Day 2 - Thursday October 26, 2017 - Nagoya
Nagoya Castle
We headed out about 8 am this morning, walking over to the station to add some funds to our Pasmo (prepaid subway/debit cards) and to find somewhere for breakfast.
It was raining when we arrived in Narita last night though it was dry in Nagoya so we didn’t get wet finding the hotel. This morning, it was blue sky and sunshine and forecast to be 23 degrees. After breakfast in a cafe at the station, we walked up to the old Noritake factory (most of which has long since moved elsewhere) and walked round the gardens and stopped in the visitor centre.
That done, we walked over to Nagoya Castle. It turned out to be a bit further than we had expected so we limited ourselves to a wander in the gardens and a visit to the tea room. Most of the castle is now a modern reproduction, the original having been severely damaged by bombing in 1945.
There was also a chrysanthemum competition/display in progress, along with a lot of bonsai – all perhaps rather more engaging than the castle. We had entered by the main gate but left by the east exit, in order to get to the nearest subway station.
We took the subway to the Osu Kannon area, several covered streets of shopping/dining and, at its western end, the Osu Kannon shrine. As it was now lunchtime, we went in search of a suitable place but the dining seemed somewhat mixed – a lot of kebab or pizza places, not at all what we were looking for. We finally found a more suitable looking place and headed in. Needless to say, when I looked on the map to see where we were, we were in Unagi Yakko – even I know unagi means eel and, sure enough, when they brought us an English menu, it was eel, eel and more eel. We wimped out and had squid (A-M) and fried chicken (me). [Addendum: In hindsight, this was a mistake. Grilled eel is excellent and not to be missed.]
After lunch, we wandered on to the Osu Kannon shrine, stopping on the way for a matcha ice cream. From there to the subway station and back to the hotel, stopping on the way to get supplies for the room and for breakfast. Time for a siesta before we head out again in search of dinner.
Dinner at an izakaya place up the street. Grilled chicken and pork skewers, edamame beans, pickles and a beer – easy and does the job.
