10/23 Wednesday, Tokyo. Rain when I arrived in Tokyo Haneda airport ~2pm. Already had the disembarcation form filled with Visit Japan Web with a QR code. Went to passport control. Then, scan passport and this QR code at some machine. Fairly fast. Not very long line (maybe this is a better airport in Tokyo than Narita). At the train station info desk, good English, able to use my US credit card, but unable to buy a ticket originating from aother station.
Took a Keikju train (only option) for a few stops to Keikju Kamata station.
Walked to Honmonji temple complex, along Nomi River.
The river is ugly with near vertical concrete banks (very common in Japan). More like a large ditch.
Stopped at a 7-Eleven to get some ¥. Only gave out ¥10K notes. ¥220 fee for anything above ¥10k.
7-Eleven is widely available, and ATM often opens 24 hours. Very convenient.
Warm (high 70°Fs, mid 20°Cs), muggy. Even though no sunshine, I was only wearing a T-shirt, I was still sweating.
Walked up stairs through burial plots at different level (benches to sit at the turn of stairs), more and more tombs, and ended in the Hommon-ji compound.
There are locals walking their dogs, and a few tourists.
A couple of shops selling chants, blessings.
Not busy at all.
The main hall has an elaborate interior, with gold threads hanging from the ceiling.
However, no photos allowed.
The hall with people praying looks rather modern, and boring.
There's also a park next door, but you need to walk down this hill and up the next. It's small and a total waste of effort.
Walked back to the JR station Kamata (different from the Keikyu Kamata station). Bought Tokaido Sinkansen ticket from a vending machine to Nagoya, change at Shinagawa (wrong direction, but that's what's suggested by the machine). Had to pay cash. ~¥11k. At Shinagawa station, spotty WiFi on the platform. I was able to email CE my train number. Many trains going to Nagoya. I waited for the 3rd train, Nozumi line, the fastest. 5:17-6:45pm. AC on board. Spacious. 60% full.
CE waited for me at the silverclock at Nagoya Station. Walked to his new house, designed by him. Built on his wife's land. Very nicely done. Sleek and comfortable. Aluminum frame. Insulation, double pane window with argone. 3 levels. I'm going to sleep in the wife's office. I went to sleep soon. The house is set at 24C. Way too hot for me.
10/24, Thursday. Up at 1am. I have a meeting at 1:30 and 3am. CE got up at 6am. We went walking around a local park. A few locals were doing morning excercise ~6:30 for maybe 10-15 minutes. I left the house ~10am.
Walked to Toyota Commemorative museum, at its original Toyoda Automatic Loom Works textile factory.
¥1000 (~US$7). I very much enjoyed the museum, only hoping more English. Being able to reach Chinese helps.
There are many machines: many many models showcasing Sakichi Toyoda's inventions at each stage of turning cotton to cloths, and various incremental improvements.
I never knew getting the thread to a spinnable spool takes this much effort.
On the way to the next building, the hallway offers view of the courtyard.
There's also a room showcasing the old tools that measured strength of metal in various dimentions: stretch for tension, brittleness, torque tolerance. These were used at the early stages of Kiichiro Toyota's Toyota Motor Corporation.
The next building is automobile. I really like those buttons that I can press to make the machines move.
Some of those robotic arms are rather large.
There are also some videos that were recorded in the factory, showing how things work.
The last part is the future, including hydrogen engine, and these cute robots.
One of them gave a short performance playing a violin.
There's a small exhibition (temporary?) next to the exit showing off various old telescopes collected by Toyota.
Walked to Noritake Garden, now far.
I visited the small "welcome center" on its history and new ceramic technology used in different industries.
Also visited its "lifestyle store". I was very taken by this tea set. Was a bit startled when I read the price tag. ~US$1600.
Many stores and restaurants in the area, and an upscale shopping mall.
I really like it here. Nice manicured lawn, benches, a small water feature, old kilns refashioned as towers covered in vines and flowers, a long curved walk path decorated with ceramic plates. Quite a few folks just sat and read here. Very peaceful.
I like it so much that I paid a 2nd visit Saturday afternoon. More people then.
It's a bit of walk to Nagoya Castle. ¥500 (~US$3.5).
Originally constructed in 1600s, but what I saw was mostly built in the late 1950s, after an earthquake in 1891 and bombardment of WWII (when Honmaru Palace was completely destroyed).
I really like the outer moat: wide, big.
There's an inner moat surrounding just the palace, with a turret at each corner. It's shallow, completely dry.
