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[Japan Travel]: Nagoya - Day 2
Heulou~ 
I'm quite busy lately.
Work is almost killing me and on my days off I study Japanese like crazy (might do an entry about it - if I find some time
). I try to keep up with the travel entries, but I can't promise to update every week. We'll see. 
Anyways, for now let's continue.
As my brother joined me from the night of the 10th, we were finally together on the 11th. We decided to explore Nagoya together. I spared some good sightseeing spots for when he's with me (like the castle).
The weather was actually quite good compared to most other days during our vacation.
Here we go~
WARNING: This entry contains a shi...load of photos!! I once did a poll, asking whether my f-list prefers long days to be splitted up or not and the majority wanted entries seperated by days even if they get extremely long. Just expect this entry to be twice as long as usually (o_o'') ....
Nagoya Day 2 (August 11th, 2010):
We got up quite early and were using our subway one-day ticket to the fullest XD At first we tried to explore quite a few temples and shrines :D
On the way to our first destination I took a photo of this cute Tanuki. I love Tanukis! (well, the statue ones ... XD)
I'd love to buy one, but I don't have any space for it now and I'd be difficult to take home with me eventually :(
It was interesting to travel with my brother. As you can imagine he had a lot of questions. He asked me about the "baby" bibs and also about the Tanuki etc. ;)
Yes, Hello Kitty stone statues. Hello Kitty rules Japan!! And she wants to rule the whole world! XD
Our first destination was a temple with a 5-storied pagoda :D
It's the Nittaiji Temple.
See? The weather was quite okay :)
I could hardly believe that we were still in Nagoya as I've experienced it as quite the rainy city ;P
No tourists there at all which was a really nice experience for my brother who just came from busy Tokyo ;P
Soooo adorable :3
We saw a lot of weird and interesting things on our way. Like this huge gorilla who was hugging a store XD
Another random encounter right next to the "gorilla": "Obst" (which means fruit in German XD)
Japanese people seem to love to give their shops German names XD
Next was Touganji where the mosquitoes almost killed us! So annoying XD
As we were constantly running away from the mosquitoes it seems we managed to not see the Great Statue of Buddha (o__o'') .....
I'm not sure how stupid you can be (x__X) ...
Well, apart from the mosquitoes it was really nice and quiet there :D Again no tourists at all! Yay! (^-^)v
Next was the Shiroyama Hakusan Shrine.
This was some kind of old school/university. Really .... old and kind of scary, but in an interesting way! XD
I spotted a cat again (*___*)v
We kind of left Nagoya (still with our awesome subway ticket XD) and went to Nisshin station to go to Iwasaki Castle!
This is a rec!!! Most Japanese people don't know it, but it's really a nice and short trip from Nagoya, so if you have time, you should definitely go there :D
One problem, though, the castle was far away from the station and it was just tooooo hot to walk for over an hour, so we took a taxi (if you're not alone and can share the costs, it's not that bad ^^)
*lol* Danger Zone! XD
We also had a really nice view from up there :D
I have to admit that there was not so much to see inside, though! And photos were not allowed most of the time, but ...
They had a floor (probably mainly for kids) with traditional Japanese toys and my brother and me had tons of fun with them!!!
I have a kendama, too, at home and practice sometimes XD I suck, though XD
We didn't try out all of them, don't worry! XD
I did try this, though XD You close your eyes and then you have to attach the face parts! That's the outcome. I'm soooo good, right? XD
Awesome weather, but it was just toooooo hot that day (x___X) (It's the hottest summer in Japan since 1898 anyways, so ....)
We left again. After asking in the castle about how to get back to the station, we decided to take the bus. We saw that the next bus wouldn't come any time soon, so we tried to walk, but soon had to give up, because it was REALLY dangerous in the sun x___X
We went into a café to cool down a bit and wait for the next bus XD
That dude probably didn't have any problems with the sun ;P
While waiting for the bus I took some random shots.
It was a nice small city, but just too damn hot! :/
That was right next to the bus stop :)
Finally we were back in Nagoya and on our way to the castle.
Deer again (O__O'') .... why are there so many deer this time? XD In Ise, too!! AAAH! XD
That's how it used to look, I suppose.
Nagoya Castle itself was really awesome!!! Big, beautiful! Definitely on my top castle list now :D
Sorry, I guess I have to spam you with a few castle photos now XD
We were quite in a rush, because it was late afternoon and shortly before closing time! There was a festival at night, so you could re-enter (for another 800yen, though), and that's what we wanted to do later on :)
Close-up.
