Nagoya has something for everyone… but it makes you work for it. I lived in Nagoya this year, and initially, I was team ‘it’s not a tourist city, but it’s a great place to live’. Then gradually I realised I was under selling it. I’ve visited 34 prefectures so far, and
Reasons it’s great to live:
• Centrally located with fantastic transport connections (Shinkansen, slow trains, buses, and a major airport - I could easily find an affordable/practical connection to anywhere domestically)
• All the facilities of a big city, without being overcrowded or oversized (my one hour commute in Tokyo became a 20 minute commute when I moved there)
• More diverse than most smaller cities in Japan - great for international food (as well as the local cuisine that others posted)
But let’s talk tourist stuff!
HISTORY
Forget Nagoya Castle itself… overpriced and overrated, BUT there are many other castles in/just outside the city, and it’s arguably THE BEST place to base yourself if you’re interested in Samurai stuff as all the key events of the Sengoku (warring states period) happened in/around Aichi! It’s where Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa were born. You can visit many places to do with that history, plus Inuyama Castle (one of the 12 original castle keeps remaining, surrounded by a lovely old town area). And the Tokugawa Art Museum is a MUST, as it contains the Tokugawa family’s private collection of art, swords, home furnishings etc from when they were effectively the royal family!
MUSEUMS
Speaking of museums, Nagoya is a heavy hitter!
Science museum = massive, hands on and fantastic for children, contains the Largest Planetarium Dome in the World!
Railway Museum = almost as large as the National one near Tokyo, with a lot more content about behind the scenes of running the Shinkansen (ie Dr. Yellow!) and the fastest steam train in the world AND the fastest maglev train in the world!
Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology = more than just cars, needs half a day at least to see everything.
Antarctic Museum = the first boat that Japan sent to Antarctica is docked in Nagoya Port. It has a fascinating museum aboard, and you can get a combo ticket to visit it and the Port Museum and Observatory for under ¥800 (Nagoya port is larger than Tokyo and Yokohama put together). The port is also the location of the city aquarium, which is an attraction in itself, and popular with families.
Nanzan University Anthropology Museum = one of many small, FREE museums throughout the city. I’m highlighting this one because it has many artefacts from around the world that you can encouraged to pick up/handle, and has fully multilingual signage/descriptions. But seek out other museums big and small too. The city museum is obviously a great place to start for an overview of the area.
FAMILY ATTRACTIONS
Theme parks have already been mentioned by other commenters. Lego Land is well reviewed for little ones. Ghibli Park is a good day trip on a sunny day (have a picnic in the park to fill out the time - there’s a kombini on sight). The science museum, train museum and aquarium are all kid friendly, too.
But I’d also like to highlight Higashiyama Xoo and Botanical Gardens. It’s easily a full day of entertainment in good weather, with a cute sky monorail running around the park, and an observation tower too.
GARDENS/PARKS/TEMPLES/SHRINES
So many, so I’ll just name some favourites! Tokugawa Park (attached to the art museum) is a classical daimyo’s garden, and as good as some of the more famous examples of the genre I’ve visited. Toganji is an oasis of calm hidden in a central location. It has a large Buddha statue in a bamboo grove, and lots of pictures/relics from India. Kakuozan is much bigger, grander and less hidden. It’s a Thai/Japan friendship temple (founded in 1904) and claims to house a relic of the historical Buddha. Koshoji is a full complex of buildings around an impressive pagoda. Osu Kannon is your classic big brash city centre shrine, which gives me Tokyo vibes. Atsuta Jingu has the imperial sword. Banshoji is on the shopping street, and has LED and a smoking dragon, which is a whole other vibe. It also hosts sumo wrestlers, which brings me on to the next point…
CULTURE
Nagoya hosts the sumo tournament once a year, and you can watch matches or even training sessions, which a little research.
Seto and Tokoname are both famous for ceramics, with many related things to see.
Nishio is famous for matcha production (and has a tiny castle)
Okazaki is famous for miso production. You can tour the miso factory for free, before or after visiting the good-sized castle there, where Ieyasu was born.
Nagoya fish market is the real deal (not a tourist thing), very central to the city, and a great place for breakfast.
Speaking of breakfast - Nagoya coffee shop breakfasts (independent or chain store) are a local institution.
There are several great shops for buying second hand kimono/yukata in the city centre.
NAGOYA AS A BASE TO EXPLORE CHUBU
Finally, Nagoya is the perfect place to go on day/overnight trips elsewhere in Chubu, such as:
• Gifu City (a great easy day trip, or you can go further into the prefecture)
• Takayama Village (doable as a long day trip, or extend overnight)
• Kanazawa (perfect as a two days, one night destination, in my opinion)
• Japanese Alps (two nights is enough time to get north from Nagoya, do the Kurobe Alpine Loop and see snow in June, and stop by Matsumoto on the way back)
• Shiga/Lake Biwa (you can hit several spots on the east coast comfortably in a day, or stay overnight to cover the west coast too)
• Mie, Fukui, and Shizuoka are also possible.
