Solo Trip Nagoya (August 2023) - Noritake Garden

 

After lunch, I took almost a 20minutes walk to look for Noritake Garden. Noritake is apparently famous for porcelain ware and ceramic, and bone china. I have never heard about it before until I was researching up things to do in Nagoya. It was one of the places highly recommended. And since I love ceramic, I decided to come here on my first day. I knew there was a combination ticket that comes with Noritake and Toyota Museum. I wanted to know if I can use the tickets to visit two attraction in two different days so that I can spend more time in each.  Walking into Noritake Garden was something. It was in the middle of summer in Nagoya, yet I felt like I was in the cold chilled air of an English garden. Doesn't the photo above looked just picturesque? 

The garden was also filled with red brick warehouses, as it did housed the old ceramic factory long time ago. The red brick building just adds to the atmosphere of an old English scene. Noritake Garden is actually made up of a few buildings. And yes, I did get my combination ticket which I can use for two days :) It was my first day speaking Japanese, and I kinda fumble, but I managed to get my question understood, so good enough! 

With the ticket, I first visited the workshop where they show you, with live artist, how they make their ceramic. No photos was allowed, but it was quite interesting. There was a station where you can feel ceramic, porcelain and fine bone china. I think that was the first time I could tell them apart! Upstairs of the workshop, there was also a DIY area where you can pain your own plate and take it home, but sadly nothing conducted in English after I asked :(  The tickets also allowed me to visit the museum, and photograph was allowed there. I will do a separate post on that cause it has the most beautiful collections of ceramic ware there! Just love it!

There was also a Welcome Center which wasn't very interesting, and a separate building where they house the Lifestyle Store and Cafe. Inside the Lifestyle Store, they have ceramic for sale. And some were heavily discounted too! I did ponder whether to buy some, but it was still my first day in Nagoya, and I have a few hotels to move around in! So I ponder against it. 

I did took some of the cute photos of the character ware there. Just in case I wanted to come back here again to purchase some souvenirs. Above is the Doraemon collection. I was looking for something more Japanese in nature, instead of the usual English Tea Cups.

I actually spend quite a long time inside the shop, just struggling with myself. Like these Totoro bowls. I could afford them. But I was just too lazy to carry them home with me. So fragile too! But yes, I do love them. I think if I lived in Japan, my house would just be filled with so many cool kitchenware!

After walking out from all the displayed area, I headed to the other side of the garden, again, passed the beautiful red brick warehouses and their beautifully black doors. What a sight. 

I found the old kiln of the original Noritake Factory. They are no longer in used, as they now use a modern oven of sort inside the new workshop building. But it was still impressive to see the actual thing. I like it that they have the year it was in operation in red bricks on the ground too.

Here is some information on it. You can zoom into the photo for more details. There are actually 6 kilns in the area. And they are all overgrown with green plants :)

Here is a row of them in the garden on the right. On the left is a wall filled with stone and ceramic plates! There are also open fields where kids can run around in. Pretty cool place, except that it was so freaking hot! The weather was around 35 degress in summer. 

Connected to the garden was also an Aeon Mall. I went inside for some browsing and shopping and bought my dinner there before headed home after the visit. At that time, I totally forgot about the iconic Tsutaya Bookstore that can be found here. I only remember it the next day, and luckily it was nearby the Toyota Museum, so I went back again to visit the bookstore! More on that in future post.

The view while I was walking back the opposite direction back to the gate headed to Nagoya Station.