I have been assigned to my next posting and this time is to the city of Nagoya in Japan. Thanks to Google Map, I am able to zoom in precisely to where my location is now. From the first map below, we can see Nagoya (名古屋) city in the middle. I am living at the Red Dot. The distance between where i'm staying to the city centre is equivalent to me travelling from East Coast Road to the City Hall in Singapore.
Now we zoom in more to see precisely where I am staying, also in the Red Dot. Just a 5 minutes walk from my dorm is a shopping mall with lots of food eateries - Tokadai Centre (桃花台センター).
Here is the main entrance to my dorm.
A sneak peek into my room. I access internet via a wireless connection through my colleague's internet connection who is living next door to me.
As with traditional Japanese style, we have a common shared bathroom. This photo is taken in the afternoon when no one is around and the baths are not filled. Japanese prefer to bathe sitting down instead of standing up - notice the shower heads to the right. The mirrors show the chairs.
The dorm provides breakfast and dinner. Living in a dorm really gives me a feeling of back in hostel during university days. When I was in NUS KE7, it too provided breakfast and dinner. Then the regular group of us will have our meals here. The main difference is that Japanese food is served every meal.
This is what I have for breakfast. I am given the option to have Western breakfast (洋食) but I instead opted for Japanese breakfast. It is due to my penance for Japanese food.
And this is what I have for dinner. There is a menu on a noticeboard just next to the dining area which shows the meals for the entire week. I have to confess that I really love the meals here. Always looking forward to it in the morning and evening. Even when I'm in China, I would always opt for Japanese restaurants as my staple dinner.
Here is a photoshot of the Tokadai Centre shopping mall.
In the shopping mall there are shops, supermarkets, and restaurants.
14th October 2007If I am not travelling around Japan over the weekends, I will join my fellow colleague for lunch at an Italian restaurant down at the Center. Saizeriya as it is called, is a series of popular chain stores all over Japan. Best part of the meal is that you can opt for the drink bar which provides free-flow of drinks. Though for the large part I only drink Oolong tea. And here below is a shot taken from the Saizeriya restaurant. It shows Ronald MacDonald entertaining kids. It's been a while since I last saw a real Ronald MacDonald model. The ones I see back in Singapore are mannequin ones.
19th October 2007
On Friday immediately after work, we went for dinner at a Izakaya (居酒屋) which is just a 3 minutes walk from our office. Fujita-san was originally considering whether to go to Saisenya (さいせにや) which is one of the more frequented Izakaya or this new restaurant call Mino Ji (美濃路). As Toba-san happen to have a 10,000 Yen voucher at Mino Ji and this is something new for me, Mino Ji is the place.
I have been to a izakaya twice when I was in Koriyama. Really like the feeling, especially the food. :P It is normally a place for people to sit down, wind down and enjoy a couple of beers with barbeque food. So here in the izakaya below, you can see rows of Japanese wine to the right with the barbeque happening to the left of the picture.
In the picture below is Wakabayashi-san and Fujisawa-san. Wakayabashi-san is currently my teacher in office and he is really an expert in technical matters. Heard that he is ranked Number 7 in Japan. Fujisawa-san is my fellow team-mate for this project and he sits next to me in office.
Below is Fujita-san and Toba-san. Fujita-san was my SV-Sama when I was in China the entire year. Toba-san is a specifications-expert and he lives in the same dormitory as me.
Here is the food we ordered. Yummy barbeque food.
In this pix is me with Nagakawa-san, he is the Manager in our department and is the over-all leader of the project.
26th October 2007
It is Friday evening again and this time round I have an appointment with Mr and Mrs Kawashima-san (Obata-san). You will remember them from my final Wuxi posting and from my days in Koriyama. Obata-san also came over to Inuyama just a week before me. It has been almost a year plus since we last met. Both Kawashima-san and Obata-san speaks fluent English.
We went to a Chinese restaurant at Komaki call Yokohama-hyo. Heard it is a famous restaurant in the area. In the photo below we have Obata-san and Kawashima-san.
