Nagoya: Tokugawa Regime's Heritage

Ep.37

“In youth we learn, in age we understand” – Marie Von-Ebner Eschenbach.

NGO – Nagoya, Japan.

26^th-27^th February 2012.

Me and the main castle.

Japan again! And this time is Nagoya. First thing popped in my head? Samurai X anime’s backdrop of Tokugawa regime (freaks!). I called my friend who lived in Nagoya to ask for direction, as I’d absolutely go to Nagoya Castle. Beyond expectation, he offered to tour me around, but in the end, due to one and other things, he ended up gave me all the clear direction to go to Nagoya Castle by myself. No problem!

Hinamatsuri decoration.

I arrived at Nagoya about 6pm. The location that we’re happened to stay is quite convenient. It’s connected to the main station of Nagoya as you can see all of the commuters walking around. The moment I see the decoration in the lobby, I recognized it as a Hina-Matsuri (Girl Festival) decoration. How lucky I am to be able to see the decoration myself. It was actually supposed to be on March 3^rd, but the atmosphere was there already Some of the Japanese senior crews were nice enough to agreed to show us the way to the nearby supermarket and we agreed to meet in the lobby 15 minutes later. I rushed to my assigned room and changed as fast as I could. I went down to the lobby as soon as possible. Why? Of course! I want to take picture with the Hina-Matsuri decoration. Ha-ha!

let's eat

Gyu-Ramen

Along with the other crew, I went to the nearest Aeon supermarket to see what could I buy. I wont said that the weather is friendly, as it was an ultra windy 2°C weather (I ended up bought an earmuff for JPY 890 and Ciggies for Andrew! JPY 4400). We stopped by a 100 yen shop just under the train service, that it shakes and rumbles every time a train passes it line. Bought some food for tomorrow’s breakfast and we went directly to get us a fine Japanese style dinner. There is this place that people called “Ramen Street” where the entire street is full of ramen stands and stalls. This one we visited was located at the basement side of the Nagoya Station. We couldn’t decide which stalls’ queue line should we queue at until we finally randomly decide on the stalls that got the yummiest picture in front of its. I ordered the original Gyu Ramen (JPY 700) and what’s best from Japan? The drinks were free, although it would be only water or mugicha. Better than nothing. Japanese ramen taste much more delicious when you eat them at it origin’s place. Being full and satisfied with our dinner, we walked back to the hotel by a great effort to fight the wind (it was a great decision to bought that earmuff before).

Feels like in another frame of time

During last night dinner, I told the other two crews that I’m going to visit the Nagoya Castle and we agreed to go together. By the clock of 8 am, we met at the lobby already. The temperature was 1-2° C and it doesn’t make us stop from going anyway. My friend gave me this kind of direction: from Nagoya Station, take the Higashiyama line to Sakae Station (2 stops) and change to Meijo Subway line to Shiyakusho Station (another 2 stops). It costs JPY 230 each trip and from the nearest exit it was 3 minutes walk to the east entrance of the palace. It was a super clear direction that we didn’t waste anytime at all looking for direction. The Shinyakusho Station exit is the most unique exit I have ever seen. A wooden gate and looks so damn traditional Japanese framed it.

Kato Kiyomasa statue.

The entrance fee to the Nagoya Castle is JPY 500 per person and seeing the entrance within my vicinity gave me shivers already (not only because the excitement but also due to the chilly weather). During the Edo period, Nagoya Castle was the center of one of the most important castle towns in Japan. 

I was not sure where did we start our palace exploration as we just walk basically based on our own instinct. We walked across the statue of the man that was famous for his rock pulling to build the base of the castle, Kato Kiyomasa. 

Palace ground

We also walked and see the turret of the castle where it was supposed to be where the samurai’s of the era watch over the perimeter of the castle. We were lucky enough to be able to see the reconstruction of the Honmaru Palace. Reconstruction work of the destroyed Honmaru Palace begann in 2009 and is slated for completion by 2017. Japanese carpentry is one of the most precise things in the world, if I may say. As I saw it by myself that the way they rebuild the castle, which are used to be the meeting rooms of the best swordsmen of the era, without any nails. They made it by a pure technique of carpentry.

