First Sunday in Nagoya

Today was Sunday so I was in a relaxed mood.  First, I headed to one of 3 Catholic churches in Nagoya that have regular english mass - Mikokoro.  The church was pretty nice and small on the 2nd or 3rd floor of this building.  To my surprise, the room was packed with worshipers.  I forgot to take pictures of the inside - next time :).

After church service, I went to the nearby Sakae to walk around the malls.  The mission was to find several music stores in the area.

Along the way, I found a rental office with a display of appartments to rent.  The prices are actually not that bad.  Considering what I'm paying for mine, some of these are pretty good deal.  We'll see in the future - might have to rent one of those.

Also along the way, I found a kuma cafe - I just had to take a picture :P

In the one of the largest department stores in Nagoya's Sakae (called Matsuzakaya) I found a huge place selling all sorts of food items, including ready made things and tons of sweets.  Here is about half of the meat store:

For lunch, I had udon at one of the restaurants in the basement of the department store.  It was delicious and cost about $9.

Here is the display in front of the udon store showing the different plates that they have.

The italian spaghetti house (named Ciao) had an interesting message on the main windows.

After eating, I found the music stores (mostly a Tower Records store) and it was pretty big although very similar to the HMVs I've seen here.  I then took the subway back home and rested for a bit.  It was a really hot day (theweathernetwork said feels like 47C).

In the afternoon, I embarked on a "get to know my neighbourhood tour".  The first stop was to the circle K convenience store by my place to buy a map of Nagoya.  I was really proud of myself since I asked in Japanese if they sold maps of Nagoya and the guy understood me and showed a large one to me.  Then I asked if he had something smaller and showed me a smaller (pocket sized) one which I bought for about $11.  The bad thing is that it is totally in Japanese but at least I can follow the streets :P.

So equipped with a street map, I went to explore the local area.  The KING labelled building is a Pachinko machine place where people spend money gambling on these pinball like slot machines and smoke lots - you can smell it outside the building.  One thing about smoking.  Before coming I read that everybody smokes in Japan and everywhere.  I heard that Nagoya has a public smoking ban and I really haven't had anybody smoking next to me anywhere which is pretty nice!  You don't even smell cigarettes anywhere.

This picture shows the nice signs showing special walking and biking lanes on the sidewalk.   But the truth is, I haven't really seen anybody follow those signs.

To the left is a nicely trimmed bush and nice trees.  Beyond the fence is (I assume) a large Mitsubishi factory of some kind.

I found a mall with a huge store that has computers and electronics of various kinds.  The whole shelf of CDs/DVDs/etc media was huge!

This store is a rental store with used CDs/DVDs/Games/etc.  Another store I saw in a mall was a rental store for CDs and DVDs.  The thing I found funny is a whole shelf collection of various blank media, most of them labelled for music.

A bus station next to the Ozone subway and train station.

Hmmm apple drink.  I really like those metal can bottles.

After some looking, I found one of my local post offices.  It is tiny on some side street (the red T kinda symbol).

Found a small temple.

Behind the neighbourhood is a large canal of some kind (maybe a flood canal).

I found another supermarket store with a food store MaxValu - that's 3 within maybe 1km.

I didn't know this at the time but this place called "ine"is supposed to be a really good sushi place and it is just across the street from me hehehe :P.  Will have to check it out soon.

Later, I went to the store to pick up some food.  Got some supermarket sushi (10 pieces for about $7) which was pretty tasty.  I also bought some chopsticks and bowls and very tasty melon.  The fruit selection is very lacking and quite expensive.

It's not just buying chopsticks... it's also what size you want them - there were about 5 different sizes.

Jumpin Bunnies!

And that's it for today.  I'm ready to get some work done tomorrow!