Duration: 15 Days 15 Nights (May 31~Jun 14, 2014)
Day 8: An Adventure in Nagoya
It was Saturday so I’d planned a DIY trip to Nagoya to
look around. We purchased the unreserved Shinkansen tickets (Departed from
Shin-Yokohama to save some $$ as opposed from Shinagawa) early in the morning
and were able to reach Nagoya Station by 9.20am to catch the Nagoya Sightseeing
tour bus (Me-Guru) by 9.30am. it only cost 500Yen for a day pass and we got
special discount on certain entrance tickets if the Me-Guru Day pass was shown
– all in all a great deal!
The bus station no 8 for Me-Guru at Nagoya Station was
just at the left side of Sakuradori Exit once you walked out of the main train
station. I did notice there was lack of information on this bus station online
thus I had to ask the tourist information center on the location. Here I am,
bearing a map for the bus station as below!!! =P The ticket was bought straight from the bus or whichever conductors were standing near the bus that morning. The bus was full in the morning and we had to stand all the way to the famed Nagoya Castle.
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| The Bus Station is right at the bottom in RED |
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| The Me-Guru Day Pass |
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| Boarding the Me-Guru Bus |
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| The Me-Guru Route |
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| Nagoya Castle from the Bus |
We finally
arrived at the Castle and it looked majestic! Some part of the castle was in
renovation thus they were covered up.
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| Here we are!!! |
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| At the Entrance |
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| Getting the ticket |
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| Getting Ready? |
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| The Kinshachi (Golden Dolphin) |
We entered the main palace with restored room – the rooms
were full of traditional Japanese wall painting. We had to take off our shoes
to go in the rooms as well.
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| Getting to the Main Palace |
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| Here we are! |
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| Beautiful Place |
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| The King did have Taste in Old time... |
We then walked to the Main Castle Tower to take a 360
degree look from the top at Nagoya City. The observation deck was at 7th
floor whereas other floors served as exhibition halls for traditional samurai
culture.
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| Finally a Picture with the Main Tower |
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| Explanation of the Floors |
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| Going in now! |
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| Even Sammy is excited! |
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| The Golden Dolphin is very Popular! |
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| A Model of Nagoya Castle |
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| A View from the 7th Floor |
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| Another Side |
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| Care for some Souvenirs? |
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| A Lake? Is that the Garden? |
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| Samurai! |
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| Samurai Sword |
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| Samurai Food? |
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| Old Style Rooms |
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| The Golden Dolphins |
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| A Mockup of the Building |
Other than the castle, there were also garden and side towers inside the compound thus I took the chance to have a look as well. The weather today was just nice – cloudy with no rain and no sun! My kind of weather!
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| Restoration in Progress.. =( |
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| Main Tower & Side Tower from Garden |
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| Another Gate from afar? |
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| Guess you have to JUMP into the water to attack the castle |
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| Walking towards the warehouse & side tower |
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| Here is the side Tower |
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| Sammy is HAPPY to be there! |
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| Wedding Photoshoot!!! |
After Nagoya Castle, we took the Me-Guru Loop bus to
Tokugawaen Garden for some serene view.
The garden was located right beside Tokugawa Art Museum which we did not
go in. The garden has a large pond in the middle with bridges, waterfalls &
flowers surrounding the area.
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| Arriving at Tokugawaen Garden Entrance |
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| Let's go then! |
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| Crossing the Bridge |
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| Look nice huh? |
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| Sammy cannot wait to make an appearance |
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| Flowers! |
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| Big Pond in the Middle |
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| Pond & Bridge - Looks like a scene in Romance movie huh? |
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| Fishes too! |
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| Sammy & the Tea house |
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| Close Up of the Flower |
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| Is this the Waterfall? |
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| Here is the real Waterfall! |
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| Waiting for Bus.. |
Our next stop was the Nagoya TV tower and Oasis 21 for
some lunch. We were totally awed by Oasis 21 which looked like a transparent
spaceship. Lunch was at a Ramen restaurant – I chose the spicy ramen which
tasted yummy! I especially liked the ramen texture as it was slimmer and chewier
than the ordinary ramen we ate in Kawasaki. Thumbs up!!!
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| Nagoya TV Tower!!! |
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| Oasis 21! - A Transparent Spaceship! |
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| As usual - beautiful & colorful Flowers! |
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| The 'Floor' is made of Glasses! |
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| With a Shopping Mall below... |
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| Can i put Sammy in too? |
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| It's Ramen Time!!! |
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| Condiments on the table |
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| The Red Ramen! SLURP!!!! |
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| The Ramen is Thinner than normal |
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| Here is some lesson on Ramen! |
After lunch, I went up to the Oasis 21 top deck – I was
basically stepping on glasses to move around! It was so COOL!!!
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| Looking through the Floor! |
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| Sammy with the TV Tower |
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| The Water.. |
My colleagues were beat after halfday and wanted to go
back to Tokyo to buy Burberry. So I journeyed on my own to continue my day in
Nagoya. I took the Me-Guru Bus to Fushimi Stop then ditched the bus to get on a
train to Osu Kannon Temple at Osu Kannon Station (Duh!). I took a few pictures
at the temple site before meeting another colleague and boss there too!
