Baggage storage in Nagoya station
Jun 6th, 2005, 02:46 PM
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Baggage storage in Nagoya station
We were in Nagoya this past weekend...not for Expo...but to see a Cirque du Soleil show, which was wonderful. We stayed the night Saturday night in a hotel, and saw the show on Sunday afternoon. We had INTENDED to put our small bags into a locker in the station while we were at the show, then pick them up after the show and head home.
HOWEVER, on this particular Sunday, every single locker was full...there was staff at the locker locations waving people away, telling us that all lockers were full. OK...go for the baggage storage room...staff there too, waving away the hoards of people with similar intentions of storing bags. Not a single place to put bags anywhere in the station area...nowhere. There were people like us, who wanted to store bags, all over the place.
We asked what the options were for our bags...and were told to carry them with us. No storage to be had. So, I asked where in the station I could send the bags home from...was told there was nowhere to send bags from. Asked where the nearest post office was...was told it's closed, it's Sunday.
What did we do...walked down the hallway, intending to ask at the Marriott Associa Hotel if we could send our bags from there (even though we didn't stay there). Just before the hotel is the post office...and it's open! Sent our bags home from the post office, the largest one cost 1400 yen (biggest pull bag that could be used as a carryon). It was at our house 14 hours later.
Moral of the story...don't count on using the storage facilities in Nagoya...there isn't nearly enough capacity...we were trying to get a locker at 10:30 in the morning. If possible, leave your things in your hotel. They will hold bags even after checkout. Even though this would involve a return trip to the hotel before leaving for your next destination, it's far preferable than finding that there are no lockers, no storage, and nowhere to leave your bags. It's possible to send to your hotel, but it does take overnight, so you'd be without for a night...better to take the little bit of time to go back to the hotel I think.
HOWEVER, on this particular Sunday, every single locker was full...there was staff at the locker locations waving people away, telling us that all lockers were full. OK...go for the baggage storage room...staff there too, waving away the hoards of people with similar intentions of storing bags. Not a single place to put bags anywhere in the station area...nowhere. There were people like us, who wanted to store bags, all over the place.
We asked what the options were for our bags...and were told to carry them with us. No storage to be had. So, I asked where in the station I could send the bags home from...was told there was nowhere to send bags from. Asked where the nearest post office was...was told it's closed, it's Sunday.
What did we do...walked down the hallway, intending to ask at the Marriott Associa Hotel if we could send our bags from there (even though we didn't stay there). Just before the hotel is the post office...and it's open! Sent our bags home from the post office, the largest one cost 1400 yen (biggest pull bag that could be used as a carryon). It was at our house 14 hours later.
Moral of the story...don't count on using the storage facilities in Nagoya...there isn't nearly enough capacity...we were trying to get a locker at 10:30 in the morning. If possible, leave your things in your hotel. They will hold bags even after checkout. Even though this would involve a return trip to the hotel before leaving for your next destination, it's far preferable than finding that there are no lockers, no storage, and nowhere to leave your bags. It's possible to send to your hotel, but it does take overnight, so you'd be without for a night...better to take the little bit of time to go back to the hotel I think.
Jun 6th, 2005, 04:37 PM
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Wow. Well, glad you enjoyed the show! It sounds like Nagoya infrastructure is not quite set up for that new airport and all the traffic from it. Do you think that is what is going on, so many more people coming in and out of the airport and hence also the train station, wanting to store bags?
Jun 6th, 2005, 08:39 PM
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I don't think the new airport has much to do with it. The "old" airport had about the same number of international flights I think. I'm still a bit mystified as to why the new airport was even built, as the "old" airport was completely refurbished about 5 years ago and was very nice, 20 minutes from downtown Nagoya by taxi (only 3000 yen, too). I do think the new airport is quite well set up in terms of transportation and English language services, though...quite easy to navigate and it does look pretty. I just wish it were near downtown like the old one.
To me, it seems like the whole Expo thing and the airport to go along with it has been an attempt to boost the economy...many construction related jobs were created for the expo extravaganza. When Expo is all over, I suspect Nagoya will revert back to the way it was.
Expo is located about an hour out of Nagoya, but there are few good hotels nearby, or even in Nagoya itself for that matter. The Hilton Nagoya, for example, has many of it's rooms blocked by flight crews. Northwest used to stay there, but they didn't bid in time for this season and lost out...now NWA's crew is staying in "the dump" as one attendant put it to me last month. The vast majority of the rooms at the Hilton now are occupied by international Expo staff...not tourists. It's almost impossible to get a room there as a tourist right now...for me to get two rooms I had to beg, literally, and it was months ago that I made the reservation, and for the first time ever, I had to pay rack rate.
The reason the train station storage facilities were all full...that, I'm guessing, is partly because of Expo. They do seem to be getting the Expo transportation system working a bit bettter...like they now will sell you round trip tickets instead of just one way, so you don't have to wait in line to by a ticket back when you are finished at Expo. You can also make "reservations" online for two pavillions, cutting down on your waiting time...but that can only be done in Japanese. The English language version of the Expo home page is pathetic in comparison to the Japanese, and I do think Expo is far from being adequately accessible by non-Japanese speakers. Even the transportation maps and information are not clear in English and are dead simple in Japanese. So, as far as infrastructure, I think whoever was in charge of the "international" part of the Expo preparation was slacking.
To me, it seems like the whole Expo thing and the airport to go along with it has been an attempt to boost the economy...many construction related jobs were created for the expo extravaganza. When Expo is all over, I suspect Nagoya will revert back to the way it was.
Expo is located about an hour out of Nagoya, but there are few good hotels nearby, or even in Nagoya itself for that matter. The Hilton Nagoya, for example, has many of it's rooms blocked by flight crews. Northwest used to stay there, but they didn't bid in time for this season and lost out...now NWA's crew is staying in "the dump" as one attendant put it to me last month. The vast majority of the rooms at the Hilton now are occupied by international Expo staff...not tourists. It's almost impossible to get a room there as a tourist right now...for me to get two rooms I had to beg, literally, and it was months ago that I made the reservation, and for the first time ever, I had to pay rack rate.
The reason the train station storage facilities were all full...that, I'm guessing, is partly because of Expo. They do seem to be getting the Expo transportation system working a bit bettter...like they now will sell you round trip tickets instead of just one way, so you don't have to wait in line to by a ticket back when you are finished at Expo. You can also make "reservations" online for two pavillions, cutting down on your waiting time...but that can only be done in Japanese. The English language version of the Expo home page is pathetic in comparison to the Japanese, and I do think Expo is far from being adequately accessible by non-Japanese speakers. Even the transportation maps and information are not clear in English and are dead simple in Japanese. So, as far as infrastructure, I think whoever was in charge of the "international" part of the Expo preparation was slacking.
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youngtom2910
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Aug 22nd, 2006 04:43 AM
