Japanese breakfast ends by 9am, which was earlier than we were used to. Hence we had to wake up early every morning for breakfast and onsen.
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| Traditional Japanese breakfast |
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| More breakfast buffet spread |
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| My choice of breakfast in little plates on a tray |
After breakfast, we got ready to head out. Our hotel was conveniently located about 5-10 minutes walk from 2 train stations, Fushimi and Sakae Station. However, we decided to take the hotel's free shuttle bus service to
Nagoya Stationl instead.
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Taking photos in the beautiful lobby while waiting for the bus to arrive
(Side note: Check out the super adorable sheepskin boots we got from an outlet store in Hong Kong! The kids love their boots so much that they didn't want to take them off!) |
There were limited seats on the bus, hence you'd need to obtain bus passes from the front desk 30 minutes before the bus was due to depart. For a large group like ours, the hubby had to be very punctual in collecting the passes in order to secure our seats.
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| Dormy Inn Shuttle Bus |
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| Our family occupied two-thirds of the bus! 😅 |
We arrived at Nagoya Station and took the subway to Nagoya Castle. It's really easy to get around in Nagoya via the train system (
read for more info).
General info on train travel in Nagoya:
- Children under 12 years old pay the child fare while those under 1 year old is free.
- Child under 7 years old is free with one accompanying paying adult.
- Consider getting the IC Card which functions like our Ez-link card. It's more convenient as you can just tap and go.
- There are no IC Cards for children, hence we had to buy one-way tickets for my eldest girl (my other 2 children were free). It was worth the trouble as the child pays half the price of an adult.
- You can buy IC Cards and tickets from the ticketing machines at each station. Note that IC cards can only be bought from the yellow ticketing machines (see photo below).
- The cost of travelling via subway in Nagoya starts at ¥210 per adult and ¥100 per child.
- Most of the time we paid about ¥210-270 per adult and ¥100-150 per child one way.
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Clockwise from left: Yellow Ticket Machines;
The IC Card;
Child ticket is usually half the price of an adult. |
To get to Nagoya Castle, we took the Sakuradori Line (red) from Nagoya station to Hisaya-odori Station and changed to the Meijo Line (violet) to
Shiyakusho Station.
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| You can find these Nagoya signs near major tourist attractions. This one was at the exit of the train station as we made our way to Nagoya Castle. |
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| Passing some restaurants on the way to Nagoya Castle and couldn't resist taking pictures with the beautiful trees |
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| Photos with my baby girl on one of the benches |
It was time for lunch so the hubby suggested eating at one of the restaurants along the way.
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Left: Lunch at Saien
(Address: 1 Ninomaru, Naka Ward, Nagoya, Aichi 460-0032, Japan);
Right: We ordered the speciality of Nagoya, which was recommended by the restaurant. It was pretty good! |
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| We decided to sit outside to enjoy the nice cold weather while we can |
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| The boy simply loves ikura (salmon roe) so the hubby ordered this special dish with ikura spilling out of the bucket! My Boy and I (the only 2 people who love ikura) really enjoyed it!! 💖 |
After breakfast, we made our way to
Nagoya Castle.
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Buying our tickets at the entrance of Nagoya Castle
(Address: 1-1 Honmaru, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 460-0031, Japan) |
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| Beautiful castle grounds |
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| I have no idea what this is but it looks beautiful 😄 |
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| The castle gate |
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| Love this cute standee of my kids! 😄 |
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| Selfie in front of the palace |
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| This is the Shogun's residence |
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| You need to take off your shoes before entering the Shogun's residence and the palace. You can keep your shoes in lockers at the palace. |
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| You will basically be led through multiple rooms just like this one with various art work painted on the walls. The more black laquer the room has, the higher the rank of the person living in it. |
It's quite a big palace but pretty much all the rooms look similar 😅
We also explored a nearby 3-storey tower with not much to look at except for the view of the castle grounds from the top.
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| You can see the visitors streaming in from the gate |
Of course a visit to Nagoya Castle will not be complete without a photo with the castle itself!
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Left: A photo of me with the Nagoya Castle, taken by my girl (she's not naturally good at photography but I'm training her so that she can take nice photos of me 😄);
Right: Beautiful autumn leaves! |
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| A little selfie of me and my girls and the Nagoya Castle. |
Sadly the castle was closed for refurbishments. We had to make do with ice cream instead, which the kids very much preferred anyway.
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| The boy only eats chocolate ice cream while the girl likes green tea. Both were delicious! 😋 |
My plan initially was to visit at least two attractions today. However, with a baby and a very active preschooler, we ended up taking longer than expected at Nagoya Castle. By the time we started heading to our next destination, it was already 5.30pm!
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| Such a beautiful Exit at the subway station |
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| Follow the signboards to Osu Shopping Street |
We took the Meijo Line (violet) to
Kamimaezu Station to visit the famous
Osu Shopping Street. It was dark by the time we arrived.
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| Entrance to Osu Shopping Street |
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| Sheltered walkway |
Sadly, many of the shops were closed 🥲 Nevertheless we stumbled onto
Seria, a 100 yen store that was still opened!
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| Seria store at Osu Shopping Street |
You can't visit Japan without visiting a 100 yen store! You can basically buy almost everything at
just slightly over a dollar here! 👍🏻
The hubby also found this fried chicken stall located next to the famous Osu Kannon.
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| Freshly fried chicken! |
Since it was already dark, I only managed to get some photos of the
Osu Kannon at night.
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| Osu Kannon |
We planned to come back again another day since we have a few extra days in Nagoya (we intentionally spread out our itinerary over a longer period so that we don't have to rush with a baby).
We were planning to have dinner somewhere near our hotel but decided to have dinner at
Miyamoto Munashi while walking to Osu Kannon Station.
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| Miyamoto Munashi |
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| Order via their ordering machine |
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| My set meal with beef |
We were the only family at the restaurant! Everyone else were mostly men eating alone. The whole system functions such that you can go a whole meal without even talking to anyone! Very interesting!
After a full meal, we took a lift down to
Osu Kannon Station and took the Tsurumai Line (light blue) to Fushimi Station.
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| Waiting for our train at the station |
By the time we arrived back at our hotel, I was so exhausted that I almost couldn't feel my feet! When I synced my tracker at the end of the day, I realised that I had walked
18000 steps! And I was carrying my baby in a carrier for more than 80% of it! No wonder I felt so tired!
Thank God for a good soak in the onsen and a delicious ramen supper to end the day! ❤️
Continue to >> Nagoya Day 3: Takayama & Shirakawa-go Day Tour
<< Back to Nagoya Day 1: Dormy Inn Premium Hotel & Sunshine Sakae
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as well as other travel itineraries!