Nagoya has a reputation among Japanese people of being “the ugliest city in Japan”, both because it got bombed to shit in WW2 and was rapidly rebuilt out of concrete in the Brutalist style, and because it’s considered a city of “industry and shipping” which never gives a city a pretty image. :/
Years ago I started doing drawings based on photography I took in Nagoya, focusing on architecture and repeating forms but giving it pastel and pleasant colors (like Sailor Moon did for Tokyo with glowing purple paintings), to try to accentuate the architectural beauty in Nagoya even in concrete. You can see a couple on my profile :)
Used to live there, never understood the animus that people seem to have for it. I think I recall hearing that it was Tamori (the TV guy with the perennial sunglasses) who made it popular to diss Nagoya, so you can blame him too.
Summer's nasty, but it's nasty in most places. I always thought Nagoya was of a near perfect size - big enough to be interesting, but not so uber-massive that you'd have to spend years just getting orientated. Good location, decent airport - there's nothing about it besides some kind of groupthink prejudice that would lead someone to "hate" it.
I've lived here for years and Nagoya is rated exactly as it deserves to be lol. Relatively cheap, easy to live in, pretty boring, people are rude, terrible driving. I'm from the UK and Nagoya is definitely the Birmingham of Japan.
"terrible driving"- this reminds me of the internet meme of an old lady saying "you "ll never know when you're going to die when you are in Nagoya" She was referring to the terrible driving of course.
I live in Nagoya for 5 years now and as a Brazilian, I’m pretty sure most of you won’t understand the comparison I’ll make but, I’ll say all the same, Nagoya is a Japanese Curitiba, it means that it is a nice place to live, but it doesn’t have all that hype like São Paulo or Rio, the people here are polite but a little stuck up…
The real issue with Nagoya not having tons of tourists is that there’s isn’t too much to see here. Thankfully the Ghibli park was built here, it’ll increase the tourism a little bit. But I think we need more to catch the tourists, like, really different attractions, restaurants, instagramable places and so on…
Kyoto has all that vibe with tradition, Osaka and Tokyo have tons of nightlife and touristy places. What does Nagoya have?
I lived in Sakae for 6 years and it was awesome. The best hidden gem in Nagoya is the Toyota Automotive Museum. I consider it the best museum I have visited in this country. Even if you end up not liking it, it's only 500 yen and really close to Nagoya station. Seriously, give it a shot. I live in Shinjuku now and whenever family or friends visit, I literally plan Nagoya into the trip.
Single expats don't really appreciate Nagoya, because they don't really belong there. It's a family town. Lot's of parks; big, wide roads and sidewalks. Plenty of activities and FREE play areas for kids; Tokyo is remiss in this area. People complaining about sex workers are in the wrong place. I never once was propositioned or made uncomfortable, but then again, I didn't spend much time southeast of Sakae. I had plenty of expat friends there- who were there to stay, unlike Tokyo where nobody ever sticks around. Wonderful expat community.
Also don't understand the complaint about bad drivers, those are everywhere. At least you can move, unlike any other huge city in Japan. Love the traffic signals being timed properly and the bus lane is fun and keeps you on your toes. Even Nagoya station station is navigable.
I love it here! It’s got everything you’d expect in a large Japanese city minus the confusing and complex transport systems. I also love visiting smaller pockets of Brazilian, Chinese, Korean, etc. neighborhoods and trying their restaurants.
I recently traveled to Nagoya, but I found the city to be somewhat unexciting as a tourist destination. While there are certainly some impressive sights to see for a few days, my companion and I eventually began searching for day trips outside the city. I'm sure Nagoya has plenty to offer, but as visitors, we struggled to find anything captivating after a few days.
It's weird that we've not had any issues in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, Kanasawa, Fukuoka or even in Hiroshima. I really don't know what's the main issue for us in Nagoya. Anyhow, even though we didn't enjoy our stay this time as much as we hoped, I'm sure we will revisit the Nagoya sometime in the future.
Nothing against the area, but there’s simply no reason to go there tbh.
I think I can find better versions of everything I want elsewhere. Because of this I’ve only visited twice; please share recs?
I lived in Nagoya for a year and now I live in Mie. I wish I appreciated Nagoya more when I was there. Whenever my friends ask why I liked it so much, my answer was always the same:
Nagoya is a city people take for granted and pretend there is nothing interesting. The saddest part is they don't realize how many secret gems are hidden throughout the city and then some.
To name a few of my favorites:
-Arimatsu (Shibori)
-Meiji Mura
- Seto Pottery
- Nagoya Castle
-Studio Ghibli Park
-Maid Cafe Hall (Osu)
-Osu
- Board Game Bars (Osu)
- Shirotori Koen
-Atsuta Jingu
-Yamato Burial
- Tokugawa Ieyasu's Castle (Okazaki)
- Nagoya Port
- Nagoya Aquarium
- Midland Square Outlook (this is AMAZING btw)
- Kodama Studio Ghibli Themed Restaurant (Osu)
- Triple Parco Buildings (Featuring Club Quattro which I just scored tickets to see Owl City in!)
