ByAdmin
Aug 28, 2014
Theaters in Nagoya – Go See a Movie!
With summer temperatures soaring and as Nagoya’s famed humidity rises, you’ll probably be wanting to find things to do that are not only fun, but air conditioned. Perhaps the best remedy for the summer heat is going to the movies.
Whether you are looking forward to Peter Parker’s latest escapades in Spiderman: Far From Home, have family time with Toy Story 4, or scare yourself silly with the Childs Play reboot, this summer is shaping up to be a great season for blockbusters.
There are a load of movie theaters in and around Nagoya. Below are a few of the main ones. For a full, exhaustive list, check out the ever-excellent kikuko-nagoya.com here.
Movie Theaters in Nagoya
109 Cinemas
109 is a nationwide chain, and the branch in Nagoya – in the Sasashima area, next to Zepp Nagoya and the Global Gate complex – used to be the city’s biggest cinema. It has ten screens, including 3D, IMAX and 4DX. With their points card, visit six times and get the seventh viewing for free.
Where: Nakamura Ward, Hiraikechō, 4-chōme−60-14 Market Square Sasashima 2F (map)
Website: 109cinemas.net
Midland Square Cinema
Another biggie catering for the mainstream crowd, the cinema in the plush Midland Square complex has fourteen screens able to seat 2025 customers making its the largest cinema in town. Four of the screens have RealD and 3D projections, while screens 9 and 10 are the only ones in Nagoya to utilize Dolby Atmos sound.
Where: Nakamura Ward, Meieki, 4-chōme-11-27 Symphony Toyota Building (map)
Website: midland-sq-cinema.jp
Fushimi Million Theater
If you tend to eschew the more mainstream movies, preferring more arthouse and independent cinema, then Fushimi Million Theater is for you. There are just four screens, all showing the sorts of films that you are unlikely to see elsewhere in the city. But be warned, subtitles are in Japanese only, so if it’s a French movie you want to see, you will need to either be able to read Japanese or understand French.
Where: 2-chōme-15-５ Nishiki, Naka-ku (map)
Website: eigaya.com
Movie-going in Nagoya
If there is one complaint to be made about going to the movies in Japan, it’s the price, and with tickets a minimum of 1700 JPY – plus add ons for 3D, IMAX and all the rest – it’s not necessarily a cheap day out. With that said, there are good points to theaters in Japan too, such as being able to buy beer from the concession stand, and the food available tends to be pretty good.
In general, theaters in Nagoya are otherwise just like theaters anywhere else; big screen, seats, and an expectation of quiet during the show. One big difference though is the prevalence of foreign films available here. Movies from Hollywood and other cultural centers are readily available, in both subtitled and dubbed form.
You can see the latest… Marvel movie, or whatever, in English, if you go to the right showing. Knowing which is which is a matter of knowing the right characters for each.
Subtitled: jimakuban (字幕版), or jimaku (字幕 )
Dubbed: fukikae (吹替)
Discount Movie Tickets
If the prices concern you, there are discounts available. On the first of every month, most theaters discount all adult tickets to 1000 JPY each, however expect to stand in line, as this is understandably a popular day to see a movie.
Other discounts are available on other specific days, but the dates are peculiar to each theater. The discounts available include ladies, men’s, and senior’s, as well as groups, etc. Also, many ticket shops [金券ショップ (kinken shoppu)] resell pre-release discount tickets [前売り券 (mae-uri-ken)] for current movie releases. Many of these tickets are resold for as little as 1300-1500 yen.
A kinken shoppu may also resell group discount tickets for around the same price (usually for Cinema 109 / Midland Square Theaters). The only downside of these is that sometimes the group discount tickets cannot be used for new movie releases.
You can find a pretty good description of the discounts available here, at the NIC site.
If you are looking for more detailed information about seeing movies in Japan generally, you should read this article on SIJ.
Theaters in Nagoya
Image: jpellgen (@1179_jp) via flickr.com [CC BY 2.0]
Aug 28, 2014
How to Use Meitetsu Trains from Nagoya Station
There are many great reasons to live in Nagoya. One reason is that, being in the centre of the country it is a magnificent hub of public transportation and from Nagoya you can get to absolutely anywhere in the country. The train systems are particularly convenient.
