Throwback Thursday: Aichi 2022 Itinerary

I had no expectations from Aichi. I knew nothing about the prefecture except that it’s where Nagoya, a major city in Japan, is located. The only time I started learning about it was when my friend and I were doing research of places to go there.

Little did I know that it would be an enjoyable trip, making me want to go back. Er… I just went ahead of myself. Err…

Here’s our itinerary:

Highlights

• My overall impression of Aichi was that it’s fancy. A lot of their souvenirs are in gold color.
• The ticket price at Nagoya City Science Museum was pretty cheap considering all the interactive exhibits in the museum. My favorites were the optical illusions and the machine for scanning arm veins.
• I bought real space food! I bought chocolate cake and bread in a can! I normally don’t buy novelty items, but I knew that I just had to have them.
• I love, love, love Meiji Mura! It’s a theme park that shows how it was like living in the Meiji era in Japan. The architecture, the interiors, the buses and trams, and souvenirs perfectly captured that period in Japanese history. There was also a machine that prints the headline news on the day and year you were born. I knew that I wouldn’t understand a thing, but I still spent 400 yen for the newspaper frontpage on my birthday.
• It was my first time eating lunch outside a restaurant. It was a novel idea for me, and I was glad to have tried it.
• With one hour left before Tokugawa Art Museum closed, we decided to just go for it and travel to that place. I saw that we had passed the Johnny’s Store while I was checking our current location on Google Maps. I mentioned this to my friend, and the next thing I knew, she was already applying for entry and asking for the katakana of my name. There was a new available entry slot at the Johnny’s Shop, so she grabbed the opportunity. I didn’t mind because I wasn’t sure if we’d enjoy going to a museum with less than an hour to spend looking at the exhibits.
• Speaking of Johnny’s, I had no plans of buying anything from the shop. The thing was, I suddenly found myself scanning QR codes of pictures that I would like to purchase. I did end up purchasing them. I could not resist. I bought group pics of KAT-TUN and Sexy Zone. I also bought individual pics of Kame, Nakamaru, Ueda and 2-shot with Shori and Kenty. I did buy 2 Kame pics because I was planning to give it to Jaja when I go to the Philippines this December for winter break.
• Oasis 21 was awesome! The view from the top balcony was nice, especially since you could see the sunset and the Chubu Electric Mirai Tower from there.
• The wind at the highest deck of Chubu Mirai Electric Tower was nice.
• Our last itinerary before heading back to Kagawa was the Tokugawa Art Museum and Garden. I think it’s the fanciest museum I’ve been to in Japan. There were a lot of swords and tea pots. I bought a bracelet instead of a magnet just because I liked it a lot. It looked fancy and expensive. Well, it was expensive since it costed a little more than 1,900 yen.
• The garden at the Tokugawa Museum had a separate entrance fee, but it’s definitely worth it. It’s huge and had a lot of open space.
• We wanted to go back home early, so we opted to buy bento lunchboxes to eat on the shinkansen. We were hungry that we started eating the moment we got settled on our seats. There was a point when we seemed to have remembered each other’s presence, and we just smiled to each other and went back to eating.

Not-so-highlights

• The rain! We were drenched on our first day in Nagoya. We strolled along the grounds of Nagoya Castle with our feet wet and busy protecting our bags from the rain.
• The interior of the Nagoya Castle as closed to visitors, so we just strolled along the grounds.
• The Nagoya City Science Museum would be more enjoyable if you were with kids.
• We weren’t able to wait for the planetarium show. We were so tired because of the rain and the fact that we’ve been up since 5:30 to catch the early shinkansen, so we chose to go to the hotel to have an early rest.
• Mieji Mura might be my favorite place in Aichi. We arrived there by 10am. We thought that we’d be able to leave and transfer to our next itinerary by 12:30nn. However, we found ourselves walking and discovering new places. We at least wanted to go to another one before the places close, so we left past 2pm, I think. Because of this, we were not able to explore the entire area. I want to visit this place again someday, and I’ll make sure to allot a whole day for this place.
• Continuing our desire to go to the towers in the prefectures we visit, we have decided to include Chubu Electric Mirai Tower in our itinerary. I was a bit disappointed because of the poor quality of the mirror projection. There’s also not a lot of things to do there. On the other hand, there were a lot of chairs and tables in the observatory decks. Plus, the highest level was open air. There was still ceiling and walls, but the top walls were open (with wired fences). The breeze was actually pretty nice.