And then again below is Kawashima-san and me.
For those who are interested in my work attire daily. Here is me in the photo below. My attire is not as formal as the Japanese salary man who will have an additional tie over it. Wearing a long sleeve attire is preferable as the weather is really getting cold.
14th December 2007
We had our year end company dinner (忘年会) on the 14th December 2007 (Friday). For the last few years, I had been having my company dinner at different places. In 2005 it was held in Singapore Raffles Hotel, for 2006 it is in China and finally for this year it is in Japan. The company dinner cost around 5000Yen(S$65) per person. This dinner has free flow of drinks as its main focus while dishes will be served as sides.
Here is the first dish that arrived, it is sashimi. Heard sashimi is premium stuff in these japanese restaurants.
At the end of it, we had the traditional japanese way of appreciating the year just past and welcoming the new year.
28th December 2007It is the last working day in the Japanese calendar. Previously I heard this day will be a casual day with minimal work done. But I find it to be just like any normal day with an exception - starting at 3pm, they began an office-wide clean-up. So everyone took up their rags, blooms and start cleaning the tables, floors and ceilings.
The cleaning took around an hour and thereafter everyone went back to their respective tables to sort out their documents. At precisely 5pm when the bell rang, everyone stood up for a final debrief for the day (last day of the year), this is the first time they have a briefing at 5pm. Most of the staffs fall out shortly after the briefing and went on for their 9 days holiday ahead.
For this entry, I will be exploring the city of Nagoya. In terms of historical and cultural sights, Nagoya is not as famous as Tokyo or Kyoto. But during my visit to Nagoya this time round, I am quite amazed by the vast amount of cultural events going on throughout the city. I have attached the videos taken onto my blog to share with you all.
I have decided on the route to take since a week back. I hope to delve into Nagoya main city attraction - city shopping. So I begin my route from the Nagoya station(1) which I heard is a mini-city itself full of shops. Thereafter I will make my way to the Buddhist temple(2) in the south (Osu Kannon), via one of the city's parks in the process. Next will be to Nadya Park(3), and finally to the heart of the city - Sakae(4).
The city's castle and museum has been left out as there is nothing unique about them. And I always make it a point to visit the local place of worship whenever I travel, which in this case is the Osu Kannon temple.
I took a bus from my dorm to the Nagoya bus station (which is also the train station). It cost 680Yen single trip and takes around an hour to reach the destination. Once I arrived at the station, I spent quite a bit of time going around the area. One of my first goal here is to enquire about the bus services to Kyoto, Osaka and Nara. Taking buses in Japan is cheaper than Shinkansen (bullet train) and more convenient than the densha (trains).
Below is a scene at the main hall of the station. There is a 11th storey high Takashimaya Shopping Centre just next to the main hall. This whole area consists of the JR Central Tower and the Meitetsu Shopping Complexes.
In the Meitetsu Shopping Complexes, I find the shopping area to be segregated into different entrances. One of them is somewhat similar to Tokyo's Harajuku where lots of youths go for shopping.
Here is the sight at the front entrance of the station. This uniquely shaped building is still under construction. It is important to note that all the high rise buildings in Japan are designed to with-stand earthquakes. So the engineering design consideration will be more complex than that of non earthquake zone areas like Singapore.
After leaving the station, I choosed one of the off-beaten track to get to my next destination. Nagoya is the birthplace of Toyota and Pachinko (Japanese pinballs). Here is one of the Pachinko parlor.
On the way to the bus station previously, I came upon this unique entrance to a building. I walked past it again and decide to take a photoshot. This area sells a lot of Japanese-style clothing. The part with the boards is actually a theatre.
Here I am at the entrance of the park. I love to check out cities' parks. It is a habit ingrained into me since I went for my exchange program in Europe. The parks in Europe's major cities are lovely and is a good place to hang around and to sunbath. A city's liveliness is greatly impacted by its parks.
