Someone's Birthday!!!!!

Wednesday in Nagoya was bright and sunny. Appropriate given the auspicious day.

The Birthday Girl and I were up early and off to explore the wilds of Nagoya. The ryokan didn't do breakfast so we had to find somewhere easy so we hit Starbucks and Kanamaya Station, a cop out I know but it was simple. There are a few Starbucks in Japan as well as McDonald's and KFC. Have also seen a couple of Dominos Pizza places.

We wanted to go to a museum and garden but the issue was they didn't open until 10am and we didn't have a lot of time. So we ended up walking quite a long way into the centre of Nagoya to have a look around.

There are a few interesting shops in Japan and Loft Department store is one of the big homemaker type stores selling all sorts of stuff you don't see in Oz. We poked around there for a while and bought a few bits and pieces before we headed out to find somewhere for lunch. Of course there was an Italian Pasta place close by so we dropped in to give it a try. In short it was actually pretty good. We have had Italian a couple of times since we have been here and the Japanese actually do a pretty good job though the language issue can make ordering a bit of a challenge.

Nagoya has a sister city arrangement with Los Angeles so they have a replica Hollywood Walk of Fame in one of their parks.

We then wandered back to Nagoya station, collected our bags from the ryokan and headed for the Shinkansen to Tokyo.

This time in Tokyo we are staying in the less up market end of town, Shinjuku. Our first stay in Tokyo was in Ginza with all the high end shops so the streets were neat and very clean. Shinjuku is ... less classy. As always it is very crowded and very noisy and the action seems to go on all night. There are lots of small lanes full of various restaurants and other establishments. One thing we have found across Japan (except in Ginza) is the Pachinko Parlours. Pachinko is as close as you will get to poker machines in Japan. Gambling for money is illegal so any Pachinko winnings are given in other forms - prizes or vouchers. They are always very loud and very smoky.

Smoking in Japan is tolerated. Smokers have their own smoking rooms on train platforms which are a glass boxes full of people puffing away, must be very unhealthy in there! There are also areas on the footpath designated as smoking areas and smoking carriages on trains.

Another thing I have noticed is the issue around parking. As I have said streets in Japan are small. Out in the burbs you really can't have 2 cars pass each other on the average street so street parking is not an option and if there are street spots they are usually metered. This begs the question where do people park? Simple, they either park in their garage or they park in one of the paid parking lots around the place. So if someone comes to visit you they have to either park their car on your property somewhere or pay to park in one of these parking yards. I guess this is why the Japanese focus on public transport so much as most of them wouldn't own a car. Some of these parking lots can be quite large and take 20+ cars, others closer to the centre of the city are very small and may only take 4 or 5.

Another thing is push bikes. There are loads of people riding bikes and they are really dangerous. They zoom up the footpath and don't ring a bell so they scare the hell out of you. You also get the clowns who ride a bike and text at the same time. This means there are great parking lots of bikes in some cities. Often times I noticed the bikes might have had a lock on them but they weren't actually chained to anything, very honest people.

Anyway in Shinjuku we stayed in the Shinjuku Prince Hotel which is a bit bigger than the place in Ginza and has a view as we are on the 16th floor. In fact we can see Godzilla.

Seriously. See the photos.

To celebrate the Someone's Birthday we went to the nice restaurant in the Hotel on the 25th floor. Japanese food of course with some nice wine. Very good and she had a good night.

Tomorrow ... we are at a lose end! Our last full day in Tokyo so we'll have to see where we end up!Read more