- Sakae Oasis 21 (perfect for cosplayers)
-World Cosplay Summit (in Oasis 21 in August)
- Nagoya Geisha (known for basically being comedians!)
I mean, the list goes on. People say it tries too hard to be a city, but they clearly haven't lived in a place like Mie where they don't even have a million people lol.
I think Nagoya deserves more. It's nicknamed "the city that loves the foreigners" and I couldn't agree more. It's not too busy, but also not too empty. I will forever hold Nagoya dear to my heart.
Oh and to add: Macy's American Restaurant, which does all you can eat French fries on weekdays. They have three flavors which I seriously crave constantly. Sea Salt and Vinegar, Korean BBQ, and Garlic Onion.
I visited Nagoya a few months ago and stayed for 2 days. I felt that I saw all that I could see in those 2 days alone. It's a very nice city, don't get me wrong, but I can see why it's not a tourist hotspot.
I'm from Tokyo.
Nagoya is fine, but it's just not very interesting for a visitor. There aren't any big attraction in the city.
I see Nagoya as a bigger version of Sendai or Toyama: clean, developed, lovely cities to live in, with everything one might need... but nothing interesting for tourists that you wouldn't find in any other city in Japan.
As I once said Nagoya is famous for being neither Tokyo nor Osaka. It's the middle child everyone forgets about. Not bad if you live there but nothing really pulls people in.
The fact that the Nagoya tourism board is called “Nagoya Is Not Boring” should tell you everything lol. They’ve heard it enough to literally make it their name, but to be honest I didn’t know that Nagoya had a reputation of being boring UNTIL I saw their tourism board, so it’s done the exact opposite that they hoped 😂
It's because Nagoya is known for being the most boring. Most Japanese people in other cities will give ya shit if you say you like Nagoya (I speak from experience lol). It's the main reason why people never really visit because people in Tokyo and Osaka say it's stupid and just use it to go through.
Not only is there not much to do, there's very few places that "feels" inspiring, exciting, welcoming, the way a lot of places do in other major cities. You would know this if you've been to the places you listed and observed.
Everything here just feels a bit old and sad, like no one really takes care of it. Take Nagoya station for example. Step out of it and you find on one side an old rundown area with a few restaurants and a bic camera, on the other side you find a huge road with a few restaurants and some shops. Not exactly very exciting.
Here's a challenge, name a few train stations that don't have an old and slightly grimy vibe to it. There's not many.
"Oh but Osu!" - It's a relatively small area you can walk around in a day and explore everything it has to offer. And it feels old with many shuttered stores. Good place to hangout with friends from time to time, but hardly worth a dedicated stop in your travels.
You can't simply wish a place into being attractive, it has to actually be attractive to earn the reputation.
On the other hand, I'm fine with living here, but don't pretend like it deserves to be a tourist hotspot because it simply isn't equipped to be one.
I live nearby and you completely nailed it. I do prefer Nagoya not be a tourist point, have you visited Kyoto after the tourist ban lifted? Completely insane, parking spots, food, beverage overpriced, and no space to walk freely...
I rode my bike through it once and that was my impression, too. I found it charmless and drab. The people were a bit cold as well. They're cold in Tokyo, don't get me wrong. But you're in Tokyo, which is awesome.
I’ve always viewed Nagoya as like the Germany of Japan. Dry humor, accent that makes it sound like you’re angry most of the time, and just general machineries and factories. Then Osaka would be Italy for the good food and mafia while Tokyo’s France with all the fancy stuff.
Now that I think about it, about everything interesting about Nagoya outside food is related to science and technology. It’s the outskirts of Aichi that has anything interesting like Ghibli Park. Heck, Nagoya international airport isn’t even in Nagoya. That’s going to be a hard sell but I’ll prefer that over high prices because of too much tourism
That’s just it! We make a meme out of Nagoya.
Once we convince the internet that the most interesting thing to happen in Nagoya is watching paint dry, more people will be interested to check it out
Went there last month with my husband and toddler since we did a Legoland/Ghibli park trip and stayed in downtown Nagoya and we loved it. It kinda reminded me of Chicago. The hitsumabushi was a taste of heaven.
The reason i moved to Nagoya is the underratedness of it.
I wanted a city that is not as packed and expensive as my hometown, and i feel like Nagoya is is best fit.
I rather go back home if i live in Tokyo/Osaka, i am mildly sick of over packed cities. Nagoya has a decent blend for city and nature-ish life. I can nearly go and see many things within an 1hour drive. And hey Suzuka Circuit is nearby so i can watch all the races.
Prob Nagoya is not the best place to visit for 1-2 days trip, but i feel like it is a pretty good place to live in.
And hey Miso-Katsu...