And one more (*_*)
There was so so soooooooooooooo~ much to see inside! I guess we could have spent half a day in there!!! But we only had 30 minutes :(
Luckily photos were allowed (^-^)v
One of the most interesting and creepiest things were those insects everywhere!! Usually I don't wanna see Japan's (and other countries') monster insects from so close, but this was interesting (and a bit disgusting!)
Thanks to that I didn't have to go to Gifu's insect museum anymore XD
There were not only creepy insects, but also beautiful and HUGE butterflies O_O
Those greenish shiny ones are kind of cool :D
Quite a beautiful cicada. If only they were not soooo loud (x_x)
And TeH horror!! The Japanese suzumebachi (huge hornet/bee/wasp) that can kill people with their stings ;o; ...
The female butterflies are so beautiful (*-*)
These were gorgeous, too!
Sorry, spammed you with too many insects, I guess XD
When I saw the clouds I was worried, because if it's raining then they'd cancel the festival!! :/
On the top floor you had an awesome view like always, but also ...
... something I've never seen before in the top floor of a castle (and as you know I've been to lots of castles by now): a souvenir shop O__O; ... XD (I ended up buying something up there, too XD - this beautiful Nagoya castle mirror!)
We had to leave the castle area because it was closing time and shortly after that people already stood in line for the night festival. Japanese people are so scary XD They even stand in line when they don't have to!
My brother an me just sat on the grass (like some other people), chilled, and ate some snacks while observing the others XD
Finally the gates opened again and the festival on castle ground started (and let me tell you beforehand: it was definitely worth the 800yen!!!)
Huge koala for the kids XD
"Gotta catch 'em all!" (I really wanna try one day, but what if I actually win a fishie? XD)
This guy was soooo funny!! He did some magic tricks, but his comments were so awesome XD
He also told us when to clap, so that it attracs more people etc. XD Very amusing!! :D
There was quite a lot to see with some events going on!
At least the weather got better again. No worries :D
Sorry, more castle shots! ;)
They were dancing the whole night! For hours! And anybody could join them :D
Here's also a short video, so you get a bit more of the atmosphere there:
JapaneseGerman "Biergarten"?! XD
It was slowly getting dark.
We went back to the castle, because I wanted to go to the top floor again to have a nice view over Nagoya at night! :D
But before that I had to take 1345234 of photos because I liked the sky colors at that time!
The windows up there were so dirty that you couldn't take any good night view photos. We went out of the castle again.
It was really dark now and we got hungry .... extremely hungry ... so ...
.. we had the famous kishimen noodles!
You could choose between hot and cold noodles. I got cold ones, my brother chose the hot version XD
And they were still at it!! (O_O'') ...
The castle at night looked awesome!
Did I already mention how much I love my camera??? Imagine how much better those photos could be if I'd used a tripod!!
Then it was time for some shaved ice (*__*)v (strawberry for my brother and melon for me, of course WITH milk! :D)
And then the highlight of the festival started - at least for me! The last performance that night.
A taiko performance! Some of you might know that I'm a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge taiko fan and would love to join a club and practice (*__*)
I was mainly in charge of taking photos *lol* while my brother took videos.
Thanks to my awesome camera I was able to get quite a few nice shots!
I also took some videos, in gorgous HD quality, but most of them my brother took with his camcorder. You'll be able to tell the difference, I think.
Here we go! Enjoy!! I hope you'll love it as much as I did!~
And then it was time to leave.
It was an awesome, long and eventful day. Plus, we also were lucky with the weather.
At that point we didn't know yet what would await us back at our hotel .....
We went back early enough because we knew we would have to get up early the next day!
Why? Because that's the day when we planned to climb Mt. Fuji! The day I've been preparing for so long! The day I've been reserving the mountain hut and expensive bus tickets for.
Back in the hotel, I was really extremely tired. All that was left, was taking a shower and packing stuff for tomorrow. I kicked my brother out of the room and was already on my way to take a shower when I saw that somebody had called my cellphone.
It was the mountain hut. I immediately called them back. I already had a bad feeling about this.
They told me that a typhoon's there and that it's too dangerous to climb to the top right now and they suggest cancelling our reservation and the whole trip.
After that I was so shocked, you can't even imagine! Plus I was so extremely tired, too!!!
I went downstairs into the lobby where my brother was waiting and told him about the bad news. He wasn't amused either. We were both tired and unable to think clearly.
