Fun things to do in Nagoya

4 more images

Nagashima Resort, an amusement complex in Kuwana, Mie, is made up of Nagashima Spa Land, Mitui Outlet Park Jazzdream Nagashima, Nabana No Sato and Yuami-no-Shima a spa facility. It is unarguably the most popular destination in suburban Nagoya (5.28 million visitors in 2009 #5 in Japan). During summer its swimming pool attracts huge number of people even from Kansai areas. There is a direct bus service from Nagoya station and Sakae area.

**Also see Kuwana, Mie travel guide.

1 more image

Kiyosu is one of the suburban cities of Nagoya(population:65,000). The biggest draw of the city is Kiyosu Castle keep reconstructed in 1989. Kiyosu castle used to be the center of Owari Province, western half of current Aichi Prefecture. By the order of Iyeyasu Tokugawa entire capital was moved to Nagoya in 1610 and since then as you know newer capital has grown to become a metropolis home to 2 million people. Kiyosu castle has been popular among Nobunaga Oda fans because the castle was once home to young lord of Owari. The Statue of Young Nobunaga Oda is said to be describing the lord of Owari right before the battle of Okehazama in 1560. At the battle Nobunaga upturned Yoshimoto Imagawa one of the strongest feudal lords based in Shizuoka notwithstanding its smaller force and bad weather.

Also growing number of railway fans find the castle area ideal setting to take photos of freight trains and Shinkansen bullet trains.

Kiyosu castle is often the start of Mino Kaido walk one of the alternate highways linking Tokaido and Nakasendo.The road has a number of nice shrines and temples and at Biwajima area you can find some traditional houses showing the area used to be the thriving marketplace.

4 more images

Miya-juku during Edo period (1603-1868) used to be the biggest lodging station of Tokaido highway. It had the Miya port for the Shichiri-no-Watashi ferry to the next station Kuwana. The area thrived because it is the town close to the Atsuta Shrine, 1,900-year-old shrine with one of the Three Imperial Regalia of Japan, the Sword of Kusanagi, imperial treasure related to Prince Yamatotakeru Legend. Currently it is very diffcult to find the trace of the lodging station because the area suffered extensive air raids during second world war and the devastating storm charge in 1959. Also post war development changed the landscape of the area and wide road cut away the former Tokaido road and made it difficult to trace. What remains of the Miya-juku includes:
Atsuta Shrine, Niwa Family House, Atsuta-so, Horaiken(better known by the local cuisine HIMATSUBUSHI) and Time Bell of Miya Port (reconstructed in 1983).

Nagoya ekimen yokocyo is located on the 2nd floor in the Sunshine Sakae.
There are lots of Ramen shops which came from other region of Japan.
The floor is designed like an amusement park.
It's very interesting!

In the CORPORATE PAVILION ZONE B....you will find the Mountain of dreams, not sure if it worth going in it..I did not..but I saw long lines.....

There are presentation from Sekisui house, Chubu nippon broadcasting and tokai television broadcasting...

The gas pavilion...its a show called "the magic theater of flames" ..the show uses flames from natural gas..its suppose to be enjoyed by big and small..

Both has long lines....

In the CORPORATE PAVILION ZONE A you will find the wonder circus, it had a line of about 40 minutes not to bad, as it was slowly moving all the time.....

You ride on an electric car/train....and go thru different scene....it remind me of "small world" in disneyland.......

There were lots of kids, but it was also enjoy by adult..

If you have reservation , you will be able to get into a different door without waiting inline.

If you are going to Nagoya on the 5th June,It's a MUST SEE!
It is worth to adjust your schedule to visit there.

The festivel called "Atsuta matsuri" is hold on the 5th June.
Only once a year.

There are a lot of shops at Atsuta shrine to sell foods at there,and you can see the fireworks at night.
There are a lot of women wearing a beautiful Yukata(a kind of kimono) is very Japanese style.

The fireworks are so beautiful.
Atsuta shrine islocated very near Jingu mae station by Meitetsu line.

Best advice I could give for World Expo is PLAN AHEAD, particularly if you don't have much time! Have a good look through their website, they have a full list of all the different pavillions here http://www-1.expo2005.or.jp/en/venue/index.html. Decide what you want to see and plan a route. The site is quite big and if you want to see some of the top attractions like the Global House, Toyota & Hitachi pavillions you will need to get there early and pick up a reservation (only 1 per day). This is probably the best way to do it, the Toyota & Hitachi pavillions are just inside the North Gate and when we were there the queues were 2h30m long. With a reservation you can avoid wasting time in long queues.

If I was doing it again I would try to do the day like this:
Get there as early as possible. Get to the Toyota, Hitachi, Japan and Global House pavillions and make reservations. If I could make the reservations work then I would go to Global Commons 1&2 followed by Toyota & Hitachi pavillions. Lunch at Global Common 6 then on to Global House and Japan pavillion (don't forget to check out the bio lung and if you have time the small water story pavillion in the middle). You are probably then left with a choice of either more global commons, Interactive fun zone, forest experience or the Seto area and it really depends what you want to do. Seto area is small, but you can get involved and try out some of the arts and crafts (if you are going to Seto try the Fuel Cell Bus if there is no queue, they have a fun video they play on the journey).

We particularly liked: India, Mongolia, Mexico, story of water, New Zealand and the information robot by the North Gate (pictured) who speaks Japanese, English and Korean.

Warning! Don't bring food or drink, they will take it off you at the gate! However the vending machines and food courts inside are very reasonably priced and it seemed to us that they may even be subsidised a bit. Half the fun of Expo we found was sampling the different food from the world pavillions.