Toyohashi Zoo & Botanical Park – Non Hoi Park
Nov 25, 2019 By Bert Wishart
Toyohashi Zoo & Botanical Park is a fun-packed day out for all the family, with animals, rides, beautiful spots, and flowers from all over the world. Also known as 'Non Hoi Park' (it means something like 'hey, hey!' in the local Higashi-Mikawa dialect) it is a zoo, botanical garden, amusement...[ Click to read more ]
Buying a Christmas Tree in Nagoya 2019
Nov 21, 2019 By Ray Proper
If you are in the market for a Christmas Tree to liven up your holiday season you with trim and presents, you are in luck. Stocks are very limited so, don't delay! The trees are a bit shorter than you might get used to but they have very nice shapes and I am...[ Click to read more ]
Get a Sugar Rush at the Aichi Sweets Marathon
Oct 29, 2019 By Bert Wishart
Are you too keen on candy to run a marathon? Do you need sugary enticement to get you to that finishing line? Then the Aichi Sweets Marathon in Moricoro Park is right up your, um, running track. While gobbling down sweets mid-run may seem like a major contradiction, the Sweets Marathon...[ Click to read more ]
Getting To Know You – Nagoya Station Area of Meieki
By Bert Wishart
For years, though the city center in name, the area around Nagoya Station was considered to a poor relation to the shopping district of Sakae. However, over the past decade there has been dramatic investment in the Meieki (a Japanese abbreviation of 'Nagoya Station') area, and today it is an...[ Click to read more ]
Getting Fed and Afraid at Lock Up Theme Restaurant
By Bert Wishart
Halloween may have come and gone, but that does not mean that the frightening times have to be over. If you are already missing the combination of cosplay, terror (and perhaps a little tipsiness), why not make your way down to the prison-themed izakaya The Lock Up, just a few...[ Click to read more ]
Nagano Ebisuko Fireworks Festival, Where It’s All Going off This Autumn
Sep 27, 2019 By Bert Wishart
For most of Japan, the coming of autumn marks an end to the almost nightly banging, crashing and gunpowder-scented air of the fireworks festivals. Yes, there may be a few straggling events at the beginning of September, but that is pretty much it. But then, in late November, when the air...[ Click to read more ]
Brick or Treat – Getting Spooky at Legoland this Halloween
Sep 25, 2019 By Bert Wishart
Halloween in Japan is an odd time, in that it is mostly aimed at an older demographic. Street parties and nightclubs are boozy affairs, while costume shops almost exclusively trade in sexy fancy dress for women. For those of us coming from the West, where Halloween is predominantly an affair...[ Click to read more ]
The Nagoya Festival
Sep 05, 2019 By Ray Proper
The Nagoya Festival is held annually on the third Saturday and Sunday of October. The main attraction is a parade, lead by Nagoya’s 3 most famous historical figures and feudal lords; Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and Ieyasu Tokugawa, of 700 mounted soldiers, foot soldiers, entertainers, and dancers. Besides the parade,...[ Click to read more ]
Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri in Osaka
Aug 29, 2019 By Bert Wishart
With more than 300 years of history, the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri is the oldest Danjiri Festival in Japan. Such festivals are held right throughout the country, but for most Japanese, if you say 'Danjiri Matsuri' this is the one, with its raucousness and inherent danger, that springs to mind. The...[ Click to read more ]
Stepping Back in Time at the Arimatsu Float Festival
Aug 20, 2019 By Bert Wishart
Sometimes when you visit festivals, with everyone dressed in their finest kimono or yukata, the street stalls lining the streets, and the local historical curiosities paraded around the town, if you squint just enough, you feel like you are able to capture a small glimpse of how the old Japan...[ Click to read more ]