*facepalm*
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| Safely Arrived in Osu Kannon Station! |
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| Sammy the camwhore! |
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| Osu Kannon Temple! |
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| I have to take a picture too! |
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| Side View |
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| Another Deity |
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| The Bell Tower? |
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| It's Praying Time |
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| Look at the Osu Kannon Tile! |
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| Leaving through the Main Gate |
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| Goodbye! |
The temple was surrounded with flea market selling
everything! Street foods, souvenirs, clothing or whatever you named it. The
shopping street also linked to several other temples around the area. The
street food looked so yummy but I was too full from lunch earlier so I didn’t
try them.. =(
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| Shopping Street!!!! |
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| Lots of Street Foods! |
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| Japanese Pizza??!! |
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| I have no idea what this is but a lot of people is queuing to enter |
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| Giant Sausage! |
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| More FOOD stall! |
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| Shopping Shopping Shopping! |
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| A Smaller Shrine at the Side |
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| Lots of Shrines around the Area |
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| Cute Dooggie!!! |
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| Kukukai??? |
After losing my way in the train once, I finally caught
the correct train to get to Atsuta Jinja. Basically the train should be: Osu
Kannon -> Kanayama to change to a loop train to Jingu Nishi Station. I
mistakenly thought the change was in another station thus missed out the loop
train. Anyhoo, I managed to arrive at Atsuta Jinja in one piece at around 5pm.
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| Atsuta Temple! |
Atsuta Jinja was one of the three most sacred sites in
Japan along with Imperial Palace in Tokyo and Ise Shrines in Mie. The shrine
was surprising modest if with the colorful and extravaganza shrines in Kyoto
which made it somehow more endearing.
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| Entering the Temple.. i think someone just photobombs Sammy! |
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| Wine Bucket? |
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| Getting some blessed Charms? |
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| Let's make a wish! |
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| Lots of Wishes here |
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| Walking around |
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| Less people here - guess it was late |
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| Building here are surprising modest |
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| A Beacon in the dark? |
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| Leaving Atsuta Jinja |
My last destination of the day would be to the Nagoya
Port (Nagoyako) to take a look at the port side. I heard there was a ‘little
Italy’ there but read that it might be closed down. Well, let’s take a look
then.
The 1st things that strike me when I stepped
out of the Nagoyako Station was the smell of Ocean. This was actually the 1st
time I smelled ocean in Japan. There was a big aquarium there but of course it
was closed by then. I walked through the People’s Park and Fountain Square
before reaching the original site of “Little Italy” – it was indeed closed down
but the Italian design was still there. It was locked though so there was no
way to take picture in it.
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| Walking towards the Port with Sea Breeze blowing |
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| Penguin! |
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| Getting there! |
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| The Closed Down "Little Italy" |
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| It should be a nice place to visit... =( |
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| See all the Italian Building & Bridge? |
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| At the Fountain Square |
There was a cruise ship docking at the Port thus I took
the chance to take some pictures of the surrounding area before moving on
towards the bridge to take a look at the “Fuji Antarctic Museum” ship from the
top. I then walked across to Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium to take a look at
the “Sea Train Land” from the top.
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| A Cruise! |
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| Sammy, the Cruise & Nagoya Port Building |
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| What is this?! |
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| Walking along the Shore |
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| A view from the Nagoya Port |
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| Well Meet! |
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| The Port House & Fuji Antarctic Museum from afar |
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| Crossing the Port Bridge |
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| Helicopter in top of Fuji Antarctic Museum |
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| A Panoramic View of the Nagoya Port |
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| A Selfie! |
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| Ferris Wheel at Sea Train Land |
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| Leaving the Port Area |
The port was quiet and less people compared to other
places but I bet it would look prettier at night time with all the lights but I
knew that I was a long way from Kawasaki thus I had to leave now. Thus I went
back to the train to catch one back to Nagoya main station before boarding the
Shinkansen back to Shin-Yokohama.
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| Approaching Nagoyako Station |
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| Sammy is tired |
It was almost 8.30pm when I reached Shin-Yokohama and the
1st thing I did was went up to 2nd floor of Cubic Plaza
to buy the 30% off sandwiches from Kobeya Bakery (established since 1918). There
were already lots of people queuing but luckily I still managed to grab a
sandwich for tomorrow’s breakfast. =)
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| All these nice Sandwiches with 30% off!!! |
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| And all these Pastries!!!! |
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| Breakfast tomorrow! |
After that, I went to the adjoining building for
Yoshinova to eat their cheap and yummy beef rice. A beef rice with additional
soft boiled egg only cost 370 Yen! What a bargain! Thankfully I was familiar
with Shin-Yokohama area as I stayed here in my last few visits (here &
there).
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| A Cheap & Nice Fast Food Chain |
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| Beef Rice with Egg - only 370 Yen! |
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