Nagoya Castle was built back in the Edo period and was one of the largest in Japan until it was destroyed in the allied air raids of 1945. I am constantly amazed how much effort, money and time the Japanese go to in preserving their heritage. They don’t charge the world to go see it, but the volumes of people that do go must help fund the relentless renovations that seem to be going on. 

The site itself it pretty large with a high large stone wall perimeter. The main castle now acts as a museum displaying various relics, from their past, largely from the Samurai.

One of the first buildings you come across is the main reception like building where they would have typically received their guests. It had been completely rebuild from the ground.

And when you see the high level of workmanship that follow the same historic techniques used its no surprise that no shoes, food, flash photography or touching are allowed.

The detail down to the gold paintings on the wall are replicated. 

In the main castle they take you through a journey of what it might have been like in the day of the Samurai. An absolutely amazing collection of artefacts.

 

They are well into a restoration which is estimated to take until 2018 but give you access to what is effectively the building site to see the progress.

Toyota Museum

Been winging it a bit and I tend to learn a lot about a city as I research what I can do there and planning out my agenda. In that research I learnt that Nagoya was the birthplace of Toyoda/Toyota. As I hadn’t timed my visits perfectly I was not able to go to the main Toyota plant, but was able to visit one of the related museums. Given the stereotypical (American) argument of American Muscle vs Import I was very surprised to learn large American influence on the car industry in Japan and how early Ford got involved in car production in Japan.

The museum takes your on the journey of manufacturing and technological advances firstly of Toyoda’s textile machinery to its present day automobile focus.

It was pretty interactive showing with lots of demos and things to try out, but if I’m honest I hot stepped pretty quickly through the textile part in favour of the car section. A great showcase of technological advances in all the major car components from the engines all the way down to the headlights.

Pretty amazing to see that car body panels were individually cut and honed into shape before the pressing techniques used today.

 

There were lots of workshops for young kids to get their interest all within the main museum route. A great family day out.

 

I headed back to the train station to grab a late lunch before heading to Hiroshima. I picked a set which looked nice on the menu and they brought this out to me. Seemed to miss the main part of the meal, but I kept quiet as there was more than enough.

When I was pretty close to finishing the lot they came over and brought this out.

Might need a bit of a walk with the backpack on to work this off after!

On to Hiroshima….