One thing I loved about traveling on my own is the flexibility, I'll never get out of the hotel before 10am if I am travelling with P (unless we're with a fixed tour) but the day after the marathon, I woke up again at 7am+ and was already out of hotel by 9am. On top of that, I can eat whatever I had my mind on, instead of always ending up in izakaya which serve nice but not so authentic Japanese food.
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| Komeda's coffee |
I saw many blog posts about Komeda's coffee on the travel blogs to Nagoya, so I made that my first destination in the morning of touring the city. It is a very special breakfast place as customers only paid for the coffee, and there were many choices of bread and stuff that came FOC with the coffee. There was an outlet near Sakae station and I managed to find it with my Google map apps. There was no queue at the cafe, despite meeting the rushing work crowd when I walked past the underground mall and shops.
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| Free bread with red bean paste with the coffee |
After I finished breakfast, it was still early and many shops at the malls are not opened yet, so I wandered around the place while checking out the route to get to some shops (miki house to get shoes for W's daughter, my Nagoya starbucks mug, the Tiffany store to see if I could engrave my medal/necklace). It was still raining relentlessly so I was glad that the underground malls and shops were well connected, and of course I was glad we did not run in such rainy weather the previous day.
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| Hot chocolate with my Nagoya mug |
I wandered around till I came to Oasis 21 which is next to the Meitetsu Sakae station, there was a nice roof at the top like a shape of a ship but I did not have a chance to explore. I only stopped there to get my Nagoya Starbucks mug, tumbler and card. Since the weather was cold and there was discount getting a drink using the mug, I bought hot chocolate and brought it along with the rest of my errands.
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| Happened to see our favourite Hokkaido eatery on the way to lunch |
I spent the most part of the morning going to different miki house outlets to look at kids' shoes, but I ended up feeling really tired and did not manage to complete my mission. I gave up and decided to get lunch when it was near noon. I was yearning for a good ramen meal in this cold weather, and after I googled the outlet of the well known chain Ichiran Ramen, I was delighted that it was within walking distance.
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| Short queue in the rain |
As I later realised, this is a popular eatery for tourists and I really suspected that the female tourists from China, Taiwan just finished the marathon the previous day like me. One thing interesting about the locals was that most of them carried white transparent umbrellas like it was a standardised thing, very Muji style and it inspired me to get one as well.
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| Another shot of the outlet |
Luckily, the queue moved quickly and very soon I was already in the shop and protected from the rain. Since my first trip to Tokyo two years ago, I already heard of how unique some small eateries operated in Japan, we actually paid at a vending machine before entering the shop. It was the first time I tried it out and I was really excited.
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| The vending machine |
Fortunately, there were English and Chinese words on the labels so I knew what I was buying at the vending machine, the ramen was fully customised as each ingredient like a piece was seaweed was ordered and paid at the machine, which dispensed little tickets after payment.
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| Buttons to lit up to show the empty booths |
The concept of this eatery is very Japanese, as patrons are allocated individual booth so there were no issues going there alone and eating alone like me. Even for couples and groups of people, they were also at booths separated like a private area in the library. Patrons just finished their meal and get out fast since there were no interaction, so the queue was moving fast outside.
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| My booth |
I actually liked this concept since I was a solo traveler, and its cool how fuss free the whole thing was. Too bad P didnt like ramen so we did not have a chance to try it out before this. There was a lot of privacy as there was a small window for the servers to take the tickets and serve us food, then they will close the window, absolutely zero talking needed and I did not even see the faces of the staff preparing our meal.
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| Good utilisation of space within the small booth area |
Ironically, it was at Ichiran that I finally spoke a few words with a Taiwanese who needed help with the menu. Other than staff at restaurants and volunteers at the marathon, I did not hold a conversation with anyone for days as I was on a solo trip. I did not really mind that much since I am quite a introvert by nature.
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| In the limited space, there were still hooks for coats and tissue provided |
After a good lunch, I walked around a little and decided to head to Matsuzakaya and have HARBs cake for tea before heading back to the hotel to take a rest. I was feeling quite tired from all the walking in the rainy morning.