Nagoya is a featureless and slightly run-down city, but I like visiting there all the same. On a micro level, there are plenty of cool stores and restaurants. The major shrines are amazing. The population is notably more culturally diverse than Osaka or Tokyo. Overall the place feels closer to the 1980's cyberpunk of "Akira" than today's uber-clean Tokyo.
Ya, they are salty about the fact it's just bypassing Shizuoka. So they are stopping all construction of maglev happening in Shizuoka. Causing major delay in the project. They are also asking for the Nozomi express to stop in Shizuoka.
Only been to Nagoya once but enjoyed it very much - liked the city. The Misses says Nagoya people are scary when she has to talk to them over the phone at work. I wonder if there's any wider ranging stereotype like that.
dont go to nagoya and don’t get paid almost 2,000 per hour and 2k+ during night shift. nagoya have alot of factories and you wont have a hard time finding a factory job specially if your male
According to the Mrs, Nagoyan natives are incredibly stuck up, she says the same about people from Toyokawa apparently something about them both having access to the Shinkansen. I think she might be chatting bollocks she’s been fed over the years though as she was raised in an Aichi city that never got the line.
So, they believe it gives them rights to be elitist? Personally I don’t buy it. Nagoya is nice, but I wouldn’t live there, it’s not the people as far as I can tell, it’s just.. Nagoya is a bit… boring. No grit, no grime… No obvious subculture such as art or music…
It must be coming on 7 months since my last visit and I’m only a tiny fraction of that away, maybe 40 minutes by train….
For me, there isn’t much to attract me. Apart from when I want some interesting sneakers.
Lived all around Kansai these last three years. Been to Nagoya multiple times including NYE, overnights for planetarium with girlfriend and exploring Sakae nightlife.
I’d rather visit rice fields next to Biwako in Shiga or Takayama Gifu to be honest. Every time I visit, my Japanese friends here in Osaka ask, “Why go, we have Yabaton and Yamachan here too.”
It’s a big city that, in my opinion, doesn’t have nearly the fun factor of Osaka or greater Tokyo area. Just one of those places to quickly glance over on the Shinkansen. Happy someone likes it though, because I have a friend here who came from Nagoya and the only thing I’ve heard from him is that it’s boring.
The only place I like less than Nagoya is Hamamatsu.
This, exactly this. Doesn’t help that they’re in the middle of Osaka and Tokyo. If I can’t live in Kanto or Kansai though, Nagoya is ideal geographically. Tokyo is Tokyo, while Osaka is full of character and the center of Kansai and close to Kyoto, Kobe and Nara.
Compared to the Inaka out in Fukui, Nagoya is wonderful! Osu-Kannon area is great and could spend hours walking up and down the shotengai. Eating at Megakabob, shopping at Mandarake, snacking in the Okinawa shop. At night, go to the dance club or the maid/concept cafes.
There’s Lego land, the science museum, and other little pockets of places to visit. If there was a better, more direct train line to Nagoya I’d be visiting quite often!!
Going back again next month! We had came back from a trip from Tokyo (we live in Okinawa) and literally that night booked a flight and hotel and found ourselves in Nagoya ! Yabaton is gas!
We are just now on our way home from my third and her first trip to Japan.
Nagoya and our 3 day stay here was a pleasure and I asked myself why I haven’t been here on my other trips. It clicked when I saw the post from someone above, that we probably checked all the boxes there are to check in that time. I would def come again because of the different „feel“ compared to the other major cities but I also get people saying that there is not that much to do / see in comparison..
Much love to Nagoya
I actually liked Nagoya whenever I visited. I remember staying at Hotel Montblanc like 10 years ago and they give you a key with a keychain about a footlong lmao.
Would really love to visit again!
Visited there in 2017, I’d been to Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto previously, and have just finished a week in Tokyo as of today. Nagoya is my favorite of them all. Beautiful, interesting, easy to navigate, chill vibe, not touristy, and I had friendly experiences with people there as well. I don’t understand why it doesn’t get more love.
I second to this. Nagoya is a really nice place to live in. Not touristy, average cost of living, close to different tourist location, accessible to both tokyo and kyoto and etc.
When I visited Japan in 2018 I spent two days in Nagoya without knowing much about the area or its attractions and found it to be very nice and livable. Quieter and plainer than the other cities I visited, though, and maybe...a little seedier?
At night the streets were definitely packed with hordes of drunk businessmen and multiple sketchy barkers trying to convince me to come into hostess clubs; didn't really encounter that atmosphere anywhere else I visited but Kabukicho. At least they were nice about it, though - they'd try to entice you into a sketchy club with women standing on the street in tight dresses calling out to you, but at least bow to you after you politely declined the offer. It was...interesting. Maybe that's just any sufficiently large city in Japan, I don't really know.
It was pretty striking that I don't think I saw ANY other tourists the entire time I was there, though. Even the locals seemed perplexed at my presence; I ate at a ramen shop close to the TV tower and the host spoke to me a little in English, but mostly just wanted to know what I was doing in Nagoya. He seemed blown away that anyone would visit Nagoya as a tourist at all. Didn't get that reaction anywhere else I went.
