NAGOYA REDUX

My lasting memory of Nagoya Castle are two Japanese ladies clad in the sexy Joshi Kosei mode (JK Style) that were actually the main subject of a photo I took of the edifice.

But we came too early this year and there is none of that, yet.

We did encounter a number of these Lolita-influenced fashion as we traveled through 3 train lines to Nagoya, our biobatteries charged with a ramen brunch at the Kyoto Station that enabled us to lug our bags through the streets of Nagoya to a superb dinner of the city's famous tebasaki, must try oroshi karaage, cochin oyakodon, a specialty tamagoyaki, and tonkatsu at the Nagoya Maruhachi Shokudo. 

I had a highball and a Morita Kinshachi Craft Beer.

That was our prelude to a 360-degrees view of the Nagoya Castle that we captured in several frames by walkng around and killing time, before breaking our fast at one of the breakfast trucks parked just after its entrance gate.

Someday, I too will build have a a teahouse within my own Japanese garden where I can drink shots of sake while watching a monkey do a lap dance. 

At the Osu Kannon Temple, we offer our prayers to the Buddha of Compassion.

I tried recalling the flea market spot where I was sold a fake katana and the small shop where I had a lunch of ramen topped with raw egg 20 years ago.

Instead, buntings of the Philippine flag at the Osu Shopping Streets led us to a lunch of gyutan, a Wagyu steak, pork donburi, and mackerel.

I had a highball and Yebisu Beer. 

At the Atsuta Shrine, we clapped our hands twice before and after our prayers to commune with the deities, to heal us of our sickness, and to request for a graceful exit into the sunset.

This ancient Shinto shrine is home to the  Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (Heavenly Sword of Gathering Cluds) which is one of Japan's three sacred treasures and imperial regalia, and honors Amaterasu-Omikami, the supreme sun god, and all other deities that is connected with the scared sword. 

I rode a bike to the Atsuta Shrine from the JICA Chubu, maybe once or twice 20 years ago.

I once had  a 1993 Toyota Corolla for company use. 

Just recently, my mother-in-law bought a Toyota Hiace Commuter De Luxe van for Bulan

It was then inevitable for us to visit the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya that showcased the company's evolution as the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works into its incorporation as the Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937.

We saw models of its Model A1 passenger car that it frst produced and the Toyopet Crown that apparently broke the market for Japanese cars, and were serenaded with a crappy violin concerto by Toyota's Partner Robot.  

Then it was dinner, a meal we failed to find at Sakae's red light district where once upon a time, I desperately scrounge for a bottle of San Miguel Beer that will be used for our commencement ceremony in lieu of our flags.

The options around the vicinity of the Nagoya Station turned out to be beyond what we will be wiling to spend so walked until we found what seemed to be a newly opened and empty shop between rows of full izacayas.

We were prepared to be surprised and that's how it turned our with the superb ramen and and donburi nbowls we happily found out to have ordered.

I had a Kirin beer.