Nagoya is served by three main train lines: JR (including the Shinkansen bullet train), the Kintetsu line and Meitetsu line. The former two are like pretty much anywhere else in the world: multiple platforms, you wait for your train and hop on board when it arrives. The Meitetsu, however, is another kettle of fish all together.
While it has four separate platforms, the train traffic is much greater than you would expect for a station of its comparative diminutiveness (being under the Meitetsu shopping centre it is relatively small and it is not possible to enlarge it). To counter this, many trains stop at each platform – often at a rate of every two or three minutes – which could be extremely confusing when you consider that the trains can go, not only in various directions, but also at different speeds, stopping with greater or lesser frequency.
Getting on the right train
On each Meitetsu platform in Nagoya station there are various positions for passengers to queue up. These are outlined on the ground by colour-coded markings, designating precisely where each train will open its doors (Meitetsu line drivers are trained to stop with remarkable accuracy).
Where on the platform does each train stop?*
Platform No.1 (for Ichinomiya, Gifu, Iwakura, Inuyama, Shin-Kani, Kagamihara, Tsushima and Saya)
Blue Spot – Rapid Ltd. Exp., Limited Express, Rapid Express, Express and Semi Express trains for Ichinomiya and Gifu (via Sukaguchi, Shin-Kiyosu and Konomiya)
Yellow Spot – Local trains for Sukaguchi and Konomiya
Green Spot – Rapid Express, Express and Semi Express trains for Shin-Unuma, Inuyama, and Shin-Kani (via Iwakura and Konan)
Light Blue Spot – Local trains for Iwakura and Inuyama
Purple Spot – Rapid Express, Express, Semi Express and Local trains for Tsushima, Saya and Yatomi (via Sukaguchi)
Platform No.2 (for Ichinomiya, Gifu, Inuyama, Shin-Unuma, Shin-Kani and Saya)
Platform No.3 (for Toyohashi, Toyokawa-Inari, Tokoname, Central Japan International Airport, Kowa and Utsumi)
These platforms are used only for passengers with seat reservation for a μSky Limited Express, a Rapid Limited Express and Limited Express and for arrival.
Platform No.4 (for Higashi-Okazaki, Toyohashi, Toyokawa-Inari, Tokoname, Central Japan International Airport, Kowa and Utsumi)
Blue Spot – Rapid Ltd. Exp., Limited Express, Rapid Express, Express and Semi Express trains for Higashi-Okazaki, Toyohashi, Toyokawa-Inari and Kira-Yoshida (via Narumi, Chiryu and Shin-Anjo)
Yellow Spot – Local trains for Toyoake, Chiryu and Higashi-Okazaki (via Horita and Narumi)
Green Spot – Limited Express, Rapid Express and Express trains for Central Japan International Airport, Kowa and Utsumi (via Otagawa)
Light Blue Spot – Local trains for Oe and Otagawa
Quick and easy
Remembering the above details is extremely beneficial, particularly when running late, as it means that you can just head directly to the right coloured queue. However, unless you have the memory of an elephant, it isn’t necessarily practical. Whenever I take the Meitetsu line, either using my smartphone or on my home PC, I usually check the website Hyperdia, perhaps the best and easiest website for checking train times all over Japan. This will bring up the time and line I am to take.
Then, once I find the correct platform I can check the screens displaying departure times. These screens display, as well as times, what kind of train it will be (from the speediest μSky Limited Express via Rapid Limited Express, Limited Express, Rapid Express, Express Semi Express to the local train), as well as which colour queue to join and how many carriages the train contains.
The latter is also of importance because, as you stand, waiting in the right coloured queue, on the right platform, there is a possibility that, if the train isn’t long enough, it won’t stop in front of you. At peak times, this will be obvious as, if you are the only one in the queue, you’re probably in the wrong one. However, there is a more surefire way to tell. On a wall opposite the platform, there are a row of coloured lights with destination names.