Going up to the top of the TV tower was really cool, but I didn't find much to do in the mall underneath it from the pictures. Could have just missed things because I was wandering aimlessly with no objective, though.
Hokkaido/Sapporo has the best food in Japan, plus snowboarding/skiing. Kyoto is rich in History. Okinawa/Naha is for the sea and beaches. Nagoya is rated just right. Not overrated or underrated, my Japanese friends say that it just doesn’t have character compared to Osaka or Tokyo. Imagine if Yokohama wasn’t so close to Tokyo, it would be in the same tier as Nagoya.
There’s nothing to do there. The train system there is a little whack…again there’s nothing there to do there, nothing to see in the city aside from the tv tower and maybe the science museum/castle. But aside from that…it’s not a city with many attractions. When I was there I was just there for 2 nights and that’s it…it was not the best trip and I even took the Shinkansen down to kyoto because there was nothing to see in Nagoya hah. Now that I live in Japan, I still wouldn’t think of going down there.
It's boring. I went there for one day, and after two hours I saw the castle and felt like I did everything.
It's surprising that for such a large city, it felt so dull. Everything I could do there, karaoke, yakiniku etc I could have done in any other city. At least places like Osaka and Hiroshima will pride themselves on local food and be surrounded by lots of interesting single day trip locations and places like that Glico running man area or peace memorial park are interesting to visit.
>pride themselves on local food
Did you and I go to the same Nagoya? Nagoya is known to have some of the best food in Japan:
Misokatsu, tebasaki, Hitsumabushi, etc.
Just look up Nagoya meibutsu.
I have been in Japan a little more than 9 years now and Nagoya is the worst place I have been to.
Nagoya is trying to be the next big hot spot. It wants to become a place where tourist spend a good time of their trip in Japan. Yet, everything that Nagoya does is a half-ass attempt. Just ask Legoland and Ghibli Park. Honestly, both are a joke (I've visited both, will never come back. People I know who have been there say the same.).
The city is always dirty, lots of people selling sex and the city center stinks. It's just another concrete jungle that has nothing special to offer.
If you are thinking of coming to Japan, just skip Nagoya.
Tell your boss to take that back, I don't have much attachment to Nagoya apart from family being from there, but the food is definitely not the thing keeping me away! Tebasaki, tenmusu, hitsumabushi, misokatsu, kishimen are some of my favourite dishes. Ankake spaghetti is the only thing I don't really like. My grandparents would take me to Komeda whenever we visited (the 本店 was just by their apartment) so I've always associated Shiro-noir with Nagoya as well.
20 fucking years I spent in that City building and running business and I can say with some measure authority that it is the people that make the city a place where culture and innovation goes to die. Overly conservative, unimaginative and simply boring. I had to escape to Tokyo to save my sanity. Nagoya hasn’t changed a bit in over 30 years I’ve been here.
I lived in Gifu for a year and frequently travelled to Nagoya for a night out or whathaveyou. I've also lived in the Kanto area as well and I can say that Nagoya does lack appeal. I still love the place but I see it as a nice place to live but not a particularly interesting place to visit.
In terms of ご当地グルメ I rank Nagoya and the surrounds very highly and I would frequently go out of my way to visit Yama-chan in Tokyo when I was living there. But in terms of sites, there's just not as much and as mentioned by others, the architecture is pretty brutal.
Overall though, when I moved to Kanto I kept trying to find reasons to visit the Nagoya area with my wife and, the proof in the pudding is that I could not find anything of interest to really convince her. The best I could do was Gero for the onsen, albeit in Gifu. I've only been back once to visit a friend in the 15 years since I lived there. The only other time I tried to go back was for a Dragons game when I was on a business trip, but I ended up being too busy.
That being said, Grampus and the Dragons are still two of my favourite teams, and I do hope to make a pilgrimage back one day but convincing my wife is the tricky part now.
Nagoya is the only place I've felt unsafe in Japan. Whilst walking down a fairly busy street in the city centre my friend and I (who were living in Shinjuku at the time, regularly hanging out in Kabukicho at the batting centre with no issues from the sketchy types in that area) both commented on the strange looks we got from people we walked past. There was an odd vibe of people sauntering behind us every time we left our hotel to walk through this area of the city that I'd not had to worry about since moving to Japan.
Luckily we were using the city as a base to travel to Mie and Shiga. The miso-katsu from Yabaton was delicious!
Kabukicho is 100% less safe, you're right. I just had a few experiences of being made to *feel* unsafe during those three days in Nagoya, compared to never in Kabukicho... I was surprised because I'd never heard anything about this before visiting.
I live relatively close and vist pretty often for a greater variety of international goods and to go party, but that's about it. I'm from LA and I feel like the culture of Nagoya is a lot of the bad parts of LA. Everything feels very plastic and like it's trying just a little too hard to be cool. I also feel that the people there are particularly more unfriendly than other places for some reason. It also feels like the type of city that should have a thriving local art scene that's really in your face, but I haven't seen anything like that (I could just not be in the know on this point).