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| The HARBS menu |
After the previous failed takeaway, I've decided that it'll be a treat to sit inside the shop during a good weekday afternoon to enjoy the cake. As its strawberry season, there's many yummy-licious strawberry cakes sitting at the display window.
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| Nice classy shopfront |
Even though its a weekday afternoon, HARBS is popular and the shop was filled with people. The cake and tea I've ordered came fast and I finished it all at once, after I've taken a good close up shot of the cake (did not look too good as part of the cream had melted).
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| The cake and the tea |
I headed back to the hotel to take a nap even though there's still places that I've wanted to visit, my legs were so tired and I was deadbeat. Two hours later, when it was 5, I emerged from my room feeling refreshed again. The sakura season is due in Nagoya in another two weeks or so, but some runners had posted on Facebook about this street with sakura blooming early.
I had to transit at some stations to get here and I missed a stop or two, it was totally dark when I finally reached the place, even though it was only 5.30pm. I could not admire the sakura that much in the darkness but at least the streetlights helped me in taking some nice shots before I leave. It took a lot of effort to get there but taking the photos just took a few minutes, I left shortly after that as there was nothing else I could do at the spot.
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| The entrance to the Osu Shopping Arcade |
The Osu Kannon buddhist temple was the only tourist attraction I've wanted to visit for the trip. However it was a disappointment as it was 6+ when I was there and the temple was already closed. It was basically like what happened to us when we went to Otaru, the shops at the shopping arcade was closing and the whole place was basically like a ghost town. Many of the touristy places do not have a 'nightlife' unlike what we are used to in South East Asia, the shops close by 7pm and there were very few people or shoppers on the streets by that time.
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| The only unique shop that I had a chance to take a look before it closed |
I tried to look at the stuff at some of the shops until they started to pull down the shutters, I had no choice then but to head back to Sakae area to see if I can do any shopping around the underground malls instead. To my disappointment, most of the shops are already closing even though it was hardly 8pm, probably this was due to the fact that it was a Monday night. I decided to head to the nearby Sekaino-Yamachan to have my final dinner at Nagoya.
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| The shop was just behind the hotel |
Yamachan is another popular place that appeared in many of the trip blogs as it served many of the specialty food famous in Nagoya city. I spotted the shop near to my hotel when I was wandering around the area on the first day, looking for the Nike store. I did not realise that it was a izakaya until I went up the narrow staircase and settled on one of the booths.
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| A big spread of food for my dinner |
It was kind of odd to be at the izakaya alone but I had no choice and at least the private booth setting gave me some privacy. I ordered a lot of food as I wanted to try the few Nagoya specialty before I leave the city the next morning. These included the tebasaki (chicken wing in special miso sauce), tenmusu (tempura shrimp ball) and kishimen (flat noodles). I also ordered sashimi as I could not resist enjoying some good sashimi while I was still in Japan. The tebasaki were really good with the right texture and juicy meat, the tenmusu was just so-so and the texture of the kishimen was also great but I could not finish it was I was already full. After the very good meal, it was really freezing cold on my way back even though the rain had stopped. Fortunately, I only had to walk a short distance before I'm back in the hotel again.
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| The airport |
My flight back to SG was at 10am the next morning, it was not really a mad rush to the airport but I had a little adventure as I got on the wrong train on my way there. There were two trains serving the same platform two minutes apart and I boarded the wrong train in my excitement. I realised that something was amiss when I could not find the seats I had reserved. The train had already started moving by then and with a closer look, I realised the seats looked very different from the train I had taken on the first day, that was the moment my heart sank and I realised I was on the wrong train! I decided to just hop off at the very next station and try to seek help. In my mind, I was also worried that this detour will cause me to miss my flight. Luckily, the train I was supposed to take also serve the next station and it arrived shortly after that, I finally sat down at my seat heaving a sigh of relief. What an adventure!
