Nagoya

2 weeks ago I took a 4 day weekend to go visit my friend Leah down in Gifu Prefecture.

I flew into Nagoya where I spent the afternoon before heading out to Leah's place in the inaka (countryside.)

Nagoya made Sapporo seem tiny. It was a huge sprawling cosmopolitan city chock full of Gucci, Louis Vuitton, D&G and other overly expensive stores.

I opted out on fur and instead decided to start my trip by chowing down on the famed miso tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet)... I read raving reviews of a restaurant named Yabaton which is in the basement of the Nagoya JR station.

mmm..... it wassss DEEEEELISH!!! and the sumo pig standing on his hind legs welcomed me into the store. If you're in Nagoya make sure you leave time to go eat at Yabaton cause the line winded out and around the restaurant. But it was well worth the wait!



After filling myself with juicy fried pork miso goodness I went across the street and up to the Sky Promenade to get views across Nagoya. It was a gorgeous day!!! There was a good view across to Nagoya castle too...



















Before I caught my flight back to Sapporo I also went to see the famous Tokugawa Art Museum which had really cool exhibits on Japanese culture, Noh Theatre, and the illustrated hand scrolls of The Tale of Genji.








The temporary exhibit was on the Hina Doll Festival. ;-)











I wanted my last meal in Nagoya to be good so I stopped to ask some locals which dish they recommended and they ended up taking me to this delicious restaurant where they served Miso Nikomi Udon - a Nagoya specialty!!! mmm...

It was a thick miso soup full of veggies, chicken, chewy udon noodles, a raw egg, and a crazy looking spice stick.