Nagoya #1: Whistle Stop Tour

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A quickie in Nagoya! My mate had moved there, but her job was only for three months and with no long weekends for me and her visa not allowing her to leave Japan, it was a short hop across the ditch for a flying one night visit.

No sleep what so ever! The jjimjilbang was freezing! And noisy to boot. I should of expected it on a Friday night in Itaewon. I was up, showered and out really quick. The subway didn't come until just after six, and I was at Gimpo airport by just after half six, and I'd had to change subways, too. Gotta love Gimpo airport for its proximity to Seoul proper. Also I love Jeju Air for their cheap flights, which made this trip possible, too. Check in was a breeze as there was barely any queue. I was starving because I had skipped dinner the night before, so I went in search of some food. There wasn't much choice. I went in a coffee shop first, but it was a rip off for a breakfast set, so I had a Lotteria (Korean version of Maccy Ds) instead. Lotz burger and chips for breakfast, not the best brekky in the world, but it filled a hole. Security and immigration were a breeze. A reason to love small airports. I had a moment of panic when my good luck charm from my last visit to Japan fell off my bag. I'm an extremely nervous flyer, and this was a sure sign that my flight was going to crash!

Boarding was quick and we left on time. The flight was empty, plenty of room to spread out. Some of the salary men looked pretty rough, they'd obviously had a good night out, the night before. I could smell the soju coming off the bloke sitting in front of me. Jeju Air for being budget were canny nice, offering everyone a free glass of water after take off, well you wouldn't get that kind of service off Ryanair or Easy Jet. They also lent you pens to fill out the arrivals cards with. I'm sure I could of pocketed it, if I had wanted to. Bless the lad, he even warned me that I had to pay for my coffee when I ordered it. The flight took about an hour and a half. I thought that we were almost there, when we started to fly over land, but then we were back over the sea again, before starting to make our descent. I thought that the plane was gonna end up in the sea. We were flying so low, that no big boats would of been able to fit under us, and there was no sign of the runway. However the runway appear just in the nick of time, for our landing.

Since the flight was pretty empty, I was off the plane pretty quick. The queue at immigration was quite long, but the officials got through it pretty quick. Since I had no checked baggage, I handed my customs declaration to the bloke, and he asked my a few questions. He asked how long I was staying and I replied only until tomorrow, then he asked where my checked baggage was, I did look at him like he was stupid, as I told him I was only staying overnight and therefore didn't need much. Then he was like have you been to Japan before, and I was like yeah, this is my fourth visit. That shut him up, and I was free to exit into arrivals. Made it out, at the time my plane was meant to land. Love that they overestimate flight times.

Tash was there waiting for me. Had a hug and a laugh, and the star had brought me a coffee from Starbucks. A nice strong Americano to wake me up. We headed up to the Hello Kitty shop to look for the Hello Kitty Uno cards that one of Mel's students had brought back from Tokyo, however we couldn't find them. Bugger! After a quick fag, we got the train to the city centre. We took the slow train as it was due, and the fast train wasn't, and by the time we would have waited for the fast train, it would of worked out the same time wise.

It took us about an hour to reach Nagoya station. It was nice as the train went pretty slow, so I was able to check out the views as we chatted. Not that the views were amazing, but just a welcome change from the monotony of the Korean urban landscape. It was nice to see the houses (yes people live in proper houses in Japan) that were all a bit unique, and lo rise apartment blocks that again were not a carbon copy of each other. A nice change from the uniform high-rises of Korea. The train arrived at Nagoya station and we went to look for a locker to put my backpack in. We searched high and low allover the huge station, but all the lockers were taken, so we had to give up. Nagoya station is a complete clusterfuck of people, train and subway lines, argh!

By this point it was lunchtime. We headed out of the station and had a look for a restaurant. There wasn't much going on in the area around the station. We found a small underground food court and headed to the first place we saw that looked decent. It was pretty busy as it was lunchtime, but we were able to get a seat at a bench table in the window, as opposed to a private table. Not that it mattered at all. Proper food! Mmmmm! This restaurant/pub served a variety of meals and of course has some of the Nagoyan traditional dishes. We settled on misokatsudon and a chicken and egg dish that I never learnt the name of. The food came pretty quick and it was delicious! The eggy chicken thing was really nice it was like gloopy egg fried rice with pieces of chicken in it. Chicken is a big part of Nagoyan cuisine. Misokatsudon is a specialty of Nagoya, it is a breaded pork cutlet served on rice and smothered in miso sauce. It was lush and a nice change to the regular katsu.

