The last segment of our trip was centered around the city of Nagoya, one of the larger cities in Japan and also a gateway for international flights coming into Japan. We selected Nagoya airport in September as the arrival and departure point for this 2022 trip because of the cost of flights, arrival timings – we would be arriving early on the first day – and that we would be back in Singapore in the late afternoon. Lastly, we’d not been to Nagoya, so it was as good a place to check out too.
We’d be making our way from Takayama to Nagoya, and there was a direct south-bound train for it. But Google Maps reported that the first train was only at 8AM. However, when reserving our seats at the JR Ticketing office at Takayama, we learned that there was an earlier departure at 6:46AM on the Hida 2 Limited Express to Nagoya, arriving in Nagoya at 9:12AM. Odd that Google Maps did not show this earlier train. We went for it immediately, and in doing so were able to move part of our Day 14 itinerary forward.
Nagoya Station was pretty confusing for us first-timers, and almost as busy as Tokyo, with multiple intersecting lines, platforms and Google Maps getting confused about where we really were in the station. And while our place of stay – The Royal Park Canvas Nagoya – was just a mere 5-minute walk away from the station, we ended up taking almost 30 minutes to correctly find our way there to drop off our luggage!
We thereafter started making our way to our first place on the modified itinerary: the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. There are actually two Toyota museums in Nagoya, and they’re not near each other. The other is an Automobile Museum, but the Commemorative Museum from all accounts is the one to go for, as it’s put together as a learning experience to show the history of Toyota, its initial roots in textiles, its evolution and growth into the automobile business, and how cars are manufactured by Toyota.
The admission fee was a very low ¥1,540 for the four of us, and the number of things to do in it is really wide. For starters, there is a really fun children’s mini-park that teaches children the basics of automobile physics in really fun and engaging ways: the kids can easily spend half an hour exploring each interactive exhibit. There is a suggested walking path and multiple demonstrations, many in Japanese, but there is enough support for English throughout in the form of signage and information booths. And like the other museums we’ve been to on this trip, it is well attended by very helpful staff who will actually spontaneously engage you to check if you need help, and even introduce the exhibits that they are responsible for.
Some visitors have shared that you need only spend 30 minutes in this Museum. I think you can easily spend at the very least two hours in it. We spent three, and I normally have no interest in automobiles! Highly recommended for a visit.
We next moved on to the Port of Nagoya Aquarium. Continued in the next post!
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