Mar 12 - Nagoya

Woke up and read a little as it was cold out and I was feeling lazy.   Eventually, around 9am, got up and fully bundled and with map in hand headed out to find one of the coffee shops

that the front desk had suggested.    The first one I got to, right around the corner from the ryokan, was very small and VERY smokey, so I didn't do much more than pop my head in,

miscommunicate that I wasn't staying with the owners (who looked a little confused) and left.

I picked a direction and started walking and, after about 25 minutes of walking (which was good exercise) found another coffee shop that appeared to be smoke free.   I ordered some coffee along

with a small breakfast (eggs and toast).    I was amused as what arrived was a beautiful coffee ("patterned" on the top), two pieces of very thick very very white toasted bread which had been 

soaked in some very yummy (but probably bad for me) buttery oil, a small bowl with a little sliver or orange and banana, and another small bowl with egg salad (as we'd have in an egg salad sandwich).

Not entirely what I expected, but it all tasted great, so I ate it all!

I asked the guy at the counter, who seemed to have a pretty good handle on english, the way to Nagoya Castle as I figured that would be a good site to visit.

My "guess" was of course off by about 90 degrees -- it turned out it was a 20 minute walk back the way i had come!   Oh well.   I followed his directions and also

used my "google maps" app to walk in the correct direction.

Along the way I had to go "over" the road using a pedestrian overpass.   There were stairs on the right and left and a ramp in the middle of the entire stair section of the

ramp.   Turns out the middle ramp is for bikes!

As I got closer to Nagoya Castle I came across the court house.   Shot this picture for my oldest sister, who is in the legal world :-)

Finally made it to the "outer gates" of the Nagoya Castle area.   Started the long process of strolling through the gates and towards the central

castle grounds.    Like all castles of this nature there are multiple walls and gates to go through, so it takes quite a bit of time!

The road to the carriage house:

Inside the gate you could go into the carnage house building, which had all wood floors (very very beautiful) along with many murals that they'd lit up.

You had to take your shoes off and store them in little lockers, which was very cool as well.

With shoes retrieved from the locker and back on my feet it was a short walk onto the actual castle proper (or at least its front door)

Prior to heading into the castle I needed a snack.   Fortunately there was a stand serving heated azuki beans, some type of sweet soy 

balls and a big helping of green tea soft ice cream on top.   Yum!   Notice how the castle is intact modeled after this dessert!

After that little snack I went into the castle.   Like the one I visited a few years ago in Osaka, the inside is many levels with lots of stairs.  Each level

that was open had museum like displays of items found in the castle, of mockup models of the area.   The top floor was an observation area, looking out

over the entire region.

A view from the top:

Left the castle and started the walk back towards my Ryokan.   On the way, still on castle grounds, I saw an good example of 

"The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword (but it doesn't hurt to still have a sword ready)"

Some additional cherry blossom trees as well as an interesting guy I saw walking on my way back to the Ryokan:

Found a place to have lunch near the Ryokan.   It was interesting as you went in and went to a vending machine to "pick" your lunch and get a ticket for the meal 

you selected.  You handed the ticket to the staff who then brought you the food you'd selected.

Headed back to the ryokan, but on the way I stopped a little shop front that was selling another regional speciality -- rice balls with shrimp.

Here's what it looks like:

Made it back to the Ryokan and took a little nap.

Later I got up and decided to get the special prepared eel for this area, which is called

Hitsamabushi.    The front desk suggested that I walk to the local subway and take it one stop to a particular restaurant they thought I'd like.

It was a bit of a walk, then a trick finding the place as it was down a little alley way, but I made it there all right:

So the way to eat this was to divide it into quarters.  The first quarter was just the eel with the rice underneath directly from the bowl above.

The second quarter one took eel, some rice, some scallions, some wasabi and put it into the white and blue bowl to eat mixed together.

The third quarter one did the same but also poured in a warm tea mixture to make a bit of a soup out of it (pictured below).

The final quarter one could eat any of the three ways above.

Subway back to the Ryokan, took a hot shower and fell fast asleep.