I went to the hotel staff to ask for advice. They called the mountain hut again to confirm that it's really not possible to go tomorrow. They printed out other routes and possibilities to go to Mt. Fuji as we couldn't use the bus we reserved anymore.
The thing I was worried about the most (apart from our whole schedule being messed up) was the expensive bus tickets that probably can't be cancelled anymore!! Byebye 140$!!!
With the material we got from the hotel staff we went back into our room and used the internet to research alternatives. I called 20391840 mountain huts on other trails to find out if there was still something available for any other days, but of course ... most of them were fully booked. Nobody books so late!! I had booked our mountain hut months in advance, too!! And I guess all the other people who had to suddenly cancel because of the typhoon did the same as us and that's why it was so hard to find vacant spots.
In the end I got something for the only two other days we had left for our vacation (we already put climbing Mt. Fuji towards the end of our trip anyways, so we didn't have much alternative days left anymore ... ;o; ....)
I checked several train connections to find the cheapest one (was still much more expensive than the one by bus I had planned for us ...) and we had to use a total different trail ..... all my planning thus far was in vain!!!!
Around 2am we finally finished re-planning. I took a shower and we both fell into our beds, half-dead .....
The next day (when we wanted to go to Mt. Fuji but couldn't anymore) we decided to go to Inuyama and Gifu (which we wanted to do another day originally), but then it was raining cats and dogs and we had to cancel that as well........
.... we spent the next day shopping. Hope you're looking forward to the next entry nevertheless.
Yah, I know. How can one be so unlucky, right? :(
That's all for today.
Sorry it got so long.
Bye☆⌒ヽ(*'、^*)chu
I'm quite busy lately.
Work is almost killing me and on my days off I study Japanese like crazy (might do an entry about it - if I find some time). I try to keep up with the travel entries, but I can't promise to update every week. We'll see. Anyways, for now let's continue.
As my brother joined me from the night of the 10th, we were finally together on the 11th. We decided to explore Nagoya together. I spared some good sightseeing spots for when he's with me (like the castle).
The weather was actually quite good compared to most other days during our vacation.
Here we go~
WARNING: This entry contains a shi...load of photos!!
I once did a poll, asking whether my f-list prefers long days to be splitted up or not and the majority wanted entries seperated by days even if they get extremely long. Just expect this entry to be twice as long as usually (o_o'') .... Nagoya Day 2 (August 11th, 2010): We got up quite early and were using our subway one-day ticket to the fullest XD At first we tried to explore quite a few temples and shrines :D
On the way to our first destination I took a photo of this cute Tanuki. I love Tanukis! (well, the statue ones ... XD)
I'd love to buy one, but I don't have any space for it now and I'd be difficult to take home with me eventually :(
It was interesting to travel with my brother. As you can imagine he had a lot of questions. He asked me about the "baby" bibs and also about the Tanuki etc. ;)
Yes, Hello Kitty stone statues. Hello Kitty rules Japan!! And she wants to rule the whole world! XD
Our first destination was a temple with a 5-storied pagoda :D
It's the Nittaiji Temple.
See? The weather was quite okay :)
I could hardly believe that we were still in Nagoya as I've experienced it as quite the rainy city ;P
No tourists there at all which was a really nice experience for my brother who just came from busy Tokyo ;P
Soooo adorable :3
We saw a lot of weird and interesting things on our way. Like this huge gorilla who was hugging a store XD
Another random encounter right next to the "gorilla": "Obst" (which means fruit in German XD)
Japanese people seem to love to give their shops German names XD
Next was Touganji where the mosquitoes almost killed us! So annoying XD
As we were constantly running away from the mosquitoes it seems we managed to not see the Great Statue of Buddha (o__o'') .....
I'm not sure how stupid you can be (x__X) ...
Well, apart from the mosquitoes it was really nice and quiet there :D Again no tourists at all! Yay! (^-^)v
Next was the Shiroyama Hakusan Shrine.
This was some kind of old school/university. Really .... old and kind of scary, but in an interesting way! XD
I spotted a cat again (*___*)v
We kind of left Nagoya (still with our awesome subway ticket XD) and went to Nisshin station to go to Iwasaki Castle!
