Why Nagoya? Well, why not? We’ve been to the 2 bigger cities, Tokyo (#1) & Osaka (#3), so naturally, we had to see what’s up in Nagoya, Japan’s 4th-largest urban area and home to 2,266,000 residents. It is well known for hosting one of the most important ports in the country and is also home to Toyota, a major automotive industry.

Kap’s ears perked up upon hearing the word “Toyota”, kaya napapayag ko. At first, he preferred comfort & convenience over a new & unchartered (to us) territory. Alam na daw namin ang pasikot-sikot sa Tokyo, bakit gusto ko magkanda-wala wala sa bagong lugar tapos hindi pa namin kasama yung mga bata to guide us around.

I told tanders, honey, a little bit of excitement naman to shake things around. Kung puro tayo comfort, walang mangyayari sa atin. Lulumutin nalang tayo sa kanto. Also, I find Tokyo too busy & noisy. I wanted a more relaxed trip that was better suited to my pace.

Besides, we were after a jolly good food trip lang naman. And every nook & cranny of Japan serves great food, whichever city you may be. So, last Feb 28, off to Nagoya we went for another crazy but exciting (mis)adventure! <3

The kids already taught us how to use google maps over & over again, but our senile brain conveniently forget every single time, so we were off to a hard start. 😛 We were adviced by the giblings to just take a taxi (around 6k php) from Chūbu Centrair Airport to our hotel, Ibis Styles Nagoya, but #lamna #kapitanKunat #tipidtipid. So we just took the train & left everything else to God. Awa ng Diyos, after asking several commuters around the area, we got on the right train (800 php/person) at umabot naman kami sa hotel in one piece. 😛

Not wanting to waste a single moment of our trip, Kap & I immediately set off to sight-see after checking in our hotel (which was conveniently located smack right in the middle of everywhere – good job honey ko, and for only 4k/night too!). Because we were nangangapa again with google maps & re-orienting ourselves with the freaking arrow na hindi maintindihan kung urong o sulong ba, we had quite a bit of a walk hehe.

At dahil siopao lang ang pinakain ni Kapitan K(unat) sa akin for lunch aboard cebupac, I was running low on energy, kaya pinatulan na namin si Mcdo on our way to the castle.

The Japan-exclusive Teriyaki Mc Burger & Shrimp Filet-O gave us some energy to push through & we were able to walk the rest of the way to the castle which by the way, closes at 4pm, mind you. We got there at 3:30pm so can you imagine the streeeeesssss.. ayaw namin masayang ang kilometrikong nilakad, gah!

There’s really not much to do around Nagoya Castle, which is currently being renovated & is closed to the public, except go inside Hommaru Palace & walk around the vast gardens. (Ugh! WALK – my nemesis). Because we got there late, we contemplated on going inside but apparently, you can’t take a pic of the castle from the outside. Major harang! ;P So we had no choice but to pay the entrance fee (250 php each lang naman) to take a photo with the castle in the background.

https://youtube.com/shorts/LGjT5tTsg_M?feature=share

There are several old-town restos right across the castle area, but they close early – around 5pm when the castle also closes its operations. Thankfully, there was ONE still open & it happened to serve Miso Katsu which was on my list of things to eat in Nagoya! So, yay! <3

Because the afternoon of our arrival was dedicated to purely sightseeing, we headed to Mirai Tower, or formerly Nagoya TV Tower after filling our bellies.

(31 mins by walk, 12 mins by subway, 34 mins by bus, 3 MINS BY TAXI!!! – hulaan nyo syempre ano sinakyan namin diba!!!)

Kap on riding a bus instead of a taxi: “Ok yan swthrt para matagal-tagal kang naka-upo at maka-rekax.”

By this time, naninigas na sa pulikat yung mga hita ko. @-@

(PS: kasabay namin yung mga bata sa likod na wala ding transpo budget! :P)

Konting peechur-peechur lang, we didn’t bother going up anymore. Instead, we headed to Hisaya-odori Park which is located just at the other end where the outlets & cafes are (this is different pa from the Oasis 21 shopping complex ha). It’s mostly the low-end American brands like Coach, Colehaan, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren (must-try coffee shop: Ralph’s Coffee). Atat si Kap to shop at RL, kaso wala naman syang nagustuhan (translate: mahal pa din!).

I got to have coffee at Ralph’s when we went back (to follow on my succeeding Nagoya series) but I’m sad I didn’t get to visit Peanuts Cafe nearby huhu. </3 You might want to include that in your itinerary if you’re visiting Nagoya soon!

After all that walking (20k steps mantakin mo yun eh kalahating araw pa lang???), we decided to call it a day & just looked for a Department store on the way to our hotel to buy food – Meitetsu was the closest. We were actually still full from the Miso Katsu we snacked on, but worried we might get hungry middle of the night (plus we were excited to see the offerings as Japan Department Stores are said to have the best food halls & food hauls!).

https://youtube.com/shorts/KCL43ZcoEkg?feature=share

My body & feet ached from all that walking & my heart ached because I missed the kids. But! My soul was rejuvenated with all the excitement from my day with Kap. <3

Sometimes, you gotta make time for just the 2 of you and go back to where it all started. Diba?

Day 2, up next! :-*