Culture Day
Monday 3rd November – Culture Day
Today was a national holiday in Japan: Culture Day. The only thing that I really noticed about today was that public transportation was following the holiday schedule I’m embarrassed to admit.
According to Wikipedia:
Culture Day (文化の日 Bunka no Hi) is a national holiday held annually in Japan on November 3 for the purpose of promoting culture, the arts, and academic endeavour. Festivities typically include art exhibitions, parades, and award ceremonies for distinguished artists and scholars.
This morning I packed my stuff and called Asami. She was kind enough to escort me to the basu (bus) stop, to make sure I would get to Kyoto eki (station) safely. Basu are still a bit tricky to me, I must say.. But I got to the eki alright!
I quickly determined where I needed to be, to be able to take the Shinkansen to Tōkyō, which would take me to Nagoya, where my next stop was. I just got to the platform and shortly thereafter the Shinkansen would arrive. 🙂 Best news, as mentioned earlier today: window seat from the start!
Not long after I got to Nagoya and fortunately I got word from my hosts that the room was ready and that I could come over. So, I figured out what densha (train) to take and after a brisk walk, I got to the apartment. It’s a nice and relatively modern one, but it also had typical Japanese influences. Sliding doors everywhere for example.
I’m staying with a nice couple, Elmira and Juan and after I got my stuff installed, I was given some instructions about the apartment and we talked about what I could do today.
I decided that I should first go do some grocery shopping, before heading out. After that I took a train to the Toyota Museum of Industrial Technology. Unfortunately I only got there around 16:30h, whereas the museum closes at 17:00h. Bummer once more. This also implied that I could not visit certain parts of the museum anymore. I did get to see some silly crazy prototype thing of a one person vehicle with an advanced artificial intelligence built in. Or so the promo video led me to believe. Demonstrations will be given, only not at the exact moment I was there. D’oh!
Just before leaving, I got to a different part where a robot was standing, that was playing a violin. And pretty darn well at that. To the trained ear, I suspect it may sound mechanical, but that’s what you’d expect, I’d say.
Anyways, after that I decided to walk to Nagoya jō (castle), but of course at the moment I got there, it had already been closed for the day. And unlike in Himeji and Ōsaka, you could not simply enter the grounds. And once more with the bumming.
So, what to do next? I wanted to go find some place to eat something, but on my way leaving the jō, I took some time shooting more photos (they may very well follow), which ended up quite nicely. 🙂
It took me a while, but in the end I reached Nagoya eki and found quite some places where I could eat. Ultimately, I settled on some kind of bar where you could eat as well. I had something of which I’m not sure what it was (called), but it was tasty at any rate! (a bowl of rice with meat and greens and more in it)
I took my time, I took it easy, I read some things on my smartphone and drank my kashisu (cassis).
It had gotten relatively late and on my way back to my room, I stopped by a kombini for some groceries and resumed my way home. Of course I did not stop shooting photos whenever a nice venue or scenery arrived. (you know the deal about them photos).
After getting home, I talked some to Elmira and Juan about my day, my trip, Japan, the place where I’m from, etc. Which was nice, because they seemed very much interested in these things.
As I type this I’m almost falling asleep.. And it’s also almost time to get up again (ok, so, not really). Tomorrow I plan on going to the Toyota Museum, which is about an hour away by densha (train). Hopefully that will be nice!