07/04/18 Feeling tired today. It is cold outside (12 degrees) and I need to find a new sim card (as mine is about to expire) and some groceries. I walked to the Nagoya train station to grab some tourist brochures, then went to an Aeon shopping mall hoping to find the prepaid sim card, as I read that some of those malls have prepaid cards for tourists. All the telco shops were only selling postpay plans and require a Japanese residency, so I had to go to a store called Bic Camera to find what I was after. A 5GB data only sim card that will last 21days, all I need. On my way to the train station, I stopped by the game centre where they have coin machines to catch teddy bears and all sorts if anime figurines, key rings, even food. I know those machines are programmed like casino pokies, but I still want to give it a try just for fun. I spot a pokemon machine where I can catch a Snorlax (Ronflex). I take a few coins out of my pocket and drop one coin of ¥100 (about $1), press the left arrow button and press the straight arrow button and… I catch it at my first try! Great now I am stuck with this fluffy ball that I will have to carry until I reach Belgium, but it is cute ?. Conscious this kind of luck does not usually hit twice, I decide to just check the other floors and not try anything else. I saw a few geeks playing games on crazy machines, playing piano mega fast, clicking buttons, playing electronic drums etc… fun to watch how addicted and experts at these games they are!
08/04/18 I Downloaded a few episodes of Orange is the new black before I left in March, and started to watch them, as they will expire soon. It is quite catchy so I ended up watching the end of the first season till… 4am. So today I played lazy and only left around 2pm to go to the garden/park Nabana No Sato. They have a winter festival until May where they set illuminations across the park. They also have a massive tulip garden (Marjolein, the Dutchies have some serious competition here) which is also nice at daylight. I arrived around 4pm so I could enjoy the park and flowers for a few hours then had dinner (Japanese food for a change ? – they had a beer café, french café ‘Marseille’, italian and chinese, but they all looked so fake to me that I preferred to stick to what they do best). Food was really nice, and by 6.15pm I was out in the park again to queue at the light tunnel, which they turn on at 6.35. What a beauty! They have a light and music show, and the tunnel lights change colour to represent the seasons changing. It reminded me a lot of the Vivid festival we have in Sydney, except that it is concentrated in the park, not spread out across the city. Just walking in the park was really enjoyable (despite the freezing 8 degrees that night) with all the lights on, but the show was fun too, especially for the kids as the little black bear Kuromon (which you can’t miss in the souvenirs everywhere I have been so far) was part of the show. Even the tulips garden has the character drawn with flower arrangements on the ground.
09/04/18 I was planning to visit the Nagoya science museum, but it is closed on Monday! So I went straight to the castle area, which was 25min walk away from the hotel (which was terrible by the way – Silk Tree, 3 stars, don’t go there until they renovate the place). At 10am 2 ninjas and 2 samurais came out to tease the tourists and pose with them on pictures. As per the previous castles I have seen, the walk around it was nice, no water but grass around for Nagoya castle). For this one I payed ¥500 at the main gate entrance, this gives you access to the park, the castle and shops/restaurants. The castle was rebuilt in 1959 after it got destroyed during ‘45 war. It has a distinct sign compared to the other castles, 2 golden fish on its roof. The visit was really nice, as the castle is full of reliques, objects, who were found in the castle (armors, weapons, wall panels, floor plans,…) and you are allowed to take pics in this one without flash). At 2.30pm it was time to catch a long bus (6h) to get to Tokyo. I could spot Mt Fuji on the way ;).
