Nagoya Suggestions, Please
 

My itinerary for spring 2016 has us in Nagoya for one night.

We'll be arriving from Hakone (via train) and are happy to leave Hakone at a reasonable time but not so early that we can't enjoy a leisurely breakfast at Hakone Ginyu not to mention a last soak in our private tub.

We'll need to depart Nagoya as early the next morning as possible (via rental car). The next day includes Miho Museum, Shigaraki ceramic potteries, possibly a swing past the southern tip of Lake Biwa and then right on to Miyama Nantan where we are overnighting. The stay there is a key attraction for us, in one of the traditional thatched houses of the village and will hopefully include some activities as well so we'd like to arrive in good time. Hence the early start out of Nagoya!

I've not yet booked the rental car as I want to work out where in Nagoya is best to stay first.

Given that Nagoya is little more than a routing stop, any thoughts on where to stay?

Or we could journey farther on leaving Hakone and overnight in somewhere like Otsu instead of Nagoya? I can't see any obvious places nearer to Miho Museum or Shigaraki but open to ideas.

Would appreciate your thoughts!
x
Kavey

Hi Kavey,

It looks like your trip is really coming together. I don't have any experience in Nagoya, but since I see some overlap in our travel styles, I thought I would mention factors I would consider if it were my trip.

I have found that I prefer to rent a car in a smaller town or city, which makes it much easier to get out, without having to deal with rush hour traffic, one way streets and other obstacles. Especially given your early start the next day, I would suggest continuing on past Nagoya. If you have not been already, one option could be Hikone. If you get there in the afternoon, it will still give you time to visit the castle and garden, if you desire. From there is is about a one hour drive to the Miho Museum the next day.

As an aside, here is a link to what looks to be an amazing ryokan there (but where I have not stayed):

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...ure_Kinki.html

Just a thought. I'm sure other's will chime in with more suggestions based on their direct experiences. Happy planning!

Ooh Russ, now that's a CRACKING idea!
The ryokan is out, I don't mind shared bath but do want private en-suite loo at minimum! But there are other properties there that look good and very reasonable too.

Brilliant!

Shall see if anyone else has any other ideas!

It's under three hours to get to Nagoya, so you should have most of afternoon and the evening. And most car rentals are near the train station, so why not the Marriott Associa right at Nagoya Station?

rkkwan
I guess the next question is...
Is an afternoon in Nagoya more / less appealing than one in Hikone?
Ooh, this is hard!!!! (FUN THOUGH!)

I love everything about Japan, so its a matter of whether you want to spend more time in a big city or small one.

Rkkwan, Yes I agree, I'll be happy with either, but can only do one of these two... choices, choices!!!

I 2nd the Marriott. I've stayed there more than a dozen times. Super convenient.

One of my favourite things we did in Japan, so much so that we went twice, was the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. (Do not confuse with the Toyota Automobile Museum, although that too may be good, it's not the one to which I am referring.)

http://www.tcmit.org/english/

It is located not too far from Nagoya station, about a 20 minute walk or you can take the Meitetsu line.

It tells the story of Toyota, beginning from when it was a textile firm (yes, you read right.) So half of it features displays - actual working demonstrations given in many cases - of looms, and the other half, of how they converted to automotive manufacturing.

Industry like this feeds Japan. Temples, etc. are lovely but I strongly suggest people pay some heed to the modern side.

Thanks all, I'm holding a cancellable room at Marriott Nagoya and a cancellable room at Futabaso ryokan Hikone. That gives me time to look into both destinations a bit more and make the call.
Looks like we won't go wrong either way, which is great to know.
Thanks again for the input.
Now I'm just stuck on the Firefly Squids and the night after 2 nts Karuizawa and before 2 nts Nikko.
Oh and the Tokyo top and tail options too.

Bookmarking that museum, thanks Sue!

Please let us know what you find out about the firefly squids. That looks like something I would love to see (except that I read that the boats go out at 3am).

By the way, if you haven't eaten them, they are amazingly delicious. After our trip last April (eating them several times) we sought them out in Los Angeles, as they were still in season. Thankfully, we have a lot of Japanese restaurants here, so it wasn't too hard.

Russ, yes I really want to see them, even with that early wake up! I can see that one books for the excursion at the museum, but it's not that clear where they depart from, how much it would be and which hotel is best to book for that one nighter. I'm still investigating!

Good topic ... and easy to simply tag along:

I'll be doing a two week small group tour in Japan in May and, thanks to award flight availability, I have 5 totally free days at the end. Am thinking that Nagoya (where the tour does not go) would be a good choice. And after two weeks of a lot of temples, shoguns, and tea, seeing more modern Japan should be welcome.

I have four museums on my top to do list: the rail museum, Noritake and the two Toyota ones. Would budgeting two days (including train down from Tokyo) be sufficient or should I think another half or full day or two before I move on to someplace else, TBD?

>>Is an afternoon in Nagoya more / less appealing than one in Hikone?

I realize that that part of this thread is old and plans have been made, but my answer is: an afternoon in Nagoya would be quite less appealing than one in Hikone.

NoFlyZone:

I definitely recommend a visit to Inuyama for the fine castle and the teahouse in a garden.

Also, visit Ise Jingu (grand shrine). I would have liked to have spent a couple days in the Ise area.

Gifu is not far from Nagoya, maybe 20 minutes and 400 or so yen.

I am glad to read that MrWunrfl as we did indeed book the night at Hikone instead, a slightly more convoluted train journey from our Hakone ryokan but a better starting point for the drive we'll be making the next day, to Miho Museum, and onwards to Miyama, north of Kyoto!

:-)

We will probably not reach there till early afternoon, so will see how much we can see.

The rental car pick up is right around corner from our hotel, which is itself very close to Hakone station. :-D

Oh, yeah, we did discuss Hikone car rental on another thread.

We did, but you may slap my wrist for spilling my questions across multiple threads! :-D

Responding to NoFlyZone: Nagoya is an excellent base for day trips and you could easily spend all 5 days there. In town, in addition to the museums you mention, the Atsuta shrine is well worth visiting. Then, further afield, as well as Inuyama, Ise, and Gifu mentioned by mrwunrfl, there's Meiji-Mura, the Kiso valley, Meoto Iwa, and the places around Lake Biwa (e.g., Hikone, Ishiyamadera). I can recommend them all, but only Meiji-Mura is (somewhat) modern Japan.

Check them out on http://www.japan-guide.com and http://www.taleofgenji.org/ishiyamadera.html and see if any appeal to you.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've added another day to my Nagoya excursion so it's now three full days including the train down from Tokyo and the train out at the end of the third day.

If I wanted to see more shrines and temples I would have decided to spend my remaining two (well, one and a half) days there. But I'll probably head back to Toyko and do a day trip to Yokohama or Saitama or even Nikko if I decide I need a final shrine fix. Last day will be something in Tokyo, TBD, and then an evening baseball game.