As you can see from the above picture, if you are standing in the blue queue going to Toyohashi, or in the green queue on the way to Central Japan Airport, you are in the right place. If you are in the light blue queue and want to head to Oe, it is best you find another queue. The train won’t be stopping here.
And there you have it, while it looks quite confusing, the Meitetsu line can be pretty straight forward actually. Happy travelling!
*Platform information taken from Wikipedia
By Mark Guthrie
Lead image: By Tennen-Gas (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
Aug 05, 2014
Tebasaki – Famous Nagoya Meibutsu
Famous foods for any given area in Japan are called meibutsu. Osaka meibutsu is okonomiyaki (as is Hiroshima’s meibutsu, but they have their own famous style of the same dish), and in the mountains of Nagano it is Shinshu Soba.
My favourite meibutsu of all is one of the meibutsu of Nagoya – Tebasaki, or fried chicken wings. They are wonderfully tasty and an fantastic companion to a beer (preferably a Dai-jokki…) The great tebasaki restaurants in Nagoya will greet you with a hearty “Nan-nin-mae desu ka?” (“How many servings do you want?”) because they already know you are there for the chicken wings!
There are two really famous tebasaki chains that serve Nagoya. The older of the two is Furaibo, which spices its chicken wings in the traditional Nagoya way (see below). However, if you like a bit of spice in your life, there is a much more peppery version available at Sekai no Yama-chan, which has so many branches of its shop in the Kanayama area, that if one of their shops is full the waitress can literally walk you to another just around the corner.
There is a special way of eating tebasaki reminiscent of how a king at a banquet table might devour his fowl. You can see the process illustrated here on a blog that I found. Basically you want to break the wing in half, allowing you to scrape all the meat off one side with one strong swipe of your teeth!
You can find one of the many, many branches of Furaibo or Sekai no Yama-chan on their Japanese websites that will get you pointed in the right direction to tebasaki heaven! Furaibo has shops literally everywhere in central Nagoya as well as the suburbs, while Sekai no Yama-chan has many in the Nagoya area, but they also have stores in Tokyo, Sapporo and Kumamoto! Therefore, it’s odds on that there will be a Furaibo somewhere nearby should you be in one of these locations and feel the urge for a feast of spicy, crunchy chicken and loads of beer. ( A foreigner’s delight!)
Just look for the signs in the above links and you’ll be able to spot the one nearby!
Aug 05, 2014
Churches and Places of Worship in Nagoya
The Nagoya International Center does a good job of keeping track of these; if you do not see what you are looking for here, try here!
Nagoya All Saints International Church
provides a weekly opportunity for personal renewal, spiritual growth and soulful refreshment for all those who seek it. All are welcome to join our warm, caring community of believers. We worship in English at 5:00pm every Sunday, followed by fellowship. We are centrally located in Imaike nearest to Imaike station, exit #9. See more info at www.nagoyaallsaintsinternationalchurch.com or contact by phone/email at: 080-4527-3464 worship@nagoyasaints.com
Ahmadiyya Islam
Ahmadiyya Muslim
Church 2-1602, Kifune, Meito-ku
TEL: 052-703-1868 Higashiyama subway line, Kamiyashiro or Hongo Station
English, Arabic, Urdu
Anglican/Episcopal
Nagoya St. Marco Church
1-32 Shirakabe Higashi-ku
TEL: 052-971-7007 Mejio Subway line, Shiyakusho Station
English
St. Mark’s Anglican Church
TEL: UNAVAILBLE Mejio Subway line, Shiyakusho Station-5 minute walk from west exit.