Here is an overview of the park. There are many people sitting around the benches in the park. Just watching time goes by...
I have arrived at my second destination. The Osu Kannon temple. I went in to pay my respects. This is a Shingon Buddhist temple. I am quite impressed by the Japanese style of making religious offerings.
The main entrance of the temple as seen from the side.
Just in front of the temple entrance is the shopping street which spans a kilometre long. Surprisingly, the temple is celebrating a festival today. So there will be performances all over the shopping streets and in the surrounding temples the whole day.
This is one of the performances I sighted along the way. I have attached the video below.
This is the second one.
I spent around an hour walking through the shopping street, with around half the time looking at the performances. I love cultural performances. If I do not have other places to visit, I would have stayed here the whole day. Just before I left the shopping street, I went to the last temple in the area, the Acalanatha (不动明王) Temple.
The next stop is Nadya Park. Within the park is a futuristic building and in it houses the International Design Centre. There is another performance going on at the park.
I find the Design Centre to be somewhat similar to Singapore's Nafa and La-Salle, a school for all the arts students. There are many floors in this building, with the upper floors having rooms and lecture halls, while the lower floors providing shops for the students.
I have been on the lookout for Nagoya's local dish - Kishimen, since I arrived here. While walking out from the design centre, I chanced upon this small shop by the side of the road. The Japanese read 'Kishimen' and I guess this is one of the more local shops in this area.
It is around 1pm in the afternoon and there is only 1 customer in the shop. I asked whether do they serve 'Kishimen' and viola, they do! The meal cost 700Yen. Kishimen is somewhat similar to the chinese kind of flat noodle (板面). The noodles in this shop are all hand-made. They are playing traditional japanese folksongs in the shop, something which I don't normally hear in Japanese eateries.
I proceeded on to my final destination - Sakae. There is a large park in the centre of Sakae. A television station seems to be holding a carnival there.
With scores of people lining up at the edge of a stage. The singers are rehearsing for the performance now. There are long queues at both end of the park, getting ready to enter the main area once the green light is given.
Here is the Nagoya TV Tower. It is located at the north side of the Sakae city's park.
One of the landmark buildings in Sakae is the modern bus terminal. It looks like a spaceship.
Within the 'terminal' is a large area where another stage is setup. This fair seems to be setup by Japan's Cable Television, with Cable Drama, KBS and so on having their stands in the area.
I proceeded on to the rooftop of the terminal. It gives a good view of the area around Sakae.
There is a large water fountain area at the top. This bus terminal is 20% terminal, 80% shopping, sights and experience. Previously there was some discussions of Singapore Changi airport losing its top spots to other international airports. I guess this is the reason. Changi airport is renowned for it being efficient in its airport handling. But now people expect more and this is the kind of experience that it should be developing its airport towards - the shopping, sights and experience. This 'terminal' really feels quite a cool place to hang around.
On my way back, I went to catch out the performances in the Osu Kannon temple again. This time is a circus performance by a group of 3 people. It is amazing. Spent around 40 minutes standing and watching them.
Finally, I round off my trip to Nagoya with this night shot of the JR Twin Towers.
23th December 2007I visited Nagoya again on the 23rd December (Sunday). This trip is just casual shopping, fine dining and watching a movie. Catching a movie in Japan is quite expensive and a ticket will come up to 1,800Yen($24) for a show. As National Treasure has just been released, we went to check it out. The movies not only have a start-time, there is also an end-time so viewers will know what time it is expected to finish.
We got a few light snacks along the way at Osu (see above Osu Kannon). I bought my favourite Hot Dogs and Karage (Fried Chicken). It is pretty much shopping along the way, with me getting a few game controllers from Osu game shops and clothings from Uniqlo in Sakae.
There after it is dinner. There is this very popular restaurant with long queues and it specialises in Pork culinaries.
We ordered the pork + prawn mega-meal which cost 2,200Yen per person. The prawn is really huge.
As nightfall is coming soon, I have the opportunity to take a night photoshot of Nagoya Tower.
