whirlwind tour

The train ride from Nagano to Nagoya was breathtaking. We travelled along a rugged river with a ton of dams, including one huge one with a resort. Someday, when I have lots of disposable income, I'd like to go back there.

Nagoya is Japan's fourth largest city, and is midway between Osaka and Tokyo along the coast.We only gave ourselves one day to rest and explore before heading back into the mountains.

It wasn't enough, but we made the best of it.

Downtown Nagoya is quite nice, with lively crowds of youth and good upscale restaurants along the canal. The best department store we went through in all of our travels was Tokyu Hands. There was a whole floor of hobby supplies; everything from model trains to silver clay.

Nagoya apparently has a wonderful crafts district and I really wanted to get some cloisonee beads right from the source for my sister, but there just wasn't time.

In the morning, we even tried walking to the Noritake garden with all our luggage before we caught our train, but we got lost yet again and ran out of steam.

I'll be back, Nagoya.