Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 4 (1/3)

It's the 4th day in Central Japan and we were at Nagoya Kanko Hotel.

Street view of Nagoya from the hotel

We had our breakfast inside a restaurant. Similar to the past few days, it's a mix of Japanese and Western breakfast buffet. For me, it's still Japanese and Western breakfast.

Breakfast: Salad with croutons, salmon, mackerel, chicken wings, udon, miso soup and orange juice

My breakfast was not only those dishes. As the mackerel and chicken wings were so tasty, I decided to have more of those. Also, I ate steamed mixed vegetables, hard boiled egg and corn soup with croutons. My appetite was so big during breakfast!

The journey began with a visit to the Nagoya Castle. It's a 10 minute ride from the hotel. Our bus was parked at the Nagoya Noh Theater. We walked around to take pictures before we crossed the road to Nagoya Castle.

Nagoya Noh Theater

As we arrived at 8.45am JT (Japan Time), the Nagoya Castle was not opened yet. The castle opens at 9am.

Our tour guide went to the ticketing counter to buy the tickets before the castle opened. At 9am, it opened and we got our admission tickets and brochures.

[Admission fee for Nagoya Castle: 500 yen for adult, 450 yen for adult who comes along with a group of 30 to 99 persons and 400 yen for adult who comes along with a group of 100 persons or more. Free admission for junior high school students and under.]

We visited the main donjon and climbed up to the observation deck at the 7th level to see the view of Nagoya.

View of Nagoya from the observation deck

After that, we went down each level to view the artifacts from the warring states period to the present day (1467 - now). In between those periods, there were also construction of the Nagoya Castle, Edo period (until January 1868) and Meiji restoration.

Throughout the whole visit, I still couldn't understand why golden dolphins look like this?

Golden dolphin?!

Dolphins?!

Golden dolphin model?!

Title says it all but it still left me wondering.

From the 3rd level to the 7th level, photography is allowed. However, on the 1st level, flash photography is not allowed as it may damage the artifacts from the glass panels.

No need to mention about 2nd level of the main donjon because although our tour guide mentioned that photography is not allowed, the 2nd level...was closed so we skipped that.

We continued our journey to the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. From Nagoya to Kyoto, it takes around 2 hours.

We arrived at the shrine 2 hours later. As there's no parking space near the shrine, the bus had to be parked further away. Hence, we have to walk a few kilometers to reach the destination. I was so tired after the 2 hours journey.

Before visiting the shrine, we walked past a marketplace selling foods and souvenirs.

Food and shopping could be done after visiting the shrine so we moved on to the shrine and prayed.

Before praying, same procedures as follows, washing our hands.

View of the shrine

After praying, we went back to the marketplace to find something to eat. I bought a pork belly yakitori stick. The pork belly was very soft and tender. With the sauce being dipped, the taste was perfect! Oh, I still had the appetite to eat even though I had a heavy breakfast!

Pork belly yakitori

As I walked along, I saw an ice-cream stall that I have not seen in Singapore for about 10 years. It was mini ice-cream balls frozen at minus 40 degrees celcius. I bought the rainbow flavor and finally tasted my childhood dessert.

The serving was small but it brought back to my childhood days.

My father bought imitation crab meat stick (Yeah, after tasting it, it's imitation) and my mother bought a cup of sweet potato sticks with sugar coating.

As we returned to board the bus, we stopped behind the railway tracks to see the trains coming from both directions. If you want to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine, take the Keihan Railway and alight at Fushimi Inari station. It only takes a few minutes to reach there.

A train passed by.

The Fushimi Inari station located near the shrine

Another train from the other direction passed by.

We went in to the convenience store and bought some drinks. As rubbish bins are very hard to find on the streets, convenience store is a good place to throw your rubbish but you need to classify it.

Recycling bins located outside the convenience store

We boarded the bus and moved on to the next destination which was the Kiyomizudera Temple where we got the chance to take pictures with the Geisha.

Part 2 of Central Japan Day 4 continues.