Shella the builder!

Moving from the construction area, now it’s the time for the real deal. I finally see the trademark of Nagoya Castle, the golden dolphin at the edge of the roof of the palace. The main building of the castle itself, made my heart beat like a little girl that just got a Barbie (do I like Barbie when I was a kid? Well, I like Ken for sure). We went inside the castle and it happened that each floor of the castle is now became a museum kind of like. In this museum we could see the left over from Tokugawa regime’s artifacts including the swords, the famous painted sliding door, the dioramas of the castle, the carriage, and a cool model of old Japan village style that goes from daytime to nighttime every few minutes. There was also a 3D movie showing the paintings in Honmaru Palace as well as the model of rock pulling including the pulling meter that cam measure your pulling ability (I scored 60! Which means almost maximum).

kinshachi

On either end of the topmost castle roof are two golden tiger-headed dolphins, called kinshachi. This motif was used as a talisman to prevent fires. They first appeared in the Muromachi era (1334–1400) as a symbol of the lord's authority. The northern kinshachi is male, while The southern kinshachi is female. Both dolphins are covered with 18 carat gold plate 0.15 mm thick (WOW!!). At the very top level of the castle, there was an observation desk and a souvenir shop. From there, we could see the Nagoya city from above (well, I could also see our crew hotel from there). Even though the castle was severly damaged by the earthquake and the bombing of the World War II, thanks to the reconstruction (as this castle considered as national treasure) that it was still in a good shape.

early bloomers

Moving onward, we took tons of pictures around the castle ground. I was trying to get the right angle to take the picture of Nagoya castle and me just like the angle of it that I always see from anime movie. I was so happy like a kid to stepped my feet on the castle ground. We passed across a teahouse, and seems it was almost spring already, it was the first time that I saw an early bloomers of cherry blossom, or more often called Sakura. Famous sakura, the symbol of Japan, right in front of me, not only in pink color, but also the white one. Although I couldn’t see the hanami festival (Sakura at its full bloom), I was happy enough to touch a Sakura flower by my own bare hand.

Pull the rock!

pink sakura

It was almost the time to get back to the hotel, I was happy already by what I was able to see and experience in the last 24 hours that I got in Nagoya. Near the exit, I took a picture with Nagoya castle’s mascot, Ichiro-kun. Happy happy and so happy and suddenly I became hungry. We reverse our way to travel back to Nagoya Station, and instead of having Ramen as lunch, now we will try for another fancy Japanese style lunch: Kare-rice.

white sakura

my lunch

We decide to have a lunch at the most unique Kare-rice stalls in the station (it was located at the basement). The unique thing is the service style. We got to choose what we’re gonna eat before we enter the restaurant. How? There were two vending machines in front of the door of the restaurant where we could just insert our money and press on the menu that we want. (Lucky that I read Japanese a bit!) I pressed on a Beef Katsu Kare-rice with extra egg on side, which cost me JPY 880 in total. Once the transaction finished, a coupon will be ejected from the vending machine. We then enter the restaurant to find a seat and handed the coupon to the waiter/ess, they will asked whether we would like to have extra rice free of charge or just normal portion. I chose normal portion. It seems that the Japanese working culture is so systematic and efficient that the whole things should be done as efficient as possible with minimum human resource.

ichiro-kun to shashin ga totta!

Finished with our lunch, we got back to the hotel to prepare ourselves for the flight back to HK. I caught a 45 minutes nap and dragging my feet to do the flight back (it always happened on the flight back sectors to HK: dragging feet to work). In anyway, Japan has always got something to offers in order to amaze me. With this trip, the port of Japan that I haven’t visited yet would be only Fukuoka. Hope it will come sooner than I expected.

  

“There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.” – Me.