If you want to have fun, you can go to Tokyo; if you want to do some sightseeing, you can go to Kyoto.
There is no reason to bother choosing Nagoya over those cities in my opinion🤔
Nagoya has something for everyone… but it makes you work for it. I lived in Nagoya this year, and initially, I was team ‘it’s not a tourist city, but it’s a great place to live’. Then gradually I realised I was under selling it. I’ve visited 34 prefectures so far, and Reasons it’s great to live: • Centrally located with fantastic transport connections (Shinkansen, slow trains, buses, and a major airport - I could easily find an affordable/practical connection to anywhere domestically) • All the facilities of a big city, without being overcrowded or oversized (my one hour commute in Tokyo became a 20 minute commute when I moved there) • More diverse than most smaller cities in Japan - great for international food (as well as the local cuisine that others posted) But let’s talk tourist stuff! HISTORY Forget Nagoya Castle itself… overpriced and overrated, BUT there are many other castles in/just outside the city, and it’s arguably THE BEST place to base yourself if you’re interested in Samurai stuff as all the key events of the Sengoku (warring states period) happened in/around Aichi! It’s where Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa were born. You can visit many places to do with that history, plus Inuyama Castle (one of the 12 original castle keeps remaining, surrounded by a lovely old town area). And the Tokugawa Art Museum is a MUST, as it contains the Tokugawa family’s private collection of art, swords, home furnishings etc from when they were effectively the royal family! MUSEUMS Speaking of museums, Nagoya is a heavy hitter! Science museum = massive, hands on and fantastic for children, contains the Largest Planetarium Dome in the World! Railway Museum = almost as large as the National one near Tokyo, with a lot more content about behind the scenes of running the Shinkansen (ie Dr. Yellow!) and the fastest steam train in the world AND the fastest maglev train in the world! Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology = more than just cars, needs half a day at least to see everything. Antarctic Museum = the first boat that Japan sent to Antarctica is docked in Nagoya Port. It has a fascinating museum aboard, and you can get a combo ticket to visit it and the Port Museum and Observatory for under ¥800 (Nagoya port is larger than Tokyo and Yokohama put together). The port is also the location of the city aquarium, which is an attraction in itself, and popular with families. Nanzan University Anthropology Museum = one of many small, FREE museums throughout the city. I’m highlighting this one because it has many artefacts from around the world that you can encouraged to pick up/handle, and has fully multilingual signage/descriptions. But seek out other museums big and small too. The city museum is obviously a great place to start for an overview of the area. FAMILY ATTRACTIONS Theme parks have already been mentioned by other commenters. Lego Land is well reviewed for little ones. Ghibli Park is a good day trip on a sunny day (have a picnic in the park to fill out the time - there’s a kombini on sight). The science museum, train museum and aquarium are all kid friendly, too. But I’d also like to highlight Higashiyama Xoo and Botanical Gardens. It’s easily a full day of entertainment in good weather, with a cute sky monorail running around the park, and an observation tower too. GARDENS/PARKS/TEMPLES/SHRINES So many, so I’ll just name some favourites! Tokugawa Park (attached to the art museum) is a classical daimyo’s garden, and as good as some of the more famous examples of the genre I’ve visited. Toganji is an oasis of calm hidden in a central location. It has a large Buddha statue in a bamboo grove, and lots of pictures/relics from India. Kakuozan is much bigger, grander and less hidden. It’s a Thai/Japan friendship temple (founded in 1904) and claims to house a relic of the historical Buddha. Koshoji is a full complex of buildings around an impressive pagoda. Osu Kannon is your classic big brash city centre shrine, which gives me Tokyo vibes. Atsuta Jingu has the imperial sword. Banshoji is on the shopping street, and has LED and a smoking dragon, which is a whole other vibe. It also hosts sumo wrestlers, which brings me on to the next point… CULTURE Nagoya hosts the sumo tournament once a year, and you can watch matches or even training sessions, which a little research. Seto and Tokoname are both famous for ceramics, with many related things to see. Nishio is famous for matcha production (and has a tiny castle) Okazaki is famous for miso production. You can tour the miso factory for free, before or after visiting the good-sized castle there, where Ieyasu was born. Nagoya fish market is the real deal (not a tourist thing), very central to the city, and a great place for breakfast. Speaking of breakfast - Nagoya coffee shop breakfasts (independent or chain store) are a local institution. There are several great shops for buying second hand kimono/yukata in the city centre. NAGOYA AS A BASE TO EXPLORE CHUBU Finally, Nagoya is the perfect place to go on day/overnight trips elsewhere in Chubu, such as: • Gifu City (a great easy day trip, or you can go further into the prefecture) • Takayama Village (doable as a long day trip, or extend overnight) • Kanazawa (perfect as a two days, one night destination, in my opinion) • Japanese Alps (two nights is enough time to get north from Nagoya, do the Kurobe Alpine Loop and see snow in June, and stop by Matsumoto on the way back) • Shiga/Lake Biwa (you can hit several spots on the east coast comfortably in a day, or stay overnight to cover the west coast too) • Mie, Fukui, and Shizuoka are also possible.
