Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Meals on 2nd Last Day

 

2nd last day in Nagoya, I decided to visit Osu shrine. It was probably another ridiculous 40minutes walk away or something, lol. You get the point by now? I'm super stingy on transport cost if I can just walk there, and back! Anyway, breakfast was amazake, rice cracker, and dessert cheese. One benefit of aging is, I can't really eat that much in a day. So I usually have my biggest meal during lunch time. 

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything to my liking, or budget at Osu area. I ended up in Sugakiya, and decided to try their ramen since it's even sold in supermarket! Bummer, it didn't taste good at all! Pretty watery, and not much ingredient. Not gonna have a repeat of this ever again!

I did have a repeat of the anmitsu. I ate so many anmitsu in this trip I might have been pee-ing sugary drinks! Although I ordered the ramen and dessert together, the lady asked if I wanted my dessert now or later. I told her later, and she gave me a ticket to redeem it after my meal. And I love it that I conversed in Japanese throughout my order. I am always nervous when they ask me additional questions. Cause I really suck at listening, cause native speakers tend to speak so fast! But I'm always so happy when I can catch some keyword, and over the sky if I can reply back! 3.5years of lesson have not gone to total waste!

For dinner, I decided to splurge! Nagoya is famous for their Hitsumabushi Rice, which is BBQ eel rice. It is usually very expensive, but I found a store nearby selling a set for only 1300yen! Around 13sgd. I went there on their opening time to beat the crowd. To my surprise, it was a modern restaurant and they have an ordering machine in the entrance. So I ordered, paid, and got my ticket and went to sit down and wait. Green tea freeeeee.

I sat at the bar counter since I was alone. The store was pretty empty. I was perhaps the 2nd or 3rd customer. After that, more tourist came in. When your order is ready, they will call out the number (in Japanese.....). Luckily, I am super fluent in Japanese numbers! Hahaha. I went to collect my food and came back to my table. 

Ta-dah! You are supposed to portion your rice into 4 parts, and eat them each differently. I tried it, and decided that I like it either dry, or either in the soup (which tasted like tea). Dinner was over too soon! It was super delicious! Highly recommended!

Through out my day in Osu area, I keep seeing this pig character in red sarong. I was wondering what it was. Was it a kami(God) or something? 

Turns out it's a BBQ pork restaurant, cause on my walk back, I finally chance upon it.

I didn't try it. Cause it looked expensive, and there was always many tourist inside. Maybe next time? 

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Sakae Window Shopping Day at Loft and Maruzen

After lunch, I decided to do some window shopping at those novelty shops I alway walk pass cause I never buy anything from them anyway. It was always too expensive even if I saw something I like. But I have a lot of time. I mean, 2 weeks in Nagoya! I practically know the city by now! And one thing about Japan store is, they always have things that make you want to buy everything! Everything is just so unique and kawaii! Even dumb stickers like the above caught my attention. Love these. Bought zero of them....

Lovely Moomin stamps. I do love them. I almost wanted to buy one. But I have so many stamps at home. It was unrealistic to even use them all. I usually only use my Totoro stamp which my husband got me from a Totoro Shop in Kyoto, and now my Miffy stamp which I got from Nagoya Maruzen Bookstore.....

Look at these beautiful mugs! So expensive too. But I guess you can use them forever? Now looking at them, I wish I've gotten them. Can you see the price? Was it around 2000Yen? Lol

Moomin stickers! I love these, but they were just too expensive. My sticker budget is usually 250yen max! And even now, I have more stickers than I can use. I love them. I use them for my journals and like to buy them as souvenirs. Especially stickers that are off the place I've been to, like Ryan and Friends stickers when I was in Korea in April 2024. 

Miffy stickers?

Miffy tiny pouch! I took these photo in the hope that one day, I will sew my Miffy pouch from all those expensive fabric I got. Damn it, I should really make them before I die. Imagine all the hopes and dream of my fabric craft, all wasted because I dropped dead..... OMG! Need to schedule some time! But I have two more upcoming trips to plan.....zzzz

The other store I spend a significant amount of my life in, was Maruzen Bookstore. A long long time ago, Singapore used to have a Maruzen Bookstore at the top floor of Takashimaya. Seeing Maruzen in Nagoya, brings back so much fond memories of my youth, browsing in the store of things I can't afford then. I was just a university student then, or maybe just newly graduated and started work with student loans and rentals to pay.... Anyway.... LOOK AT THE BOOKS! Love the selection! Japanese bookstore is heaven to me! I wish I could read more. But these picture books are good enough for me too. 

