area. We both had gyumeshi, which was a shredded beef on rice which was very good. By this time it was very apparent Nagoya does not receive as many visitors as Tokyo due to the very noticeable lack of english signage and use thereof, which made for more use of our japanese.
Nagoya Science Museum:
We then checked in and set out to explore Nagoya before our friend arrived from Korea. We first set out to go to the Nagoya Science Museum, since it has the largest planetarium in the world, but our GPS messed us up a little and we just missed the final showing so we still went but only got pictures of the outside:
The large dome on the right is the planetarium. As we made our way over to view that, the guy on the right side of this image kneeling down was breakdancing, which was cool to see.
Looking at the picture above just to the left of the dome and in front of the museum was a set of stairs that went down to look at the rocket that was used to transfer an International Space Station module into orbit. Here’s a look at that. The missing section is where the module was loaded and just out of frame of the shot to the right was a replica of the module:
We then made a 20 minute walk through the streets of Nagoya and to the north, down busy streets with lots of flashing lights and people all about reminiscent of the streets of Tokyo but much wider and more spacious all around. In fact, Nagoya is a giant city with the skyline stretching to the horizon, but it is more spacious and not as densely populated. You get a feel of a large city like Tokyo but a more laid back atmosphere.
As we continued meandering down the streets we found a big ferris wheel and decided to ride it to see the city more. Here’s a shot from within the car:
If you look toward the right side some, you will see an orange tower (not the orange and white one). That is Nagoya TV Tower and since we like towers a lot, we headed there next to go up it.
Nagoya TV Tower:
When we reached the TV tower we purchased tickets to go up to the observation deck at 330 ft (100 m). The tower is a beautiful orange structure with lots of trusses. It was originally built in 1954 and was the first TV tower in Japan and first with an observation deck too. In fact, it has two observation decks: one at 295 ft (90 m) and the other at 330 ft (100 m). The lower deck is indoor and covered from the outside, but the upper deck is caged and exposed to the air. The upper deck also has shrubbery on it and is a really tranquil place to sit and enjoy the skyline. The warm air and refreshing breeze was perfect. It was also not very busy, which I was surprise since it was really serene and a nice place to relax.
The picture above is from the upper deck and this shows the city extent and in the lower left you can see Oasis 21, which is like a mall, but of just restaurants. We headed there next.
Oasis 21:
We took the elevator back down to the ground level, then walked across Nagoya’s central park, across a street and into the courtyard of Oasis 21. The sidewalks were lit with lighted rectangular sections in the sidewalk itself, you can see them in the picture below. The top of the structure is glass covered with flowing water and anchored lit orbs. Around the water, is a lit walkway, where a lot of people were enjoying the night and sitting down and talking in groups of friends. The mall underneath is open to the outside air and is accessible from a few stairwells and an elevator or by multiple subway entrances within. Here’s a better shot from the TV tower:
Here’s a view from atop Oasis 21’s walkway:
Walking to the ground level and looking underneath the glass roof you will see this:
In the center was an exposition of some sort, while the perimeter held all the restaurants. The outside structure from ground level looked like this:
While waiting for our friend to get into Nagoya, which he was due at 9:00 pm we decided to have dinner inside Oasis 21 and we ate at a conveyor belt sushi place. We had to wait about 30 minutes for the line but was well worth it. Once our number was up we sat down and grabbed some plates off the conveyor belt as well as ordering some from a computer screen at our seats. Here’s some food I had, it was grilled eel and shrimp tempura:
I’ve had lots of eel, but never grilled like this… I kept ordering it over and over it was ridiculously good! By the time we were done eating our friend had arrived and we went out to a local izakaya (bar) and hung out til around 1:00 am before calling it a night.
SCMaglev Railway Park:
The next morning we woke up and Sara and I headed to southern Nagoya, following the Aonami line to its terminal station Kinjo-futo right at the Nagoya port. The weather had been calling for rain due to the second typhoon Kong-Rey passing by, and although it was gloomy, the rain held out for the most part until a brief shower later in the day. The port water was choppy too. Riding into the port we saw this:
Once we reached the terminal station we followed the signs for the SCMaglev Railway Park. When we arrived there, we bought out tickets and viewed the trains and the history of trains of Japan. The museum was really interesting, especially if you are a train fan, it also provides a lot of details and information on how today’s current train lines operate and are maintained as well as the automated systems in place that help control the trains safely. For example one demonstration, showed how the trains are automatically stopped if/when an earthquake is detected. The trains are stopped to prevent derailment. Other displays discussed countermeasures to derailment too and how they have changed over the years. Here are a few of the trains we saw:
The first one you come to is this one:
And inside where the conductors sit:
The above picture will give you an appreciation for the complexity of a steam power locomotive. The next picture shows the inside of a modern Shinkansen engine from the mid 1990s:
As you can see the controls were vastly simplified compared to the steam powered engine. Here are a few more engines from different times:
After the train park we headed back to central Nagoya and met up with our friend. We then headed to lunch and then hung out a bit before heading to Atsuta jingu shrine. At this point we ran into some rain but only for about 5-10 minutes. Here’s the entrance to the shrine:
Once we entered the grounds the light fell fast and it was a bit too dark to grab anymore pictures inside. We then continued on foot further south another 10 minutes or so to Atsuta Horaiken, which is a restaurant, recommended by our japanese teacher, that serves Nagoya’s specialty, hitsumabushi.
Atsuta Horaiken:
When we arrived there was about a 40 minute wait to get inside and once we ate it was very clear why the long line of people there. Here’s what the inside looked like:
We started with an appetizer of eel bones. Yes, bones. You can think of them as potato chips; they were like salty, crispy chips:
After that our main course was brought out, the histumabushi:
Hitsumabushi is cooked eel served over rice, but you eat it in a certain manner. First you use the spoon to cut the eel dish into fourths. You then scoop 1/4 into the bowl and eat it as is, just eel and rice (in the picture above underneath the eel is white rice). After you finish that, you get the next 1/4 and this time add the seaweed, wasabi and green onions to it. After that you scoop the next 1/4 into the bowl, add the seaweed, wasabi, green onions and now pour some broth from the bottle in the top right of the picture above. Eat that and then onto the last 1/4 and you eat this portion however you please. It was extremely good and eel is one of my favorite meals so I’m glad we got to experience it this way.
After we left the restaurant we went to another bar and talked and hung out until late and we departed for bed.
Tomorrow, we will meet up to have breakfast with our friend before he heads back to Korea and we will head onward to Kyoto in the early afternoon.
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