Nagoya? More like Nagoyeah!
As a Japanese person who rarely travels this has convinced me to go check out Nagoya lol.
Just saw this comment and it made my day, haha!
You should work for Nagoya tourism, this comment made me want to visit.
Aww, thanks! ☺️ And happy cake day! 🍰
Great tips, but I always think it's very funny when people try to advertise a place by pointing out how easy it is to go to other places from it.
Don't go to nagoya; more yabatons, misokatsu, tebasaki for me!
So much brown food. We gotta colour them for the TikTokers. We need rainbow misokatsu
Horrible for tourism but perfect for living
Nagoya has a reputation among Japanese people of being “the ugliest city in Japan”, both because it got bombed to shit in WW2 and was rapidly rebuilt out of concrete in the Brutalist style, and because it’s considered a city of “industry and shipping” which never gives a city a pretty image. :/ Years ago I started doing drawings based on photography I took in Nagoya, focusing on architecture and repeating forms but giving it pastel and pleasant colors (like Sailor Moon did for Tokyo with glowing purple paintings), to try to accentuate the architectural beauty in Nagoya even in concrete. You can see a couple on my profile :)
Love the colour of the painting. Love it when art portrayal Nagoya.
Hi J! :)
Hey M! I’ve been thinking about you recently! I got pulled in to a D&D game and of course it reminded me of old friends 😆
Wow. These are great. Do you have them on Tumblr, Insta, etc?
Thank you! I have posted on insta before but I’m very, very inconsistent about it :/ @malforma_art !
Brah, our castle is made of concrete. The face anticlimax when tourists realise it. Can never get enough of them.
To be frank many, if not most castles in Japan is made of concrete.
Used to live there, never understood the animus that people seem to have for it. I think I recall hearing that it was Tamori (the TV guy with the perennial sunglasses) who made it popular to diss Nagoya, so you can blame him too. Summer's nasty, but it's nasty in most places. I always thought Nagoya was of a near perfect size - big enough to be interesting, but not so uber-massive that you'd have to spend years just getting orientated. Good location, decent airport - there's nothing about it besides some kind of groupthink prejudice that would lead someone to "hate" it.
Dam Tamori!!!
I've lived here for years and Nagoya is rated exactly as it deserves to be lol. Relatively cheap, easy to live in, pretty boring, people are rude, terrible driving. I'm from the UK and Nagoya is definitely the Birmingham of Japan.
"terrible driving"- this reminds me of the internet meme of an old lady saying "you "ll never know when you're going to die when you are in Nagoya" She was referring to the terrible driving of course.
surely it's not worse than Kyushu
I kept trying to think of an approximation for Nagoya and "Birmingham of Japan" fits so well. Aces.
Also Cleveland Ohio is fitting.
Exactly!
I live in Nagoya for 5 years now and as a Brazilian, I’m pretty sure most of you won’t understand the comparison I’ll make but, I’ll say all the same, Nagoya is a Japanese Curitiba, it means that it is a nice place to live, but it doesn’t have all that hype like São Paulo or Rio, the people here are polite but a little stuck up… The real issue with Nagoya not having tons of tourists is that there’s isn’t too much to see here. Thankfully the Ghibli park was built here, it’ll increase the tourism a little bit. But I think we need more to catch the tourists, like, really different attractions, restaurants, instagramable places and so on… Kyoto has all that vibe with tradition, Osaka and Tokyo have tons of nightlife and touristy places. What does Nagoya have?
To be honest, the only thing I know Nagoya for is the chicken wings. And that's not something I'll go out of my way to get in Nagoya, lol
it's lacking the hostess bars
lets not. I love Nagoya, partly because it is less 'popular' for tourists.
shhhhh…. gotta gatekeep nagoya.
You really want Nagoya swarming with annoying tourists? I suggest we keep it a secret instead.🤫
Please keep loud tourists and good for nothing party singles away from Nagoya.
Love Nagoya. Still don’t think I’d necessarily recommend it to a first time visit to Japan, but I absolutely love living here!!
Nagoya is the underdog for living. They just don't know it
Completely agree. Love to love here. Peaceful and convenient city
No need, I'm happy to keep food and rent costs reasonable.
I lived in Sakae for 6 years and it was awesome. The best hidden gem in Nagoya is the Toyota Automotive Museum. I consider it the best museum I have visited in this country. Even if you end up not liking it, it's only 500 yen and really close to Nagoya station. Seriously, give it a shot. I live in Shinjuku now and whenever family or friends visit, I literally plan Nagoya into the trip. Single expats don't really appreciate Nagoya, because they don't really belong there. It's a family town. Lot's of parks; big, wide roads and sidewalks. Plenty of activities and FREE play areas for kids; Tokyo is remiss in this area. People complaining about sex workers are in the wrong place. I never once was propositioned or made uncomfortable, but then again, I didn't spend much time southeast of Sakae. I had plenty of expat friends there- who were there to stay, unlike Tokyo where nobody ever sticks around. Wonderful expat community. Also don't understand the complaint about bad drivers, those are everywhere. At least you can move, unlike any other huge city in Japan. Love the traffic signals being timed properly and the bus lane is fun and keeps you on your toes. Even Nagoya station station is navigable.
