Nagoya

From Ise we went on to Nagoya, which is the fourth biggest city or so in Japan. Apart from that, I didn't really know anything about it, except that it was supposedly the most international city in Japan and a nice place to live; not only for foreigners. In comparison to Tokyo or Osaka, Nagoya seems to be neglected a lot and I've even heard people whisper that it was a bit boring for tourists, so I assumed it would be a typical chessboard-style Japanese city with lots of karaoke bars.
This proved to be true, but as it turned out, Nagoya is actually pretty ancient. It's just that almost all of it was destroyed during World War Two and the place basically had to be rebuilt from scratch. However, there seem to be plenty of places where you can experience Nagoya's past and present no problem.

I'm always excited when coming back into a big city. I really like the place I'm living in right now, which is essentially in the middle of a rice field in the mountains, but I suppose I'm really a city person. I love just being able to dive into the masses and doing my own thing. There's so much to observe and your environment is constantly changing. So contrary to feeling confined or stressed in cities, which many people complain of, I actually feel liberated.

The number one tourist magnet is of course Nagoya castle. The original castle was built in the 16th century, but as I have already mentioned, no much of it was left after the bombings, so what people did was they rebuilt most of it and turned the interior into a museum. Many of the magnificent wall paintings could be saved as well and were either put in the castle or in a museum in town (which we didn't go to see).

Nagoya Noh theatre

On our way to the castle we passed by Nagoya Noh Theatre, which reminded me of how much I would like to see some Noh at some point. I suppose sitting through a whole performance, which can take several hours, can be boring, but the slowness of the movements and the accompanying music has something strangely hypnotizing. It must be interesting if you try and reconstruct how this ancient form of theatre became this ritualised and abstract.
Anyway, on the right is a picture of the building, which was a nice mix between traditional and modern Japanese architecture.


Finally though we saw the silhouette of the castle approaching. It was a wonderful day and so hot you wouldn't think it was early November. You could walk around in a t-shirt and the leaves hadn't even properly coloured yet, whereas in Hokkaido, they'd already begun to fall off. Not only did it feel a bit like being in a different country, but also like travelling back in time into late summer.

I like Japanese castles. They have this kind of - can I say breezy? - feel about them. European castles are gloomy holes in the rock, which is cool in a really mysterious and creepy way of course, but Japanese castles have something light and graceful about them. Maybe because the materials are usually different (wood vs. rock), maybe because they usually have brighter colours.

We went inside the castle and heard a lot about its history and the Tokugawa family that had been living in it for centuries. You can read this history up on Wikipedia, because it is better at telling it.
You could actually go up several staircases until you ended up on top of the castle. From up there you've got quite a nice view of Nagoya.

...even if there isn't much to see. No Godzilla sticking out or anything.

Having seen the castle, we went on to see Osu Kannon temple, which is the main landmark of the Osu district. The temple is very colourful, very Chinese in appearance and dedicated to the goddess Kannon, in this case depicted as a Buddha. I'm finding Japanese Buddhism very confusing. It overlaps with Shinto so much, it's hard to wrap one's head around it. Some Buddhas are Shinto kami and the other way  around and people also behave quite similarly in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Indeed most people are both Buddhists and Shintoists at the same time, and the little oracles, talismans and votive tablets you can find buy at shrines, you can also buy at temples. People probably have no idea who started it and probably don't care either. The main difference might be that Shinto is responsible for life (i.e. rites to do with children, marriage, etc.), whereas Buddhist temples deal with the dead. I shall look into this further at some other point. Meanwhile, here's some pictures of the temple:

After having inhaled the incense-filled air long enough, we looked around Osu for a while for something to eat and discovered a Turkish restaurant! Strangely enough, I had been missing Turkish food more than Austrian food. It is just so much more present in everyday life in Vienna than traditional Austrian cuisine; it also is delicious! So we sat down and had the first kebab in three months. The shop was even run by a Turkish person, which made me feel even more nostalgic for Europe and all the different people that come together there in such a small space. Japan isn't very multicultural, so it's always surprising to find little international spaces inside Japanese towns.

The restaurant was located in a row of huge shopping streets, so we looked around there for a bit and later caught the metro to Atsuta Jingu. Atsuta Jingu is a big shrine complex in the South of Nagoya, situated in a park full of ancient trees. According to Lonely Planet (yes I know...) it is one of the most important shrines in all of Shinto. They say one of the imperial family's relics - the sacred sword - is stored there, although, as in Ise, you can't confirm it as you aren't allowed into the actual shrine. Atsuta reminded me of Ise in lots of ways in that it was kept very simple. Just huge wooden torii and a wooden shrine building in the middle of an ancient forest in the middle of a modern city.

We got there just when it was getting dark, so I couldn't take any photos with my point-and-shoot camera, but let me assure you that wandering around the shrine premises at twilight was extremely creepy, I loved it! It was like walking round some enchanted forest, just so quiet, even though the park was in the middle of a huge city. It is good that quiet and slightly mysterious places like this still exist in modern towns, even though the atmosphere is probably completely transformed during daytime.

Before we went on the train back to Ise, we dropped by Sakae, which is the central hub of Nagoya. It is here where most of the shopping malls and a lot of the nightlife is located. It seemed a bit like a mini- Shinjuku, just less crowded and more accessible. There was this really cool modern building, whose name I've forgotten. It looked like a spaceship made of wire and had several floors. The basement floor was shopping, but the top floors had strange names, such as Moonlight Space Unicorn Meadow (not really; but something to that effect) and were probably intended as installations.

The one on the right (left is NHK Tower)

We walked up on the roof to get a better view of Sakae and found out that the roof was made of glass and the top floor consisted of a transparent, artificial pond. You could see all the floors through the water, but at the same time, the pond reflected the city lights.

Unfortunately we only were in Nagoya for one day. As always, it was hard for me to leave the big city. I would have liked to wander around and go discover some more. Maybe I'll come back some day...