Day 14: we woke up this morning 6:15AM to see this weather in Nagoya:
The weather was around 2 degree C, and we decided not to go with the originally planned itinerary for visiting Gujo Hachiman. This was in consideration that if it was snowing like this in Nagoya, how much worse it would be back in Gifu, never mind that some of the places there – e.g. the castle – we wanted to check out were also closed. So, we quickly put together an alternative itinerary: starting with a visit to Yanagibashi Central Market, a local fresh seafood and produce market that was just 5 minutes walk from our hotel. A very easy stroll in good weather, and still tolerable in winter.
I was a little hesitant about visiting another local market though. We visited four such markets in the 2019 trip, and while some stall owners were very friendly, others basically saw tourists as nuisances who had no intention of buying any of their products, and thus were nothing more than impeding their daily business. So, I had to consciously remind our party to be mindful of the locals when in the market, and try not to get in their way especially of shop keepers. We fortunately didn’t have too much of a bad experience this time: the stall owners mostly ignored us altogether as we took a look at their fresh sea foods and the stall staff carving up all manner of sea creatures. Not for the faint hearted for sure!
Continued in the next post!