Blogs from Aichi, Japan, Asia

Nagoya is the home of my grandfather. He arrived in the US at the age of 16 in 1896, having graduated from high school at age 14. I know very little about his life before our family started farming in Kingsburg. He started as a houseboy for a family in Los Angeles. They taught him to read and write English, one of the few first generation (Issei) who were truly bilingual. I will digress with a story that perhaps sheds considerable light into our family. My grandfather passed away peacefully in the summer of 1965, under his favorite shade tree in the back yard. During the days preceding his funeral, an elderly man showed up at the Greyhound stop in Kingsburg (it was at an old gas station on Simpson). They sent me to pick him ... read more

Saturday, 16th September 2017 Chubu Airport >> Nagoya (44.5km, 53 mins, 870 Yen) The sky was drizzling away when my flight landed at Chubu International Airport. The rainy weather would continue throughout the day as Typhoon Talim was expected to make heavy landfalls in Japan that same evening. From the airport, I took the Meitetsu Train (870 Yen, JR Pass not eligible) to Nagoya Station. I then transfered to the subway to Sakae district for my final destination where my hotel, Meitetsu Inn Nishiki was located. After leaving my luggage at the reception, I headed for lunch at the nearby underground mall before starting my subway DIY tour. The weekend pass cost an amazing value-for- money 600 Yen which provided unlimited rides on the city's subway lines. I had allocated 2 nights in Nagoya even though ... read more

Despite my ferocious planning of our trip, I know there are times when serendipity delivers the best experiences. Today was one such occasion and what a fabulous experience it was. We only heard about the Inuyama Castle Festival when chatting to another tourist in a queue at the airport. When we checked our itinerary we discovered we would be only an hour away the weekend it is held so this morning we took the train from Kyoto to Nagoya and on to Inuyama castle. We had a small mishap en route: we were briefly separated when train doors closed on us and I had to get off at the next station and backtrack to retrieve Danny! The festival was a something we will remember all our lives, with the colour and vitality that seems to be ... read more

Hi again everyone. Well a long day today - started at 07.30 to catch the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya. A couple of things I learnt - 1. there are many many bullet trains (we caught 3 just getting to Nagoya) and 2. not all of them are that fast - in fact some stop as often as the train to Weymough from Frome! That said they are spacious, air conditioned, comfortable and when they do accelerate you can feel yourself being pushed back into the seat! Midday we arrived (without seeing Mt Fuji as it was covered in cloud) and were met by a lovely Dr called Kyoko. She drove us off to the local attraction (Shogun's palace) for a whistle stop tour before a quick lunch (another delicious, cheap Japanese soup) and then ... read more

This was the boys earliest morning so far, I had them booked to take the 8:45am Shuttle from our hostel to the train station to catch our 9:20am bus to Mishima Station to grab a train to Nagoya. We arrived with plenty of time to grab breakfast from the station (they got hot dogs!) and catch the bus. At Mishima Station where we were able to catch a bullet train to Nagoya just a few minutes after we arrived. We had a couple hour ride ahead of us so we got some lunch and snacks for the trip and settled into our seats. As we arrived in Nagoya, we had to figure out what we were going to do with our limited time because we were only there one night. Due to a Typhoon hitting the ... read more