Throwback Thursday: Okayama 2022 Itinerary (2D1N that became 4D3N)

I’ve visited Okayama a few times, but I’m back, particularly in Kurashiki, to accompany a friend who wanted to go sightseeing and shop at an outlet mall.

This was an interesting trip where I had to take an impromptu nenkyuu (leave of absence) because of an unfortunate event.

Anyway, here’s our itinerary:

Highlights

• I’ve been to Kurashiki in Okayama a few times already, but this was just my second trip to Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarters. This time, I went with my sister’s former colleague. Despite being here for a second time, I still enjoyed my time.
• The Momotarou Museum was a trip. We had a great time here, partially thanks to staff who were enthusiastic at showing us the various tricks in the museum. There was also a random Japanese lady visitor who urged us to do the mirror flying trick when she saw us taking a selfie in front of the mirror. She even supervised our “flying”.
• Shopping was our main purpose of going to Mitsui Outlet Store. We had fun shopping. We got there at around 6pm because we spent some time in our hotel room after dinner. Then, at around 8pm, the staff at Nike, where we were at, told us that it was already their closing time. We paid and then left.
• On our Day 1, it rained when we were indoors and always, the rain had stopped every time we had to go out. Miracle!

Not-so-highlights

• It was very cloudy in the morning on our first day. Thankfully, it became a bit sunny in the afternoon, so we went back to the places we’ve been to in the morning and took better photos of the scenery. Thank you, Sun.
• We planned to go to Bicchu Matsuyama Castle observatory to see the castle “floating” on the clouds. The 24hour livestream of the place however, showed that there would be no clouds. Thus, we changed our itinerary to Lucky Cats Museum. When we alighted at the designated bus stop, we were supposed to take a taxi going to the museum. However, it was all a lie. There were no taxis around. The bus stop was along a huge highway where only buses and private cars pass by. We had to walk a considerable distance to and from the museum, so we decided to just skip it and go back to the city center. Bummer. I wanted to see lots of lucky cats, paint my own lucky cat, and buy a cat souvenir.
• I wore a pair of waterproof sneakers that badly hurt my feet. I actually had band aids throughout the trip.

A Different Kind of Highlight

We already said our goodbyes after we had lunch (after our failed attempts to Bicchu Matsuyama Castle and Lucky Cats Museum). I had to go back home to Kagawa, while my friend had to visit someone in Hiroshima before going back to her home in Ehime. I knew that a typhoon was approaching and would land tomorrow, but I didn’t worry about any travel interruptions. After all, I was able to ride the Marine Liner that would take me back to Kagawa. However, when the train reached Kojima Station (still in Okayama), we were informed that all modes of transportation leaving the main island were cancelled because of the typhoon. I had no choice but to go back. I was stubborn, so I alighted the train and waited for a new one. Eventually, a saw a train station staff and asked him for details. He then informed me that all services had been cancelled and there’s no way for me to get back. By this time, I already knew how hopeless I was because the wind had picked up, and the sky turned gloomy.

I also realized that I was stranded tonight until tomorrow. I could only hope that the weather would be pleasant on Tuesday for the trains and buses to resume. Well, even if I had a car, I would still be stranded because I read online that even cars were not allowed to pass by the Seto Ohashi Bridge that connects Okayama and Kagawa. Anyway, there were no nearby hotels near Okayama Station which made me panic a little bit. Fortunately, there was a vacant room at the hotel where I just checked out a few hours ago. I booked a room, hopped on the train, and bought food before checking in at the hotel. I also informed my supervisor at my Tuesday school about my situation. I thought about lying at first, but I figured that there was no harm telling her the truth. A typhoon and being stranded on another prefecture were valid reasons anyway.

The weather was pleasant the next morning, September 19th. It was gloomy, but it only rained occasionally. I was lazy to go out, but I had to. I went to the konbini and bought food that would sustain me until tomorrow before checking out. As for the rest of the day, I just stayed in my hotel room, watched Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on TV, watched various Youtube videos on my phone, chatted with my friend who was now stranded in Hiroshima and another friend who was stranded in Tokyo. The only time I got out of bed was when I had to eat, go to the toilet, and shower. Whatta life.

To be honest, I kind of enjoyed being a sloth for an entire day. I had no chores to think about. My only worry was what if transportation would not resume on Tuesday because the roads and train tracks had been damaged. Nothing was for certain even until midnight. If I remember correctly, one of the main reasons for travel suspension were storm surges which are dangerous.

Thankfully, the typhoon had passed. The trains resumed operation the next morning, and I could finally go back home!