22 Days in Japan, Day 9: Sick Day

It’s Day 9, and I’ve just spent a full day trying to soak up as much of Nagoya as I can. Maybe I’ve soaked up a little too much.

Not sleeping well for the past week has caught up to me. I wake up this morning and I feel like, for want of a better word, crap. I’ve got a bad headache, along with some bonus aches and pains. I hate headaches, but I guess I’m lucky considering I don’t get migraines like other members of my family. Still, I’m not counting my blessings at this point.

I head out early to check out of Kyoya, because I (pretty damn stupidly) reserved two different hostels for the weekend. I really wanted to get Kyoya Ryokan for Friday through Sunday night, but Saturday wasn’t available. So instead of just picking a different hostel for the whole weekend, I ended up reserving a spot at Hostel Ann for only Saturday. …yeeeeeeaaaaah. So that means I have to trek back and forth between hostels. The (barely) good news is that Hiro is cool with holding some of my luggage until Sunday, so I stuff the important things in my backpack which I’m happy to say seems to magically hold a lot more than it looked like it would.

Nagoya’s subway system is not on par with Tokyo. It is actually sorely lacking. No SUICA (or any other card system), and the price of the cheapest ticket is 200 yen, instead of the 160 yen in Tokyo. What the heck. It’s also dirtier. Definitely more like the New York City subway.

I check into Hostel Ann. It’s small, but clean, and the owners are friendly. They ask if I want a bike rental, and I, for some unknown reason, say no. I guess I’ve gotten used to walking everywhere for hours. But I highly suggest a bike for getting around Nagoya – it’s extremely convenient.

Either way, I end up walking back to the subway station and taking the train up a couple of stops to Sakae.

Sakae is the Shinjuku-like downtown area of Nagoya. There’s plenty of shopping to be done here. I didn’t come here to shop, though – I came to visit the International Design Center. It’s housed in a modern sleek building that contains a couple of forgettable stores and a Loft. Loft is awesome. It’s a trendy department store that sells all kinds of home goods, electronics, books, etc. It’s a really fun store. The alarm clock section has some pretty zany creations too: there’s a “bomb” clock that you have to “defuse” by unplugging the correct wire (or you get an extra loud alarm that you can’t turn off), a “Gun o’ Clock” that pops up a target that you have to shoot with the included gun, and a “boxing bell” alarm clock that you have to whack with a mallet to turn off. These sure beat the pants off of my old alarm clock radios that woke me up for school with loud bursts of static.

It’s about this time that I start feeling extremely nauseous. This does not go well with my headache and leg muscle aches, and I end up sitting on a bench in the middle of the Loft building cursing the world. And praying that I don’t throw up all over the place. I eat my last snack bar, put on some music, and just wait. It sort of works.

I muster up the energy to get to the International Design Center, but the center takes up four floors and I can’t figure out how to get in. I’m serious. Instead I stumble on a single room exhibit filled with old cameras. It’s also all in Japanese. Feeling miserable, I end up getting the hell out of there.

My next order of the day is paying a visit to Nagoya Castle, one of the major sights in Nagoya that I’d managed to miss the day before. It’s my first experience with a full-fledged medieval Japanese castle, and needless to say, it’s quite impressive. The main castle is five or six stories tall and is filled with old artifacts and miniature scale models of the castle. Most of the displays are in English, and you can get a good grasp of the castle and its inhabitants. The top floor has a nice view of the surrounding area.

Outside, there’s a rose garden, some pavilions, and a moat that’s been taken over by deer. There’s also an area where you can don a construction helmet and watch pieces of the castle being restored.

The rest of my day is spent bouncing from Nagoya Castle to Sakae to Kanayama, a major metro stop that’s fairly close to my hostel. Right outside the station is Asunal, a fun open-air mall. At night, the area comes alive with activity, and young crowds fill the bars, coffee shops and nearby pachinko parlors. It’s a great place to just chill out. Thankfully, my headache and stomachache are long gone.

What a day.