2017 Autum Japan part 1 - Nagoya, Gifu

It was the wifey big milestone (hint: the BIG candles on a birthday cakes hit the next '0'). It was off to her favourite country, Japan! It's one of my favourite destinations too, having been to Hokkaido twice, Tokyo a few times, Nagoya once too, everything from their politeness, manga, technology, water, food, sake etc are all done with utmost dedication.

The last visit to Yuji was in ~2009, glad to have met them again on day 1 of our trip, and onward to a nice lunch in Gifu, followed by a trip to Gifu castle

Gifu castle, nagoya can be seen 'far far' away. Note the amount of flat land that Japan seem to have?

Gifu castle was manned by Samurai in the olden days, and they would hike up and down the hill daily, till one day a tired bum decided to call it home up there. Here toys used by Sam to protect what was needed.

Tofu. Yums. The soup was super with the soya sauce. Didn't get the brand of the sauce though.

Lovely place for lunch. Completely immersed in "Japan'" right away!

View from near the top !

Reaching top soon

Lunch

Lunch

A 200 yen entry to play with Squirrels.

An-almost attempt at Squirrel Sashimi.

The trip up was via a cable car, we decided to hike down, not the best option for the missus.

Yeah, squint your eyes and you can see the white spec, a relief to tbe down on solid ground.

yes and i WORE SLIPPERS on the hike, #HERO

it was off to some Japanese ice kacang after the warm/tiring hike. A Giant bowl here cost 850 yen. Way too sweet and artificial for my liking

The ice kacang shop

A very early dinner after.

Izakaya style,with Akamiso （赤みそ）(red miso) as the popular dish. A bit sweet/heavy for me

Other yummy stuff

image: http://www.meitetsu.co.jp/ map

Our host then dropped us off at a stop called Kashiwamori, it was the Meitetsu line, and not the easiest to navigate back to central Nagoya to our Air Bnb. Around 650m of luggage lugging to our tiny airbnb with a super single bed. End of day 1!

day 2. Magome, Tsumago.

The missus planned the trip, and an option was to go for the hiking places of these famed town ~2 hr off Magome. We were up bright and early and got to Kashiwamori. Here visit to old house, pretty nice little down for Magome, while Tsumago is a bit more backward and less touristy. We would hve preferred to hike the ~8km between the two towns but Yuji suggested drinking which we gladly obliged.

Traditional jap house in Magome

Japanese playing cards

Time was measured by the amount of time incense took to burn

A view of the Japanese Alps.

LIned with shophouses, one that drew my attention was this shop selling products from Hinoki wood. And I knew I had to get a board, as they just smelled so good.

Here back home, with the Magome inscripted board made from the most authentic Japanese Cypress wood refer!

Poor lunch at Magome touristy area. Handmade soba but it was blah.

Streets of Tsumago.

image: https://nagmag.jp/nagoya-subway-and-transportation-map/ Nagoya Subway map

It was ~4pm when we go back to Kashiwaromi station and it was a decision to make to go back to rest before dinner or just cheong for dinner. Nagoya is famous for Unagi (eel) with their Hitsumabushi (3ways of eating methods). A quick search and Horaiken Nagoya Unagi restaurant seemed the best bet but the connection to a rail station near was pretty challenging as the about Meitetsu network didnt' link to the another network(turned out to be the Subway), as google /maps were giving incomplete information. We did located the place and still at ~5pm, there were 30 pax in the Queue already and a 20min wait later, the famous dish was in front of us and it was perhaps the top 2 meals of the trip! The Unagi alone is super tasty with umami flavours. Comparing with Singapore's Manman Unagi at 1 Keong Saik Road, Horaiken's was supreme. Man man's won in the wasabi / dashi department though.

A clearly satisfied missus.

This building has like 12 stories? (many giant buildings around Nagoya are like this, with 'all in one' ensuring you won't need to leave the building). We went to shop for headphones ( considerably cheaper in Japan than Singapore!)

My absolute pick (yes, I tried as many 5-6 digit yen head phones) and this just got stuck onto my head and security needed to wrangle it off me. The 'how to test a headphone' is simple: If you don't feel like taking it off, that's it. Many other 5-6 figure Headphones were awesome, but this was, 'un-take-off-able!' The Sennheiser HD 800 S Handphone . Hint: X'mas is coming

earphones: yes this was da bomb

Grand Seikos.

Back at the air Bnb, we watched Kimi No Na Wa for the first time. The missus has been asking to watch but both of us haven't forked out the time required. Usually before a trip, the few weeks are generally very hectic for us. A trip is a time when we can push back some work and boy, this was clearly our movie of the year. I can't even name a #2 which comes close. The cinematography, animation, music, character development were all Oscar-worthy. I've never seen anime with chalkboard-writing so realistic, Comet depiction so kaleidoscopic and storyline so mesmerising!

A great way to anticipate the Takayama leg of the trip on our very next day, day 3: Takayama!