There was a selection of Nagoya recommended books. I love personalisation like these in book stores. 

They also have these magazine books with gifts inside of them. This is a giant Nissin Cup Noodle Bag :D

They even have Murakami book t-shirt! Yeah, I stood here a long time pondering my life decision. I didn't get any. I already have around 3(?) Murakami shirt from Uniqlo? Lol. The only thing I bought from Maruzen was my Miffy stamp, which cost maybe 500yen. The rest of the books I got came from BookOff now cause I am no longer working and can't afford 1st hand books! (Unless I won't a content that gave me free vouchers to spend in bookstore, which I happen to win for my Kyushu trip in April 2023)

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Otsukaya Fabric Shopping and Meals for the Day

One of my must do thing when I am in Japan (besides going to bookstore), is visiting fabric hobby shop! And my researched says there is a 4 storey shop around 30mins walk from my hotel. So of course I marched there to Otsukaya! I wasn't expecting much, since it was so out of town. But I think I spend 2 hours there! It was located in quite a quiet neighbourhood, so I felt like I was one of the locals just spending a day there. There are a few things I realised makes me look like a local no matter where I am, one is an umbrella, one is a recycle bag. Both are considered international aunty items! Hahahaha.

For breakfast before my long walk, I ate a curry fried bun from my favourite bakery in Nagoya! I wanted to buy it from another restaurant near the station, but they didn't seem interested to entertain take-away customer, so I didn't manage to buy any from there. 

Anyway, back to the craft store. The top storey was filled with hobby and craft items. Some I've never seen before. For instance, above are ceramic tiles! People actually buy them for decoration and other art projects! And there were so many varieties, shapes, and sizes! I was pretty mind blown.

There was also these miniature photo frame craft. You can buy all the tiny items individually, or in a box kit.

Lot's of cross stitch and embroidery craft sets too.

Fabric patch kits!

I don't even know what these are and I want to make them!

The rest of the store was dedicated to fabric. they have really branded cloth like Marimekko. 

And they have lots of character fabrics too, from the more affordable ones, to the more branded expensive ones. I mainly come to Japan for these. They have the best selection, and I always buy some home.

I saw these origami bags that was so elegant and beautiful. The sewed ones were pretty expensive. The cloth alone was expensive, as it was of the expensive type with beautiful embroidery. They do sell the patterns so that you can buy and bring home to make one yourself. But I was so stingy that I didn't want to spend money on the pattern. For a single piece of paper, they can sell for around 800yen..... But I do so love these bags!

After shopping at the fabric store till noon, I slowly walked back to town, and since it was nearing the end of my trip, I decided to treat myself to a sit in meal. I was also thinking it wasn't that cool to say I was solo travelling, but always having my meals in my hotel room. So in some shopping mall upstairs where the restaurants are, I decided that I wanted to eat some fish and rice. I found the above restaurant and went in.

By this time, it was quite late, maybe 2pm+, so I got a whole table for myself. The waiter serving me was actually Indian, or maybe Nepalese? But we conversed in Japanese. I ordered coke too. It came without ice, so I also requested a cup of ice. I have just walked the whole morning, closed to 3 hours, and was dehydrated! The rice and the fish really hits the spot, as does the ice coke! I took my time enjoying my sit down meal. After which I continued on more window shopping, before buying dinner back to eat.

As the weather was hot, I just have a simple cold somen salad. 

Here was the damaged from the fabric store. I told myself I would only spend maybe 50sgd in the store.  The green cloth cost me only 3sgd a meter. I love the retro color and the very old style Japanese design. The rest was spend on Miffy cloth! Lol. I wasn't allowed to buy any Moomin cloth cause I still have many at home from my past trips!

