I had arranged to meet my Japanese friend who studied abroad at OU at Nakamurakoen station at 10 am. It was wonderful to see her again! Her English got a lot better as she finished school and studied abroad in England. Sadly, she doesn’t get to use English at work and has a very intensive job. We headed off to Nagoya Castle. The original was bombed down by us during WWII so they are currently in the middle of a reconstruction process. I learned about the two golden tiger headed carps, kinshachi. They are featured everywhere: on the sewer covers, in all the tourist shops - you can get stuffed animals or socks with them. I also got to see a huge line of people waiting to take photos with Nobunaga, one of the most famous feudal lords of the castle. I’ve even heard of him from video games - Civilizations and Age of Empires. The inside featured lots of English, some historical artifacts and displays, models, a re-created town, a stunning view of Nagoya, and some interactive displays. You could join in and help pull the sled carrying the stones to build the walls.
We also visited one of the side buildings that had just been completed. Such fresh wood. They even gave us slippers to wear inside. We got to see lots of beautifully painted, golden screens. Afterward, we took the subway to Osu Kannon, a lovely Buddhist temple, and walked through Osu. We visited this cute little Alice themed shop with a tiny doorway that I could barely fit in. H took me to a super famous restaurant called Misokatsu Yabaton Honten where they serve a Nagoya speciality, misokatsu. It was very yummy, but so much food! There’s always a line because it’s renown. We went back to the Osu shopping street area to watch the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was much bigger than I had expected with bagpipes and many violins. There were even huge Irish wolfhounds and an Irish setter!
We continued the festivities in Yaba Park where they did games, crafts, and face painting. We listened to some music and watched Irish dancing! I didn’t even know they had Irish dancing classes in Japan. It got a bit chilly with the wind picking up so we stopped by the nearby Pokemon Center, my fourth one in Japan. I just wanted a picture of the store sign (which they didn’t have), but ended up buying a cute Easter pin and nanolego kit to make Squirtle aka Zenigame. We hung out in Starbucks for a while, chatting. I bought the new flavour of the month, apricot honey soy. It was delish! I really like soy stuff here. We got dinner at a nearby izakaya since we were still really full from lunch time and just wanted some small things. Thank goodness for traveling with someone who knows Japanese! Nagoya was lacking a lot of English with most places only having Japanese menus unlike Kyoto or Tokyo.
I had arranged to meet my Japanese friend who studied abroad at OU at Nakamurakoen station at 10 am. It was wonderful to see her again! Her English got a lot better as she finished school and studied abroad in England. Sadly, she doesn’t get to use English at work and has a very intensive job. We headed off to Nagoya Castle. The original was bombed down by us during WWII so they are currently in the middle of a reconstruction process. I learned about the two golden tiger headed carps, kinshachi. They are featured everywhere: on the sewer covers, in all the tourist shops - you can get stuffed animals or socks with them. I also got to see a huge line of people waiting to take photos with Nobunaga, one of the most famous feudal lords of the castle. I’ve even heard of him from video games - Civilizations and Age of Empires. The inside featured lots of English, some historical artifacts and displays, models, a re-created town, a stunning view of Nagoya, and some interactive displays. You could join in and help pull the sled carrying the stones to build the walls.
We also visited one of the side buildings that had just been completed. Such fresh wood. They even gave us slippers to wear inside. We got to see lots of beautifully painted, golden screens. Afterward, we took the subway to Osu Kannon, a lovely Buddhist temple, and walked through Osu. We visited this cute little Alice themed shop with a tiny doorway that I could barely fit in. H took me to a super famous restaurant called Misokatsu Yabaton Honten where they serve a Nagoya speciality, misokatsu. It was very yummy, but so much food! There’s always a line because it’s renown. We went back to the Osu shopping street area to watch the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was much bigger than I had expected with bagpipes and many violins. There were even huge Irish wolfhounds and an Irish setter! 
We continued the festivities in Yaba Park where they did games, crafts, and face painting. We listened to some music and watched Irish dancing! I didn’t even know they had Irish dancing classes in Japan. It got a bit chilly with the wind picking up so we stopped by the nearby Pokemon Center, my fourth one in Japan. I just wanted a picture of the store sign (which they didn’t have), but ended up buying a cute Easter pin and nanolego kit to make Squirtle aka Zenigame. We hung out in Starbucks for a while, chatting. I bought the new flavour of the month, apricot honey soy. It was delish! I really like soy stuff here. We got dinner at a nearby izakaya since we were still really full from lunch time and just wanted some small things. Thank goodness for traveling with someone who knows Japanese! Nagoya was lacking a lot of English with most places only having Japanese menus unlike Kyoto or Tokyo.
2 comments:
What a lovely blog. So nice to read stories like these when people from completely different countries form a close bond and share each others cultures and countries together. Thank you for sharing - JTM www.japanesetutormelbourne.com.au
Thank you! I'm so lucky to have met such wonderful people around the world. We take the chance to see each other when we can. I'm all for sharing cultures!
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