This is a rec!!! Most Japanese people don't know it, but it's really a nice and short trip from Nagoya, so if you have time, you should definitely go there :D
One problem, though, the castle was far away from the station and it was just tooooo hot to walk for over an hour, so we took a taxi (if you're not alone and can share the costs, it's not that bad ^^)
*lol* Danger Zone! XD
We also had a really nice view from up there :D
I have to admit that there was not so much to see inside, though! And photos were not allowed most of the time, but ...
They had a floor (probably mainly for kids) with traditional Japanese toys and my brother and me had tons of fun with them!!!
I have a kendama, too, at home and practice sometimes XD I suck, though XD
We didn't try out all of them, don't worry! XD
I did try this, though XD You close your eyes and then you have to attach the face parts! That's the outcome. I'm soooo good, right? XD
Awesome weather, but it was just toooooo hot that day (x___X) (It's the hottest summer in Japan since 1898 anyways, so ....)
We left again. After asking in the castle about how to get back to the station, we decided to take the bus. We saw that the next bus wouldn't come any time soon, so we tried to walk, but soon had to give up, because it was REALLY dangerous in the sun x___X
We went into a café to cool down a bit and wait for the next bus XD
That dude probably didn't have any problems with the sun ;P
While waiting for the bus I took some random shots.
It was a nice small city, but just too damn hot! :/
That was right next to the bus stop :)
Finally we were back in Nagoya and on our way to the castle.
Deer again (O__O'') .... why are there so many deer this time? XD In Ise, too!! AAAH! XD
That's how it used to look, I suppose.
Nagoya Castle itself was really awesome!!! Big, beautiful! Definitely on my top castle list now :D
Sorry, I guess I have to spam you with a few castle photos now XD
We were quite in a rush, because it was late afternoon and shortly before closing time! There was a festival at night, so you could re-enter (for another 800yen, though), and that's what we wanted to do later on :)
Close-up.
And one more (*_*)
There was so so soooooooooooooo~ much to see inside! I guess we could have spent half a day in there!!! But we only had 30 minutes :(
Luckily photos were allowed (^-^)v
One of the most interesting and creepiest things were those insects everywhere!! Usually I don't wanna see Japan's (and other countries') monster insects from so close, but this was interesting (and a bit disgusting!)
Thanks to that I didn't have to go to Gifu's insect museum anymore XD
There were not only creepy insects, but also beautiful and HUGE butterflies O_O
Those greenish shiny ones are kind of cool :D
Quite a beautiful cicada. If only they were not soooo loud (x_x)
And TeH horror!! The Japanese suzumebachi (huge hornet/bee/wasp) that can kill people with their stings ;o; ...
The female butterflies are so beautiful (*-*)
These were gorgeous, too!
Sorry, spammed you with too many insects, I guess XD
When I saw the clouds I was worried, because if it's raining then they'd cancel the festival!! :/
On the top floor you had an awesome view like always, but also ...
... something I've never seen before in the top floor of a castle (and as you know I've been to lots of castles by now): a souvenir shop O__O; ... XD (I ended up buying something up there, too XD - this beautiful Nagoya castle mirror!)
We had to leave the castle area because it was closing time and shortly after that people already stood in line for the night festival. Japanese people are so scary XD They even stand in line when they don't have to!
My brother an me just sat on the grass (like some other people), chilled, and ate some snacks while observing the others XD
Finally the gates opened again and the festival on castle ground started (and let me tell you beforehand: it was definitely worth the 800yen!!!)
Huge koala for the kids XD
"Gotta catch 'em all!" (I really wanna try one day, but what if I actually win a fishie? XD)
This guy was soooo funny!! He did some magic tricks, but his comments were so awesome XD
He also told us when to clap, so that it attracs more people etc. XD Very amusing!! :D
There was quite a lot to see with some events going on!
At least the weather got better again. No worries :D
Sorry, more castle shots! ;)
They were dancing the whole night! For hours! And anybody could join them :D
Here's also a short video, so you get a bit more of the atmosphere there:
Japanese
It was slowly getting dark.
We went back to the castle, because I wanted to go to the top floor again to have a nice view over Nagoya at night! :D
But before that I had to take 1345234 of photos because I liked the sky colors at that time!
The windows up there were so dirty that you couldn't take any good night view photos. We went out of the castle again.
It was really dark now and we got hungry .... extremely hungry ... so ...
.. we had the famous kishimen noodles!
You could choose between hot and cold noodles. I got cold ones, my brother chose the hot version XD
And they were still at it!! (O_O'') ...
The castle at night looked awesome!
Did I already mention how much I love my camera??? Imagine how much better those photos could be if I'd used a tripod!!