Here is what I did with the green cloth. I actually use it to sew a practise origami bag last year. I love it so much that it has become my carry on bag whenever I'm back in Singapore. Although it looks kinda small, it is super spacious and can carry a lot of things! I even used it to carry my library books sometimes, but only when I am returning, not during borrowing.... hehe. The Miffy charm is from my husband, who got it for me from Korea Airport. He said it was because I kept playing with my friend's daughter's Miffy charm on her bag the whole trip that he decided to get me one. It only cost around 9USD. I didn't know where to put it at first, but then when I saw the green origami bag, I instantly knew they below to each other. It's the color of Miffy!

The origami bag has a square base, so it can sit really well. Above is the bag, with a whole jar of cookies inside, lol. With space still left to spare! When I have time, I will make more, or maybe bigger bag. They are really handle, and strong cause they are double layered. And it's so japanese! I wish I've done the handle nicer. But it was supposed to be just a practise bag to see how it turned out. I never imagined that I would love it so much.

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Domatsuri Part 2

The main stage of the dance festival was in the middle of the Hisaya Odori Park.

There was a super big stage, with mc and video crew there.

There was also ticketed seats, and gated area. But you also stand by the side and just watch. If it's not too crowded, the police and security personnel doesn't really bother you much. As long as a lane was kept open for people to walk thru, they were pretty chill about it. The Japanese people were also very well behave, so there wasn't any pushing, or any rude behaviour really.

On stage, some performances have kids participating. There were some with seniors too.

As you can see, they really go all our in their performance. The props alone was huge, colourful and memorable!

Here's another clip for your entertainment.

After getting sick of the performances, I cross the road to Hisaya Odori Park. There were some high end dining and shopping around the park. All too expensive and fancy for me. But they do light up the place and make it pretty trendy.

This is the Nagoya Tower. I suddenly realised that I've started collecting the towers of Japan. So far I have Tokyo Tower, Osaka Sinsekai Tower, Beppu Tower, Fukuoka Tower, and now Nagoya Tower. I am headed to Kobe in November, so I'm gonna go get a photo of the Kobe Tower too.

I stayed out so late at the dance festival that when I finally made my way to buy some dinner from the department store, many of them were closed or out of much selection. Luckily I got a bowl of my favourite udon and sparkling sake from Donki, so I just went back to the hotel and bought a fried chicken from Yamazaki Bakery nearby for the protein. Sad dinner, but very entertaining day out!

Love Aichi Forever! The very first time I was all alone in a Japanese city on my own :)

Thank you for taking care of me while I was there :)

Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Domatsuri Part 1

Besides the Hirokoji Dori Matsuri which was held a week ago, there was also the Domatsuri Dance Festival being held the following week. I felt really lucky that I get to experience two different festival in my two weeks trip! What were the odds of that. Domatsuri was a street festival held all over Nagoya's Sakae district all the way down to the other end of the park. The nearest to my hotel was at Oasis 21 building. Above is what the place looked like. Pretty futuristic spaceship kind of design. 

It was a great place to held it there cause people could just stand around at ground level looking down at the stage. The place was spacious, and great viewing. I stood at the perimeter bridge structure looking down. Lots of photographers were also around practising their art. 

This was my first Domatsuri, and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Watching it, it kinda reminded me of university rag show where there are dances, music and props and costume done up by different hostels or faculties. Here in Nagoya, it was done up mainly by the different universities in Japan. And the costume were amazing. Each unique for their own group, and the props too!

There was also a lot of flag waiving, which kinda reminded me of Ching-Gay. But many of them uses the flag like a backdrop of a stage, changing the scenes, or letting the dances getting ready behind it etc. 

There was definitely a lot of energy coming from all the dance group. Lot's of cheering and shouting. 

I also saw a dance group from Taiwan. Seeing how Taiwan is always so close to Japan, it wasn't that much a surprise. But it was still nice seeing them there and seeing the crowd cheering for them.

My favourite performance was from Hokkaido University.

And this was the reason why, lol. It was almost shocking for me. Their performances was very energetic, but when they start stripping down to their underwear, I was kinda shocked. But this was Japan, where being naked in onsen was just normal. Plus, the guys were all so thin and pale! I saw the same dance twice, once here, and another time further down the park. They must have stripped a lot the whole night! So the dance group actually performed at one location, and then walk all the way (carrying all their props), to the next venue and repeat their performances again! It was must exhausting. It was after all, summer! But they were all so professional! Below are just some short video clips of their performance. I didn't upload the stripping part, as I didn't feel right uploading it on my youtube channel, lol.