Feeling pleasantly full, we embarked on our sightseeing mish. Our first stop wasn't far from the station and it only took us about 10-15 minutes to walk there. We went to Noritake Gardens. Noritake is a famous brand of tableware that started its business in Nagoya on 1904. We had a look around the gardens, they were pretty and quite small. It was bizarre as they had the Christmas decorations out, and the trees were still in full autumnal colour. The site of the garden was a factory in its previous life and the old chimneys are still there. We got talking to one of the guards, who had great English and he told us about the site's past. Why is it old men in Japan speak amazing English? We had a quick look in the gift shop, but there was too much glass and I didn't think it was a good combination with my bulky backpack. We pottered around the rest of the garden, gatecrashing some wedding photos, oops!

Another ten minute walk landed us in front of the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. I learnt lots of new stuff here. I thought Toyota made cars, but in fact they started out in the textile industry. The museum was pretty big and mostly open plan so we wandered around. The first part was the history of the founders. Then it was the textile stuff, there was quite a bit about the history of textiles and how England was the centre and the best producer. Well I suppose we had to be good at something once upon a time. There were curators operating the machines and there was lots of English language displays, too. Some of the detail on the textiles were amazing, it just goes to show how good machinery is. There was also a random visiting exhibit on the history of the towel. Yeah, it's nice to learn something new every day.

After the textiles we wandered to the car production and showcase exhibit. There were lots of Toyota cars and trucks from the past on display, and there were all highly polished. I have some seriously shiny photographs. Then the production of a car was broken down into various stages. It was all interactive, so you could press the buttons and see things move. I let my inner child run a bit wild here. After a good nose around we chilled with a coffee in the cafe, before taking a look at the gift shops. If only I'd brought a bag to check-in, I would of bought a tonne of the Toyota ready made curries. What a fab idea!

The subway was pretty close to the museum and we hopped on,but got off after a few stops as we weren't sure if we were on the right one. Turns out we were so we hopped back on the next train. We walked for a couple of minutes and were at Atsuta Shrine. It was almost time for sunset and the temple's grounds were lovely and quiet. There was barely another soul about. the shrine is home to the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, which is a sword. However the sword is under lock and key, so we couldn't see it. I stopped by the temple shop, but the good luck charm was pretty ugly, so I didn't get it. I'm fickle and I want my good luck to be pretty. We wandered a bit more around the grounds, until it was really dark, and then we made for the subway. We needed to catch a different train from a different station back to Tash's place, but we couldn't find the station. Argh! Japan, why don't you just have all the trains leaving from one big station.

We headed into the downtown area for some shopping and a spot of dinner. This place was bustling, a complete contrast to the station area earlier today. Our first stop was uniqlo, where I got some pj bottoms and a vest top in the sale, fora bargainous seven quid, that's for both of them. Japan is not as expensive as you would be lead to believe. I wish that they had had some t-shirts, too, but all the winter gear was on sale Then it was Diaso time! Assah! Japanese Diaso is amazing, better than the Korea one, which is fab. We split up and I shopped my little heart out. Got all of life's essentials: seaweed crisps, peanut chocolates, Hello Kitty candy, cute notebooks, Christmas socks, a potato masher, and a sandwich press. Also everything is 105 yen, so I ended up spending less than a tenner. Bargain!

We had worked up a bit of an appetite by this point so we headed out to get some dinner. We stooped off for an iced coffee at seven eleven and I introduced Tash to the cheese and salami sets that we had grown fond of in Kyoto. We wandered around a bit and looked at the menu boards for two different Indian restaurants. We went back to the first one, as it looked more appetising, and Tash knew the food was good. We ordered up a little feast. We got some chicken wing/legs for starter, a palak paneer, a chicken curry (IIRC), and a couple of garlic naans. The food was delish, the palak paneer was the freshest I've ever had, I'm sure that they must of just wilted the spinach moments before in the kitchen. We also had a great view of the Tandoor chef in his kitchen spinning the naan breads about.

We took the subway to Tash's place. It was quite far from the city centre. Her apartemnt is lovely. It's small, but a lot bigger than mine, and the space is used really efficiently. She even has a sleeping loft, not that she uses it, and lots of natural light. We had a bit of a rest and I unpacked my crap. She also gifted me two more tops from uniqlo. I got some nice new unexpected clothes on this trip. I could of happily stayed in and went to bed, as I was totally knachkered. Dead rock n roll for a Saturday night. But no, I only had one night in Nagoya, so we had to go to the pub.

The pub wasn't far away. It was just back by the subway station. Japanese pubs are called izakayas. I had been to one on Tokyo and they are allover in Korea, too. This one was a 280 izakaya, meaning that everything was 280 yen. We ordered a couple of beers, and peruse the food. We weren't hungry, but there were a couple of things that I had to try. We had some chicken and spring onion skewers coated in spicy black pepper and these cheese melt things. Imagine laughing cow cheese coated in potato and batter, deep fried with a knob of butter on top, so good yet so bad! I was seriously flagging by midnight, so we finished our drinks and the food and went home. I think I changed and was snuggled in my sleeping bag in record time.

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