Walking the Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage (Part 2) - The Best First Day in Japan
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Spoiler alert: this post isn't about the Shikoku pilgrimage, although it is about the same trip. It's about what I did with my spare first day in Nagoya: the lost day...
Arriving first thing in the morning on a long-haul flight is not ideal. You're tired, jet-lagged and yet you need to stay awake until a normal bedtime, so you can adjust your body clock.
I had almost 12 hours to kill on that first day, and was waiting for my friends to finish work.
So what do you do with a whole day to yourself?
, so I made a plan. It went pretty well.
I know Nagoya well, as I used to live there. My first thought was to go to Komeda, a coffee chain I like that's originally from Nagoya, for モーニング (
mо̄ningu
; breakfast set). But I'd already had breakfast on the plane, so I resisted the temptation to have a second breakfast, and went straight to Atsuta Shrine instead.
熱田神宮 (
Atsuta Jingū
; Atsuta Shrine) is a beautiful and important Shinto shrine. It's right by 神宮前 (
Jingūmae)
station, which makes sense seeing as
jingū-mae
means "in front of the shrine".
The train from the airport stops at Jingūmae, so I got off there and headed straight to a
depachika
(デパ地下
). Depachika
is the (often amazing) basement floor of a department store, where the food is, and I wanted sushi and cold green tea. I bought lunch there and then went to the shrine.
It's not really ok to eat in temple or shrine grounds, but there was a rest area with vending machines, so I sat there and had my mackerel sushi.
I also had this tiny beer (to celebrate being in Japan after almost two years). I had a good feeling about this day already.
↓ Atsuta Shrine
There was a wedding going on, too:
↓ Yay!
Next up, I headed to the onsen (温泉; hot spring). I picked this for two reasons - the first is that I love
onsen,
and I couldn't wait to go back to one and relax.
The second reason I wanted to go to the onsen is that I'd been on a long-haul flight since 7am UK time, and I really wanted a shower.
Onsen is also a pretty good solo activity - assuming you find being naked with strangers less embarrassing than being naked with friends (I do). Japanese hot springs are a communal affair; separated by gender, but no swimsuits allowed.
I'd used the airport wifi to look up some reviews, and decided on Miya no yu (宮の湯). It was about a half-hour walk from the shrine, and I could walk there along the river. There were late plum blossoms, and some sprinklings of cherry blossoms too.
↓ At the
onsen
(no pictures in the bath, for obvious reasons)
There were a bunch of different baths, including a 電気風呂 (
denki-buro
) which literally translates as "electric bath", and is - yikes - a hot bath with low-level electric current running through it.
You might think that electricity and water don't mix, and you'd be right. The
denki-buro
is worth a try though - unless you have a pacemaker, in which case give it a miss. It feels a bit like prickly pins and needles.
There was also a smaller bath with "water of the month". This month's special water was よもぎ (
yomogi
; Japanese mugwort). The water was a vivid bright green and looked like melon soda.
After a long soak in various entertaining baths, I got dressed and had a lie down and a bottle of milk.
Milk is a surprisingly popular post-bath drink, considering Japan doesn't have a long history of dairy consumption. お風呂上がりの牛乳 (
ofuro agari no gyuunyuu;
milk after a bath) is almost as good as お風呂上がりのビール (
ofuro agari no biiru;
beer after a bath
).
I'd already had one tiny beer though and was fighting off jet lag, so I stuck to milk. There's something very satisfying about glass bottles of milk.
I lay down in this tatami mat rest area, and watched some Japanese variety shows on a distant TV:
It was 4pm. I still had two hours to kill before my friends finished work, so I went to karaoke.
There's even a special word for "going to karaoke by yourself" in Japanese: ヒトカラ (
hito-kara
), which is short for 一人カラオケ (
hitori karaoke
).
Don't get me wrong - karaoke is fun with friends. But it's super fun by yourself too, and in a different way.
You can hog the microphone, and practice the same song three times in a row without anyone complaining. And you don't have to listen to other people's dubious song choices and dodgy singing.
↓ It's all your own dubious song choices and dodgy singing!
After an hour of singing and all-you-can-drink soft drinks from the ドリンクバー (
dorinku baa
; self-service drink bar), I got the subway to meet my friends.
We went to Minoji, a 焼き鳥屋 (yakitori-ya), a restaurant serving yakitori aka "things on sticks". Finally, some hot Japanese food!
I got to eat a lot of different things, old and new. But more importantly, I got to catch up with old friends. I was having so much fun I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the restaurant, with its red lanterns and moody lighting.
I didn't realise until afterwards, but the first time I ever went to Minoji was actually my very first night in Nagoya, after I moved there in 2011.
It made me pretty happy to be back there in 2018. The perfect end to a perfect first day back in Japan.
I wasn't sure how relaxing the rest of the trip would be, but that first day in Nagoya, I was so relaxed!
Not bad for a "lost day", right?
Click here to read part 1 (which is actually about the Shikoku 88 pilgrimage!)
Like many people in the UK, I studied French in school. I liked French. I thought it was really fun to speak another language, to talk with people, and to try and listen to what was going on in a new country. (Still do!)
When I was 14 we went on a school exchange to the city of Reims, in northeastern France. I was paired with a boy, which I’m sure some 14-year-olds would find very exciting but which I found unbearably awkward. He was very sweet and we completely ignored each other.
That was nearly 20 years ago, and I didn’t learn or use any more French until, at some point in lockdown, I decided on a whim to take some one-to-one lessons with online teachers. Here are some things I learned about French, about language learning, and about myself.