English at 16:00 on the 4th Sunday of each month
Assembly of God
Nagoya International Christian Assembly (Nagoya Shinsho Kirisuto Kyokai)
3-18-1 Akebono-cho, Showa-ku
TEL:052-732-6351 Sakuradori or Tsurumai subway line: Fukiage/Gokiso Stations
English, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog
Baptist
Calvary Baptist Church
5-115, Tsuchihara, Tempaku-ku
TEL: 052-801-8064 bus: Tsuchiharaso/Shimada-hitotsuyama
English
Meito Christ International Church
708, Takayanagi-cho, Meito-ku
TEL: 052-771-5267 Higashiyama subway line: Fujigaoka Station
English Bible Baptist Church
1-2-5 Dakei-dori, Showa-ku
TEL 052-832-1936 Kawana subway Station exit
Catholic
Mikokoro Center
3-6-43,Marunouchi, Naka-ku,
TEL:052-971-0334
Meijyo or Sakuradori subway line: Hisaya-odori Station
English Masses/ every Sat. 18:00, Sun.10:00 & 15:00
Novena Mass/ Wed. 15:00-
English, Tagalog, Korean, Indonesian
Nanzan University
Logos Center 104,Yagumo-cho, Showa-ku,
TEL:052-833-3110 Meijo subway line: Nagoya Daigaku Station
English, Spanish, French, Tagalog
Nanazan Church
Maria-kan 1 Minamiyama-cho, Showa-ku,
TEL: 052-831-9131 Tsurumai subway line: Irinaka Station
English, Vietnamese
Minato Church
25-17, Nishiki-machi, Minato-ku,
TEL: 052-389-1841 bus: Inae-cho
Portuguese, French
Moriyama Church
2758-568, Kitayama, Obata, Moriyama-ku,
TEL:052-792-4429 Meitetsu Line: Omori Station
Spanish, Portuguese
Higashiyama Church
1-52 Karayama, Chikusa-ku,
TEL: 052-781-6514 Motoyama Station on the Higashiyama or Meijo line. Take exit #4. Turn to right and walk approx. 10 min. Turn to right at the Karayama crossing. Walk 3 min. It’s on the right.
Japanese
Midorigaoka Church
1-52, Horagai, Midori-ku,
TEL: 052- 876-1601 bus: Naruko Midorigaoka/
Togasa Shoggako Spanish
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter – Day Saints
Mission Home
1-304, Idakadai, Meito-ku
TEL:052-773-0755 Higashiyama subway line: Kamiyashiro Sta.
English
Evangelical (Interdenominational)
N E F (Nagoya English Fellowship)
Nishi Shougai Gakushu Center (Nishi Lifelong Learning Center)
1-1-45, Joshin, Nishi-ku
TEL : 090-2579-1007 (Gonzales, Willie) Tsurumai subway line : Joshin Station, exit 6 walk 1 minute to the North
English (Sundays, 11:00a.m.)
Islam
Nagoya Mosque
2-26-7, Honjin-dori, Nakamura-ku
TEL:052-486-2380 Higashiyama subway line: Honjin Station Take exit 3. and turn right. Turn to right at the Big crossing (first traffic light) and go straight to till the next traffic light. It’s on the right. (4-min. walk)
English, Arabic, Urdu
Orthodox
The Holly Annuniciation Church
(Nagoya Orthodox Church) 63 Yamahana-cho, Showa-ku
TEL: 052-751-6760
nagoya@orthodox-jp.com
Tsurumai subway line: Kawana Station
English Vespers on Sat. from 17:30 and Holy Liturgy on Sundays.at 10:00
Pentecostal
Christian Life International
4-64,Akasaka-cho, Chikusa-ku,
TEL: 052-721-7831
Meijo subway line: Chayagasaka
Jun Fukuin Nagoya Church (Korean)
2nd Fl. Chateau Tsurumai, 3-11-2,Chiyoda, Naka-ku
TEL: 052-322-5985
Tsurumai subway line Tsurumai Station
His Call Church
1 Chome-7-26 Osu Naka Ward, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture Japan
TEL: 52-228-7780
info@hiscallchurch.com
1 minute walk from OsuKannon Subway Station, exit 4
Sunday Services from 11:00 & 14:00
Seventh-Day Adventist
Nagoya Christian Church
24-15 Imaike-Minami, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya
TEL: 052-731-4605 Imaike Station on the Higashiyama or Sakurayama subway Line 10 minutes’ walk. Japanese
Photo by ~MVI~ (Nunoike Cathedral (Nagoya, Japan)) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
