Nagoya: Castles, Wandering and Chain-Smkoers

Last Saturday I went to Nagoya for the first time. Nagoya is a small city by Japanese standards, and the avenues and side streets were much wider than in Tokyo and Osaka. However, since the main prewar industry of Nagoya was munitions, most of Nagoya was in ruins by 1945. Consequently, the new city is much less complex than most of the cities I have visited here.

Our group left early in order to make the most of the day, and I was up at seven to shower. I took two trains, and on the first train, office workers were drinking Asahi beer and Suntory whiskey at eight in the morning. I was fortunate to sleep away a good portion of the second, longer, train ride, which brought us into Nagoya. At the main train station, we jumped a couple of crowded subways to get to Nagoya castle. Like Kyoto castle, the construction of Nagoya castle occurred after the end of the civil war period of Japanese history. Therefore, the landscape architecture is grand; an entire park is contained within the outer walls of the castle. The war brought the destruction of the original keep, and the reconstructed keep debuted in 1959. The interior is a five-floor museum topped with an observation floor. I am glad I visited, but I think I like the castle here in Hikone better, as the original floor plan of the castle has remained intact.

After the castle visit, the whole group, now numbering twelve after Shigenori arrived from Hikone, moved to the Sakae district of the city. Sakae is where the main shopping and entertaining is to be found. The women broke off to do some clothes shopping while we men wandered the louder shopping arcades of the Yaba-cho district. The clothing is equally as loud in Nagoya as everywhere in Japan. Adam and I stopped in an army surplus store (of which there are more in Japan than America), to find Nazi SS pins being sold alongside Vietnam era pins. Shigenori lead us to an old shrine, outside of which we bought beer and drank across the street watching the people shopping. I have noticed that the Japanese do not walk and drink or eat, and that only foreigners do this. After talking about this at length with our Japanese friends, we have decided to temporarily curtail walking and drinking. Whether or not that will last is another story.

Once we met back up with the women, Shige tried to lead us to a restaurant that served Nagoya food. During that trip, we learned the Japanese word for wandering. I think that we likely wandered for half an hour, and I am certain we retraced our route twice. The restaurant we found was interesting to say the least; the interior was setup like an old Japanese house. We sat on the floor on pads around out table and ate a few different Nagoya takes on fried chicken and pork, all amidst chain-smokers. Towards the end of the meal, the Japanese man behind me turned around and offered me a drink of sake. When I finished the drink, the man loudly proclaimed to the restaurant that I was a foreigner who could handle his drink.

After the meal the group ended up wandering more, trying to find a bar. The girls were tired and I think not that into finding a bar. Nevertheless, I enjoyed wandering and talking to some of the new students who came with us. I am pleased that overall they are a cool group, pretty adventurous and amiable.

A Busy Thursday in January

On Thursday October 29, Kevin and I were interviewed by NHK. NHK is the Japanese version of the BBC, and has regional offices around Japan. The NHK film crew sat in on classes as well as interviewed students around the building. Over the lunch period, the film crew came into our room to film us eat lunch. After a short tour of our small apartment, I was filmed eating lunch and then participated in an interview. The crew questioned Kevin first, so I formulated an answer while Kevin was talking. Before the filming began, the crew chief made us remove down the Democratic Party of Japan poster that Kevin filched off a nearby building. Apparently, in Japan, political posters are not given to the public, and the crew did not want to film something that was clearly stolen. Kevin and I had a laugh with Tsuchiya-san, the student services coordinator, about the possible political leaning of NHK implied by removing an opposition party poster.

Later in the day, I joined Kevin for a run around Hikone. The usual route Kevin takes goes along the beach, then through part of the town. By the end of the run, I was in poor shape, but I made it and now I am sore from the waist down. I usually travel through the city rather quickly, so running around the city and beach was a nice perspective on the area.

In the evening, I met with my new conversation partner for the first formal meeting. Takyuki and I talked at the restaurant next to JCMU for around two hours. The meeting went well and I am confident that the relationship will be more beneficial for both of us than my last conversation partner.