Although Nagoya is one of the largest cities in the world and Japan’s second most populated city, many travelers skip it. The only time they see the city is on a train from Tokyo to Kyoto. It’s due to the fact that it’s overshadowed by these cities including Nara and Osaka. But in my opinion, when you have enough time, Nagoya is worth at least a day trip. In this guide, I show you how I spent a day in Nagoya.
How to get there
Nagoya is centrally located between Tokyo and Kyoto on the Shinkansen line. So when you have a JR Rail Pass you can get there easily. But you can also use several local trains which stop in the city. The central train station is surprisingly small for such a big city, so expect narrow corridors and huge crowds.
To reach the main tourist spots, you need to use the subway. When you plan to use it a lot, you can get an one-day pass for 760 Yen or 620 Yen on weekends. That’s also the pass I used on my day trip to the city.
Atsuta Shrine
My first destination was in the south of the city, Atsuta Shrine at the station with the same name. It’s one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan and stores the sacred sword Kusanagi. Therefore, it has a high value, and you can expect to meet many locals there. The shrine also has a very long history, dating back to the 1st century.
When you arrive there, the first thing you see is a big park with lots of trees. There are many different pathways inside the park leading to smaller shrines, so be careful that you don’t get lost. The site of the main shrine is actually not that impressive, and you can’t get on the main grounds. Nevertheless, it’s still a beautiful shrine in a nice park. Although when you’re on a tight schedule it’s probably the sight you can skip first.
Osu District
Around lunch time, I took the subway back to central Nagoya, more specifically Osu District. A major attraction there is the Osu Kannon Temple which is beautifully colored in red. It dates back to the 12th century. But due to several floods it had to be rebuilt a few times. The current reconstruction is from the last century. On the 18th and 28th of every month, there’s also a market at the temple.
There are many shops and a roofed pedestrian street, like in every big Japanese city, next to the temple. At this Osu Shopping Arcade you can find several electronic stores, restaurants, and so on. It was also the place where I had a delicious lunch and recharged energy for the second half of the day.
Nagoya Castle
The most famous sight of Nagoya is probably the castle and its accompanying grounds. You can reach it after a short walk from Shiyakusho Station. The entrance fee is 500 Yen. It was quite busy when I went there, and the weather wasn’t the best unfortunately. But that didn’t worry me too much. I enjoyed the beautiful castle grounds with the massive walls and towers.
The castle itself was built in the Edo Period as the seat of one of the branches of the Tokugawa Family. Therefore, it was one of the biggest castles in the country.
Unfortunately, most buildings were destroyed in the 2nd World War, and the main keep was reconstructed in 1959. It’s currently as it was built in a semi traditional way with concrete. So the city plans to demolish the current keep and replace it by a traditional wooden one. This could take many years, so you can expect 10 years until it’s finished.
On the positive side and also a surprise for me, you can now visit Honmaru Goten which is a reconstructed castle palace. It was built in a traditional way and openend in 2018. Before you go inside, you have to wait in line as there’s a restriction on the amount of visitors. You also have to watch a short video of things which are forbidden in there. Finally, you can enjoy the traditional architecture of the palace. It was a great experience, besides my cold toes which didn’t like it too much.
After I exited the palace, I continued to explore the castle grounds. But I was there in winter, and it was slowly getting darker. So it wasn’t the most beautiful experience. Nevertheless, I still saw some beautiful winter flowers scattered in the park.
Evening in Nagoya
My final destination for the day was Nagoya TV Tower. Maybe I would be lucky and see the sunset and night view of Nagoya. But when I left the castle area, it started to rain. So I waited near a convenience store until the weather improved. At that time it was already getting dark, and I wondered why the tower is still completely dark and not illuminated. It became later and later, and I became more and more suspicious. So I searched for a WiFi spot and found out that the tower is currently getting renovated, bad luck. It’ll open again in September 2020.
Instead of going up to the sky, I continued to walk along the main street on which the TV Tower is located. There you can find a big shopping mall with an ice rink, Oasis 21. The speciality about that one is that it’s built underground. So when you’re on street level you can look downwards into a big mall. There’s also a metro station directly next to it which I used to return to the area of the train station. I walked around that area some more, before I returned to Hamamatsu.
Other attractions
Nagoya, as a big city, also offers other amazing sights which I haven’t visited. These include a few museums like the Railway Museum, Science Museum, or Toyota Museum including a plant tour. For this tour you have to sign up in advance though. There’s also an alternative for the Nagoya TV Tower, the Sky Promenade. It’s next to the train station in more than 200m height and offers great views of the city.