The palace I visited was finished in 2018. A very short queue to go inside see the rooms, and noteably the paintings on the walls.
Every wall is painted, some ceilings are also painted (~7 years ago).
Very pretty.
Photos are not allowed inside. Not sure why. I took some anyway.
Leave your shoes at the door, and walk in on your socks or wear their slippers along the hallways. Not allowed to walk into the rooms.
The towers are closed to the public. In restoration?
Walked north to Meijo Park, probably belonged to Nagoya Castle, being so closed to it.
A lot of green space, more than one ponds, some silly modern sculptures, a large floral mound.
I saw an egret, locals walk their dogs, ... very pleasant.
Walked back home. It got dark before 6pm. Very busy around Nagoya station.
10/25, Friday.
Up at 2am. No meeting today.
Around sunrise, CE and I walked to a train tressel that's decommissioned and moved here as a pedestrian bridge.
The bridge runs across all the train tracks leading in/out of Nagoya.
Only here, did I realize that there are many mountains around the city.
Shortly after 10am (6pm PDT), I headed out to Meiji Village, an open-air museum of collection of various buildings of Meiji period from all around Japan. According to CE, it is very popular. When he visited, the queue at the ticket office was very long. The brother-in-law bought the tickets via his phone and they skipped the queue. I wasn't abled to purchase a ticket online (Japanese payment system only), I decided to go today instead weekend. It's a bit of a trek to get out there. The fastest is over an hour each way by Meitetus line + bus. At Nagoya's station, I asked Meitetsu ticket counter for a ticket to Meiji Mura. Ended up buying a package of ¥4900 (~$35), including entrance ¥2500 + train + bus + coupons + 1 transportation inside the park. Cash only.
For the effort and price, plus recommendation, this park didn't meet my high expectation.
My main complain is that more than half of the buildings are too new, some as recent as 1950s.
Also the 3 transportations in the park: bus, cable car, steam train, are not useful for getting around.
They are infrequent (the slow bus runs every ~20 minutes), the rest are on a schedule, and require a trek to get to their stations.
I ended up walking.
Some buildings offer tours, but only at specific hour (usually 3 times a day).
My favorite is the original Imperial Hotel lobby, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
I saw guided tours here more frequently, but only in Japanese. There are plenty seating area to rest in the lobby.
There's a tea room operating at the 2nd floor.
I managed to lose my ticket pack next to the hotel, and one of the guides found it.
Used Google Translate (offline) to communicate with employees there to retrieve my tickets.
Nearby, I picked up a large green fruit fallen on the ground. It turned out to be a quince.
Equally, I loved these Meiji era houses:
- Villa Zagyosō of Prince Saionji Kinmochi,
- the house of 2 writers at different time: Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki,
- Snail Cottage of Koda Rohan,
- St John church above a pond.
The reservoir, Lake Iruka, is not pretty, but provides a nice background for some buildings here.
There's no access from the park to the waterfront. The water level is low.
2 workers were tending the flowers here. Starting from this weekend, it'll be open weekend only.
The area is nicer. Saw fields of vegetables, more hills in the distance, rather than concrete near the cities. A bunch of us waited for the 4pm bus (posted outside of the gate, so you don't know when to time your exit) to return to Inuyama train station. Today, there was some protest at the city square beside Inuyama station when I came back.
10/26, Saturday. I had a meeting at 3am.
At 8am, CE and I walked to a "Kissa Morning", a kind of cafe only for breakfast.
You pick a coffee, and an accompanment. We both chose the "most popular".
Mine is ¥850 (~$6), CE ordered some special coffee ¥1050.
This cafe has its own coffee roaster.
CE carried his daily newspaper, his Saturday morning routine.
A bit busier today, because we were "late" to time the 8am opening.
Note, the eyes on the egg: the female customers get eye lashes!
The jam for the toast is very Chinese/Japan: made of adzuki beans.
Took a train (Aonami Line) to Kinjofuto (金诚ふ頭）to visit Maglev and Railway Park, another recommendation of CE.
It's a museum by JR (Japan Railway) Central.
Mostly indoor: a very large exhibition hall.
The museum showcases Shikansen's history and development, and highlights the up coming Magnetic Levitation trains.
There's a small area explaining the engineering concepts of maglev, and each step is illustrated by a small demo which you can try. It's very well done.
Otherwise, the trains are not interesting. You don't get to see the control room, just the passenger carriages, which is a common experience to everyone in Japan, tourists like me included.
There're 3 simulations that you can try (need additional tickets). They are just simple short video games.
