We went on a tour around Nagoya today. Leaving the dorm in the early morning hours of 10am, we drove in a small group of people by car to the nearest train station and took the train towards Nagoya station. We then switched to the Meijou metro line and arrived at Nagoya castle by 11am.
Nagoya castle is a historically important place and popular sightseeing spot. I’m not even gonna attempt any historical explanations as I know next to nothing about Japanese history, but I bet some really important people lived there and did some really important stuff. We visited some buildings, walked around the outside and relaxed afterwards at the nearest vending machine.
It was really fun to see the castle up close and walk the same paths the old rulers used to walk. There was a small festival going on with people singing and prefectures advertising themselves. We got some snacks there, but went to our next stop pretty quickly as it was reeeeally starting to become unpleasantly hot as time crept towards noon, humidity was still high and there wasn’t much shade around.
Our next stop was NUFS Meieki campus which was located in central Nagoya. I didn’t know a campus outside Nisshin existed, but it was huge and apparently some form of research/graduate institute. No wonder why exchange student plebeians like me had no clue.
There’s not much to say about the campus itself, a 20-minute walk from Nagoya station got us there and because it was really hot outside and the building was properly AC’d, we spent some time there exploring the floor and chilling in the lounge. This coincidentally was my first time walking around central Nagoya, and even though we didn’t visit any famous places, I was still astonished by all the buildings, people and infrastructure which made Frankfurt seem like some small third-grade town. Unlike other major cities though, there weren’t that many cars around and there was no honking at all.
After our little break, we went to a nearby shopping mall and visited a book and an arcade section. The book section was spanning two floors and had a gargantuan shelf across the staircase which appeared even bigger through a ceiling mirror. There was a huge selection, but we of course went to the manga section and found lots of shows we’ve watched or read before. I wanted to buy something too of course so I got myself the first four volumes of chainsaw man which is supposed to be really good. I haven’t read it yet, but each volume was only 440yen which amounts to like 3 Euros. Pretty cheap.
Next, we went to the small game hall which was on the top floor of the building. They had a table tennis table and because I haven’t played for a couple of weeks and my fingers were aching already, we played for around 10 minutes which was really fun. There were also crane games which I have never tried before, but I still managed to somehow win a minecraft steve plushie at the second try. Because it was too large to carry in my backpack, I was offered a see-through plastic bag by the staff. While walking through the city with it, some kids pointed at it and shouted 「STEVE！」. I’m glad there are still people appreciating the objectively best game ever made.
Our final stop was an anime/manga store. They had lots of stuff across three floors which we explored one after another. I was wondering why there were so many women in the first floor, but after I saw the BL section in the back, it kinda made sense. I bought a small yotsuba keychain because best girl was not available at the time, but I’ll definitely come back some time and they better have her in stock by then 🔪.
The whole tour took roundabout eight hours, so I was really tired when we got back home. It was a good experience though and I will definitely come back to some of the stores and to find new ones too!