Early Autumn Japan Nov 2016 - Tokyo to Nagoya (Day 2)

The sun rises pretty early when we were in Tokyo in November. There was a placard in our room at the 12th floor that sort of explains the sights, much like an observatory tower.

view from room

night view

morning view

Since we had about 2 hours before our check-out time, we decided to go down for a morning stroll. It was a lovely day after all. Bright and cool.

hotel sign

at the back of the hotel

joggers path

walked for 35 minutes towards the Imperial Palace gates

National Kabuki Theatre

Grand Arc Hanzomon Hotel

It was about 35 minutes walk to the Palace gates. Encountered many joggers on a Sunday morning and they do run pretty fast! Most seemed to be heading towards the palace gates.

time to use this

heading out of Hanzomon

For the first time ever, was going to take the Shinkansen to Nagoya. WoOohOoo! But it was rather busy at the station, so do arrive early to catch the bullet train. Also, you may want to pack food along. Be there at least half hour early to do all those stuffs.

decided to buy sandwich from here

Shinkansen Hikari

inside the Shinkansen

This shinkansen has trolley service but since we've packed from Tokyo station, we were happy with our meal. I liked my prawn katsu sandwich. Very tasty!

prawn katsu sandwich

or buy refreshments when in the shinkansen

Unlike Hokkaido, no one came to check the tickets. Along the way, there was a stretch where you could see Mount Fuji from the train. Hence, do inform the ticketing officer during reservation that you'd like a seat with a view.

Mount Fuji as viewed from the shinkansen

The shinkansen journey was about 2+ hours. Reached Nagoya and it was a challenge in finding the hotel. We were staying at Nagoya Ekimae Mont Blanc. Google map didn't help much and the locals do not know about this hotel.

hello Nagoya

The hotel was basically towards the left exit of Nagoya station, near to Takashimaya side. Once you've gotten the bearings, then it was easier to locate.

Takashimaya Nagoya

Stayed in a single room on the 6th floor and it was rather tiny. Good thing about the hotel was that there's a large pharmacy next to it. You can stock up on beauty products from there!

Nagoya Mont Blanc Ekimae

compact bathroom

The bathroom was like a space capsule. There was a note that states that the door must be closed when in use as the hot air from the bathroom might set off the fire alarm, if it wasn't. Wow. That'll be a real emergency situation with fire engine and all!

There's a tub in the bathroom, so remember to get the bath salt from the hotel receptionist. One pack per customer and upon request.

bath salt

It was nice to be able to relax in the room and have a quick soak in the tub. For dinner, I had listed down a few things that we must eat in Nagoya; tebasaki, oyakodon or hitsumabushi.

Being new to Nagoya, we headed to lunch at....Takashimaya! Hahaha. Most convenient and no need to think so much. It wasn't fun getting lost and it was most tiring.

what's for lunch?

Spotted Din Tai Fung, and boy, it was popular with long queues. It was actually pretty late for lunch, so we decided to have Hitsumabushi. We were at queue number #4 or something. Just leave your name and wait to be called.

shopfront

The wait was about 15 minutes or so, and we ordered fairly quickly. They have two styles of hitsumabushi. Tokyo or Nagoya style. I chose Tokyo and my friend had the Nagoya style. The difference between the two was that Nagoya style would be eel glazed with sauce and Tokyo was without sauce.

Hitsumabushi (grilled eel bowl) @ ¥3460 each (incl. tax)

Grilled eel bowl (Nagoya style at the top, Tokyo style at the bottom)

It was a super filling meal and rather pricey. But hey, we only lived once.

eaten with soup

After lunch, we wasted no time and headed towards Nagoya castle as we only had one night in Nagoya. The thing about sight-seeing at attractions, is that one must take heed on the opening and closing hours of such places.

Let's continue the story of Nagoya Castle, in another post. Till then, see ya!