Nagoya

When we left Tokyo back at the end of July, Steve was taking some time off and we had a two and a bit week chunk of travel planned. Our first stop on the journey was Nagoya. Steve had never been, and there were lots of fun things to do there, including Legoland. 

Given that we hadn't gone to any theme parks in Tokyo (not even Disney!), we felt it was time we did something a little fun with the girls. Legoland was actually a delight, even though it is designed for younger children and the weather was a whopping 40 degrees. 

The huge Lego sculptures all around the place as well as the giant sized Lego characters were just so much fun to see and marvel at. They also had a whole area where there were displays of scale models of various things made in Lego. I took loads of photos of so many of them, hopefully to use in my classroom. 

Lego themed kids lunch that I had. The brick shaped potato chips were nothing to write home about (I gave mine to Rachel), but everything else was pretty tasty. We had done some brief research before we went and noticed there were two water play sections that would be good to cool off in. To enter, you needed to book a time slot. We missed all of the morning slots, but managed to get a 3:30 slot for one area and a 4:20 time for another. I was booking at the same time as Steve so we got a couple of extra times later on (after 5) too. 

Cooling off in the water was so good, even for Steve who could really only stand up to his knees on the edge, not wanting to venture too far in just in case someone bumped his hand. The girls had fun in the first play area which was a splash pad with some slides and lots of things that dumped water on you or squirted water out. 

The second water play area was a huge inflatable maze area with jumping castle vibes, but because Japan have a completely different approach to water safety, the kids were only allowed to walk through it. They weren't allowed to sit in the water, or jump on the inflatable things. And to go up and down a slide, they needed to wait in line at the bottom for the people in front to go up and over and clear out before the next person was even allowed up. Our girls were not amused. 

We ended up leaving that area so they could go on the dragon roller coaster that they had found fun a bunch of times. It had been long and hot, but a really great way to kick off the holidays. 

The next day we started a bit slower and then found our way to a shopping street celebrating tanabata. Even though the star festival is usually celebrated in July (7th of the 7th), some areas celebrate in the first week of August. This street had heaps of decorations hanging from the roof, including contributions of giant character displays. These were made by local businesses or schools and were part of an annual competition. 

We had some shaved ice to cool off as we wandered down the street. Steve wanted to try some local green tea beer, but they didn't have it in a can to take home.

This sumo was one of the funnier things hanging from the roof. There was onigiri, pandas, fuji-san and Ghibli characters too. 

We left this fun street to go find a spot at the World Cosplay Summit. This happens every year in Nagoya and I'm only sad we weren't able to figure out more about the event before we got there. There was lots of stuff happening in various venues, but information was sketchy. We managed to narrow it down to there being a cosplay parade through the main shopping street at Ozu, so we just went there and hoped for the best. 

It would have been good to be an hour earlier and on the other side, because then we would have seen the actual contestants and winners of the Cosplay competition, but as it was, we got a pretty good spot in the crowd lining the street and saw the parade of anyone who wanted to walk in their costume. It was pretty awesome to see so many people dressed up. Such a huge variety of costumes and characters walking the streets, each group separated by a truck/float with music and dancers. Vibes were good and we were happy to be there. 

The last morning, in Nagoya, Steve and I got up early and took a quick train ride out to try to see the castle. Unfortunately it's well hidden behind the walls and didn't open till 9. So we went to see the Nagoya sign and the Oasis building instead. 

That Oasis building has water in the roof helping to keep the open space underneath cool. It was pretty impressive to see. Then we went back and packed up all the luggage again. We had found when we left Tokyo, even though we didn't have a particular shinkansen booked, we did rush a bit trying to get to the station. I think we thought if we make the time carrying the luggage shorter it will be easier. Not true. We were all very sore from lugging everything at a fast pace (well, except Steve, but that's because he has BJJ muscle that the rest of us are lacking). 

Giant fish with teeth.
These are everywhere in Nagoya because they are on the roof of the castle. 

So we went slower and it was better. Caught the shinkansen to Okayama and that is where the next part of our journey is.