I'm very impressed by the huge diorama of the landscape between Tokyo and Osaka, with 10+ miniature trains running constantly.
Quite a lot of kids. There's even bento in a train shaped paper box.
Next door is Legoland. More kids.
Very colorful. The conveying belt is moving, clock turning. I took a few photos, didn't go in.
There're many stores (also colorful) outside of the gate trying to lull the kids in.
Lively.
This area is has many large buildings for conventions or expositions, Collectively called Port Messe International Exhibition Hall. I walked around for a little bit before catching another Aonami Line train back north.
I got off at Inaei Station (稻永）and walked 2.7Km to Port of Nagoya's "garden pier".
On both bridges over Arako River (荒子川）and Nakagawa Canal (中川运河), I saw fish jumping, and birds diving.
Here, the main attraction is the Public Aquarium. I don't see many people on the Ferris wheel and the small amusement park around the wheel, maybe due to the lousy weather.
From the aquarium, walk this pedestrian bridge to Nagoya Port Building.
For ¥700, I visited the Maritime Museum, the viewing deck on the top floor, and the retired Antarctic research vessel named Fuji.
The bridge looks a bit dirty and simple, but quite photogenic.
I like the small museum. There're a few simulations you can try. I tried the one that loads a shipping container. The one that drives a ship into dock is quite impressive with an 180° screen (the waiting queue is too long).
Other than maritime history of Japan, it showcase what Nagoya port does.
There's a video showing its water cleaning effort. I didn't know that Nagoya harbor was full of dead fish and plastic waste.
The view from the top is quite nice. However, it's indoor only.
Have to wait for the elevator.
The Fuji is a decommissioned icebreaker.
The most impressive to me is the 4-screen: left + front + right wall and floor.
When it shows a ship rocking in wave, I felt motion sick.
The visiting route is well designed. Just follow the sign, you won't miss anything.
On the way out, I visited the Port House, in a seashell-like building. It turns out to be a cafeteria.
It was closing soon, saw some mid-aged ladies in performance dresses lined up for photos.
6pm, dinner at Udon Kato.
C.E. made an udon and tempura omakase reservation as soon as I booked my plane ticket. He's into food.
For drink, C.E. had a flight of sake, the wife ordered grape juice (real from pressed grapes), I had a local beer (recommended by C.E.).
First course is soup. It is very delicious: mastsutake and abalone. Maybe my favorite dish of the evening.
Followed by ~8 tempura dishes (always accompanied by dikon, ginger, some light soy-like sauce), many unusual things to cook as tempura.
All very small portioned. One of them is a single string bean.
In the middle of all the tempura, there's a crab dish, my 2nd favorite.
Out of tempura, my favorite is the squid. It was super tender.
C.E. had a second flight of sake, and ordered me this sake. We finished with udon. Out of the 3 choices of udon, my friends recommended the simplest one. It had both cold and hot.
Udon from this restaurants are made by hand, using 100% wheat from Aichi Prefecture (where Nagoya is).
This costs me a total about US$270. We all had a great time.
10/27, Sunday. Didn't need to get up at 2am for work. It's Saturday in US.
As usual, C.E. got up at 6am, and we went a walk in the morning. Today, almost 2 hours.
Walked pass the Science Museum to Hisaya-Odori (久屋大通), and north all along the medium till the Sakae Bus Terminal and its surrounding shopping mall called Oasis 21.
The skywalk here is unfortunately not yet open when we arrived.
Good view of the Endless Clock.
On the way back, C.E. checked all the coffee shops along the way. We couldn't find any open.
Some opens only at 11am!
Back home via the main drag Taiko Dori (太閣通, or Aichi Route 68).
The only nice looking building is Mode Gakuen Spiral Tower.
3 of us went to one of their favorite lunch spot: Jikka Cafe.
This is a traditional house rented out to different chefs each day.
Today's chef is Mikan Shokudo, specializes in katsuo (bonito) from Kochi Prefecture.
We sat on throw pillows on the ground of one of the many tatami rooms.
For ¥1850, this is quite a good deal.
After lunch, wife went off to see friends. CE walked me to the train station for Chobu Central Airport.
There's a Flights of Dreams area at this airport, all Seattle themed.
Fast access: border control, security check all very smooth and not crowded.
In the wait area, charging station on every other seat.
I bought a cheap flight on Spring Airline.
2 hour delay (schedule was postponed for 20 minute) without any warning.
Summary
- Too warm and humid
- Lots of food options
- Weak ¥ makes it easy on my wallet
- Fast trains are expensive, but fast, frequent, and on time
- Google map works very well
