Living in a hallway: Konnichiwa

14th Sept (Day 1) Tokyo

Staying at the Airport for an early flight was well worth it. No stress about traffic or running late, just a leisurely breakfast and a stroll across the road to check in with plenty of time for a breakfast beer.

Tulla

Tokyo Narita Airport is a shambles at the moment as they are renovating for the Olympics next year. They are still to fit the Aircon in the arrivals area so it was pretty hot and sweaty we were keen to get out of there.
It was getting late by the time we got off the "Friendly Limousine Bus" into Tokyo and started looking for our Air BNB. Luckily Linda had looked at it on Google street view before leaving home as the first thing we did was get lost.

15th Sept (Day 2)

Today we had a leisurely start and wandered down to the Akasaka Hikawa Shine for their annual festival. We were a bit early so decided to explore the local area and get the lay of the land.

Is this a Robot in Disguise?

When we got back to the Shrine just after lunch time things were starting to ramp up. We watched the drivers briefing and sampled the local food vendors wares. There was plenty of variety so we didn't have any problem finding something we liked the look of.

Akasaka Hikawa Shine

Drivers Briefing

We watched the start of the parade which we presumed would do a lap of the park and return, as it's quite hilly and the floats are pulled by people.

We headed of to the heart of town for a look around and everywhere we went we kept coming across the procession. They dragged the floats all around the place.

We stopped in the Craft Beer bar for a pitstop and could smell smoke, the offender noticed our quizzical looks and said he had to come inside for a smoke as you're not allowed to smoke on the street. ?

We picked up some Sushi and salad for tea and went back to our accommodation to rest our feet then strolled back to the shrine to see if the parade had finished yet.

The party was in full swing.

Street Food

16th Sept (Day 3)

Sluggish start today. It was a little wet and steamy. We had a plan but hadn't figured on the rain so we decided to do indoor things. First stop was the Toyota showroom and then the Science and innovation Museum, a bit like science works. After we'd finished there we caught another train to Akibahara and found a pub overlooking the square to rest our weary feet and watch the natives.

They have one of each

Found it.

A daily updated model of the climate.

A creepy Robot that reacts to your movements.

Once rested we joined the throng in the main street, it's known as Electric town as you can buy any sort of electronic device you can imagine. There's also heaps of Anime stuff, which confused us a bit, all the characters have young girls faces but strippers outfits. It's was the busiest place we've been so far.

Electric Town

Outskirts of Electric Town.

17th Sept (Day 4) Nagoya

Today was a tricky adventure catching multiple trains with our luggage and getting the correct Shinkansen ticket. The Bullet Train didn't feel that fast as the ride is smooth and quiet, you can tell your going pretty quick when you come to the bends as it gets quite a lean on.

When we got to Nagoya a helpful railway attendant who spoke some English gave us a few pointers and we used the opportunity to get answers to a few other questions we had. He was a bit of a joker as he asked if we were on our Honeymoon.

On the walk to our Hotel we got lost Again. (Google was having a bit of trouble with all the tall buildings). This time a little construction worker lady came to offer assistance and walked us around the block to the right area. After we checked in we wandered aimlessly around the suburb of Hisaya odori and stumbled across a fancy Bus terminal come shopping strip, found a Dumpling place and had a lovely meal. After Tea we walked around the city for a while before heading home. In amongst all the apartment buildings there's a traditional shrine. The Mossies had a feast.

One thing we found unusual is all the school kids going home at 6pm?

Bus Terminal

Nagoya

Temple

18th Sept (Day 5)

As today is Linda's birthday I thought i'd give her a special treat, so our first stop was the Toyota Automobile Museum. It's a fair way out of town but well worth the effort, The collection includes all manufacturers and they have some quite rare vehicles. A lot of the cars are runners and they have heaps of short videos showing the features of the model. The second train we caught is unusual as it's Maglev, (No wheels) the ride is smooth and quiet.

DKW Beetle (Pre VW)

Tucker

Toyota Model AA

Surprised to see a Valiant

Toyota 2000 GT

Look. No Wheels.

Then it was off to Noritake Gardens built on the site of the old Noritake ceramics factory. The rain had cleared and the sun had come out so it was quite steamy requiring plenty of stops under the shady trees.

Noritake Gardens

We decided to walk back to the Nagoya city centre to find a restaurant for tea and stumbled across the Endoji Shotengai shopping street. The Endoji Temple is only open on the 18th of every month but unfortunately we were a bit late to get into the inner sanctum. We met and started chatting with a French tourist who knew a bit of Japanese and he managed to convince the young caretaker to let us all in to have a look at the sacred carved idol. The idol is carved from timber used in Nagoya Castle back in the 1600's.

After that we headed to the meat and wine restaurant for a slap up birthday dinner.

Endoji Shotengai shopping street.

Endoji Temple

Endoji Temple (The inner sanctum)

19th Sept (Day 6)

It's a nice sunny morning. Took a leisurely stroll through the parks and administration area of Nagoya to Nagoya Castle and the Meijo Gardens where we spent the best part of the day.

The Hommaru Palace in the grounds of the castle is a marked contrast to the English and European palaces we have visited. It's not full of stuff, very spacious and airy with marvellous silk screen panels

Nagoya Castle

Nagoya Castle Gardens

Nagoya Castle Gatehouse.

Hommaru Palace, Main Hall

Hommaru Palace

Ken broke his sunglasses and it's surprisingly hard to find any here, after a fruitless search we spotted an English pub and thought bugger this lets rest our tired feet.

Here are some pictures on our journey to the pub.