Winter Japan Holiday - 3D2N at Nagoya

I took a red-eye flight on Saturday to Nagoya, Japan recently, and the flight time was about 6+ hours. I took my time to arrive at the airport prior to my flight. The flight did not seem really full and I slept throughout the journey.

We reached Chubu Centrair International Airport at around 8+ local time in the morning. Japan is around an hour ahead in time difference from Singapore's time. Upon clearing the customs, we headed straight to the train counter to purchase the train tickets to Nagoya Station.

We witnessed the seat rotation of the train occuring, and was quite the 'ASMR' experience! The train ride only took 25 minutes or so to reach our destination. We stayed within Downtown Nagoya area as it gave us the full advantage of allowing us to explore Nagoya and the surrounding areas!

We stayed at the Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel for 2 days, and this hotel was located right on top of Nagoya JR Station. I liked this excellent location as it was really convenient, especially if you have a lot of luggage with you. In addition to the hotel, there was a super wide selection of shops, restaurants and all kinds of small eating places to grab a quick bite instead of having a sit-in meal should you prefer. It was definitely an excellent choice to stay at this area in Nagoya!

The room was spacious, comfortable, and clean. Furthermore, the breakfast buffet spread was splendid too!

We took a train to the Atsuta Jingu Shrine. In Japan, it's considered one of the most important shrines as it stores one of Japan's national treasures - In this instance, the Sacred Sword 'Kusanagi no Tsurugi'. This sword is never displayed to the public in order to emphasize it's divinity! We also visited the Atsuta Jingu Kusanagi Museum to learn more about the shrine's relation to swords at the Kusanagi-ka.

This museum was newly opened in 2021, and it exhibits over a dozen historical swords of various sizes out of the shrine's large collection. We got the opportunity to lift some sample swords in a hands-on corner.

We settled our lunch at Miya Kishimen, Atsuta Shop, which was located outside the museum. We ate Nagoya's very own unique noodle specialty - Kishimen. In essence, Kishimen is a type of Udon, but it is flat and thinner than the usual Udon. We enjoyed a nice hot bowl of Kishimen in the cold winter in a relaxing environment by the pond surrounded by nature.

As for our dinner, we wanted to try another Nagoya specialty, 'Hitsumabushi', which in essence is Eel in a rice bowl. We made a prior reservation at Atsuta Horaiken, which was nearby to Atsuta Shrine. It is one of the most popular restaurants serving 'Hitsumabushi' in Nagoya, and the wait time was 3 hours!! Thankfully, they took down our names and told us to return 3 hours later so we used the time to visit the shrine and the nearby museum before returning here to eat.

As mentioned, 'Hitsumabushi' is one of Nagoya's specialties which i think everyone should try when visiting Nagoya. Even if you are not a fan of Eel, you should try this at least once as it  is quite unique. Among all the restaurants, Atsuta Horaiken is reputed to serve the best Hitsumabushiin Nagoya and serves the high-quality Hitsumabushi.

Atsuta Horaiken is an old Japanese style house with a little courtyard at the entrance.

Once seated and without any hesitation, we ordered the most popular Hitsumabushi set each. A bowl of Hitsumabushi is not cheap and can easily cost around ¥4,600. But it was definitely worth it for this real delicacy, especially since I love eating japanese Eel!

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Hitsumabushi is a regional specialty dish from Nagoya, consisting of Grilled Eel or Unagi over Japanese steamed rice. It is a well-known Nagoya specialty and extremely popular among locals and tourists. Unlike the typical Unagi Donburi, Hitsumabushi is served in Nagoya style.

Our Hitsumabushi sets were served promptly after being seated. The tasty grilled eel covered the entire big bowl of rice, which was filled with an irresistible charred smell. The grilling process of Hitsumabushi was done perfectly, which gave it perfectly crispy skin while leaving the eel tender and juicy on the inside.

The eel is added with the right amount of in-house secret sauce which enhanced the dish for a perfect flavor. We were excited to dig in and enjoyed the fresh taste of the eel.

According to Nagoya customs, There are four ways to taste the Hitsumabushi. To be exact, there are only three. We were advised to divide the bowl of hitsumabushi into four portions. Try each portion with a given small bowl.

For the first quarter, eat the eel and rice on their own, as this was the best way to enjoy the natural taste of the eel.

For the second portion, mix the eel and rice with prepared condiments like wasabi, radish, and finely chopped leeks. The flavor and taste became richer, and it tasted good too!

For the third portion, pour the dashi soup stock into the eel rice, and it was my favorite way to enjoy the Hitsumabushi.

For my remaining portion, I ate it in my favorite way which was with the dashi soup and it tasted awesomely good!

The Hitsumabushi from Atsuta Horaiken was truly amazing. I loved the charred texture on the outside of the Eel, as well as the tender and juicy meat within! The rice was also cooked to perfection. It was the best unagi rice we’ve had during my Nagoya trip! We enjoyed the grilled eel very much and I highly recommend anyone who is in Nagoya to give it a try! The only downside is the long wait, but you can use that time to go sightseeing nearby, or even walk to the nearest shopping centre, which was about a good 20-min walk away. So be prepared for a long wait, but mark my words, if you're a fan of eel, it's definitely worth the wait!

Our room stay was inclusive of breakfast, and we headed down to the café to enjoy a sumptuous breakfast buffet.

We set off for our day after our breakfast, and we took the train down to The Tokugawa Art Museum.

The Tokugawa Art Museum houses an extensive collection of samurai artifacts. It was also a museum famous for serving as a filming location for TV shows and movies.

Thereafter, we headed down to Nagoya Castle, and it is probably the most popular tourist destination in the city.

The absolute highlight of Nagoya Castle is the recently finished replica of Honmaru Palace. This building was made completely out of cypress wood which had a very fragrant and unique smell, and the place used to be the official residence of the Shogun during the original Edo Period.

We spotted the Kinshachi, a mythical half fish and half tiger animal. The Kinshachi is so popular in Nagoya that it has become the symbol not only of Nagoya Castle but, in fact, the whole city. It can be found in souvenirs, ornaments, manholes, drawings, and even sweets throughout the city.

There was a small Kishimen eatery place inside the walls of Nagoya Castle, and we settled there for our lunch. This restaurant specializes in Kishimen, the flat and broad udon noodles that are a specialty of Nagoya.

We ended our day at Nagoya castle with a cute Ninja mochi Ice-cream Cone!

We made our way to Osu Shopping Street to do some shopping. 

We settled our dinner at Miso-Katsu Yabaton, as they are famous for their Miso Kushi Katsu (deep-fried pork skewers with Miso sauce).

We loved the Kushi Katsu (skewered deep-fried pork loin cutlet) and Miso Oden very much.

If you’re on the hunt for the best miso katsu in Nagoya, then Miso-Katsu Yabaton should be at the top of your list. It has gained popularity and is loved by locals and tourists.

Before ending my second day in Nagoya, we went to try our luck with the claw machines again. Yay! We were lucky to catch two large plushies - 'Kuromi', and 'HangYoDon'! Thanks for coming home with me!

As we were checking out from Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel tomorrow, Baby suggested to go up their Sky Bar - ZENITH which is located on level 52 to have a drink and enjoy the night view/scenery!

Stay tuned for my next outing, as we left Nagoya and travelled to Gero.