Then it was time for some shaved ice (*__*)v (strawberry for my brother and melon for me, of course WITH milk! :D)
And then the highlight of the festival started - at least for me! The last performance that night.
A taiko performance! Some of you might know that I'm a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge taiko fan and would love to join a club and practice (*__*)
I was mainly in charge of taking photos *lol* while my brother took videos.
Thanks to my awesome camera I was able to get quite a few nice shots!
I also took some videos, in gorgous HD quality, but most of them my brother took with his camcorder. You'll be able to tell the difference, I think.
Here we go! Enjoy!! I hope you'll love it as much as I did!~
Camera used: 
Pentax K-x
Pentax K-xAnd then it was time to leave.
It was an awesome, long and eventful day. Plus, we also were lucky with the weather.
At that point we didn't know yet what would await us back at our hotel .....
We went back early enough because we knew we would have to get up early the next day!
Why? Because that's the day when we planned to climb Mt. Fuji! The day I've been preparing for so long! The day I've been reserving the mountain hut and expensive bus tickets for.
Back in the hotel, I was really extremely tired. All that was left, was taking a shower and packing stuff for tomorrow. I kicked my brother out of the room and was already on my way to take a shower when I saw that somebody had called my cellphone.
It was the mountain hut. I immediately called them back. I already had a bad feeling about this.
They told me that a typhoon's there and that it's too dangerous to climb to the top right now and they suggest cancelling our reservation and the whole trip.
After that I was so shocked, you can't even imagine! Plus I was so extremely tired, too!!!
I went downstairs into the lobby where my brother was waiting and told him about the bad news. He wasn't amused either. We were both tired and unable to think clearly.
I went to the hotel staff to ask for advice. They called the mountain hut again to confirm that it's really not possible to go tomorrow. They printed out other routes and possibilities to go to Mt. Fuji as we couldn't use the bus we reserved anymore.
The thing I was worried about the most (apart from our whole schedule being messed up) was the expensive bus tickets that probably can't be cancelled anymore!! Byebye 140$!!!
With the material we got from the hotel staff we went back into our room and used the internet to research alternatives. I called 20391840 mountain huts on other trails to find out if there was still something available for any other days, but of course ... most of them were fully booked. Nobody books so late!! I had booked our mountain hut months in advance, too!! And I guess all the other people who had to suddenly cancel because of the typhoon did the same as us and that's why it was so hard to find vacant spots.
In the end I got something for the only two other days we had left for our vacation (we already put climbing Mt. Fuji towards the end of our trip anyways, so we didn't have much alternative days left anymore ... ;o; ....)
I checked several train connections to find the cheapest one (was still much more expensive than the one by bus I had planned for us ...) and we had to use a total different trail ..... all my planning thus far was in vain!!!!
Around 2am we finally finished re-planning. I took a shower and we both fell into our beds, half-dead .....
The next day (when we wanted to go to Mt. Fuji but couldn't anymore) we decided to go to Inuyama and Gifu (which we wanted to do another day originally), but then it was raining cats and dogs and we had to cancel that as well........
.... we spent the next day shopping. Hope you're looking forward to the next entry nevertheless.
Yah, I know. How can one be so unlucky, right? :(
That's all for today.
Sorry it got so long.
Bye☆⌒ヽ(*'、^*)chu
no subject
how long does it take to climb mount fuji anyway (usually)? (I was guessing 3 days or so)
I once climbed a mountain that is roughly as tall as mount fuji and went back down again in one day. Went away from the hotel at 4 in the morning came back at 11 at night. I was only 15 years old or so and I had absolutely no condition so my legs were like... worthless pieces of flesh and bone when I got off the van that night. The next day they remained in their worthless state, only after 2 or 3 days or so could I sort of use them again for walking :s
I absolutely do not recommend taking such a mountain trip, it's dead tiring and possibly dangerous because of altitude issues as well... but... it -is- possible. So I imagine it could be done with mount fuji too.. but... yeah.
no subject
Some really crazy people start from all the way down, but I have no idea how long that would take.
Usually it takes 2 days (with 1 night that you spend in a mountain hut to get some sleep and to get adjusted to the altitude).
Like I already said when I came back I DID climb Mt. Fuji after all, just not on the date scheduled and with horrible weather (hey, everybody can climb Mt. Fuji when the weather is nice, it's a real achievement to do so when it's horrible weather with typhoon warnings and all XD)