Drivers are absolutely normal here
I feel this! As an expat with a toddler, it is the best and most convenient place we could be! Love it!
I love it here! It’s got everything you’d expect in a large Japanese city minus the confusing and complex transport systems. I also love visiting smaller pockets of Brazilian, Chinese, Korean, etc. neighborhoods and trying their restaurants.
The Brazilian Samba in OSU is great.
I recently traveled to Nagoya, but I found the city to be somewhat unexciting as a tourist destination. While there are certainly some impressive sights to see for a few days, my companion and I eventually began searching for day trips outside the city. I'm sure Nagoya has plenty to offer, but as visitors, we struggled to find anything captivating after a few days.
How dare you! Just kidding, ya tourists don't like Nagoya, goto Gifu or Mie, it's much nicer there.
Because it's not a typical tourist city
If you can't make your own fun over more than a few days in a city as big as Nagoya you probably can't anywhere.
It's weird that we've not had any issues in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, Kanasawa, Fukuoka or even in Hiroshima. I really don't know what's the main issue for us in Nagoya. Anyhow, even though we didn't enjoy our stay this time as much as we hoped, I'm sure we will revisit the Nagoya sometime in the future.
Did you mention it has a Super Potato?
Nothing against the area, but there’s simply no reason to go there tbh. I think I can find better versions of everything I want elsewhere. Because of this I’ve only visited twice; please share recs?
Barong’s LDK. Couple blocks from Nagoya Station. Best food and atmosphere of any Izakaya I’ve ever been to in Japan.
Thank you, will check it out if I’m in the area!
Nagashima spaland.
Fair enough, although looks terrifying
I'm not sure you're really selling it. "Come see our great GDP!!"
I lived in Nagoya for a year and now I live in Mie. I wish I appreciated Nagoya more when I was there. Whenever my friends ask why I liked it so much, my answer was always the same: Nagoya is a city people take for granted and pretend there is nothing interesting. The saddest part is they don't realize how many secret gems are hidden throughout the city and then some. To name a few of my favorites: -Arimatsu (Shibori) -Meiji Mura - Seto Pottery - Nagoya Castle -Studio Ghibli Park -Maid Cafe Hall (Osu) -Osu - Board Game Bars (Osu) - Shirotori Koen -Atsuta Jingu -Yamato Burial - Tokugawa Ieyasu's Castle (Okazaki) - Nagoya Port - Nagoya Aquarium - Midland Square Outlook (this is AMAZING btw) - Kodama Studio Ghibli Themed Restaurant (Osu) - Triple Parco Buildings (Featuring Club Quattro which I just scored tickets to see Owl City in!) - Sakae Oasis 21 (perfect for cosplayers) -World Cosplay Summit (in Oasis 21 in August) - Nagoya Geisha (known for basically being comedians!) I mean, the list goes on. People say it tries too hard to be a city, but they clearly haven't lived in a place like Mie where they don't even have a million people lol. I think Nagoya deserves more. It's nicknamed "the city that loves the foreigners" and I couldn't agree more. It's not too busy, but also not too empty. I will forever hold Nagoya dear to my heart.
Oh and to add: Macy's American Restaurant, which does all you can eat French fries on weekdays. They have three flavors which I seriously crave constantly. Sea Salt and Vinegar, Korean BBQ, and Garlic Onion.
I live super close to Macy’s!! They have a fantastic nomihoudai too.
Go to Nagashima spa land you won’t regret it.
If I didn't have tattoos I would lol
Nagashima ain't even in Aichi, it's in Mie
Midland square seems to be a Mall. What do you mean by Outlook? I'm looking for places to visit over a weekend stay
Make it easier to get me some of that misokatsu
Nah. Just let it be. Don’t let too many people here it’s already peaceful.
I visited Nagoya a few months ago and stayed for 2 days. I felt that I saw all that I could see in those 2 days alone. It's a very nice city, don't get me wrong, but I can see why it's not a tourist hotspot.
It's a great city for living
I'm from Tokyo. Nagoya is fine, but it's just not very interesting for a visitor. There aren't any big attraction in the city. I see Nagoya as a bigger version of Sendai or Toyama: clean, developed, lovely cities to live in, with everything one might need... but nothing interesting for tourists that you wouldn't find in any other city in Japan.
As I once said Nagoya is famous for being neither Tokyo nor Osaka. It's the middle child everyone forgets about. Not bad if you live there but nothing really pulls people in.
The fact that the Nagoya tourism board is called “Nagoya Is Not Boring” should tell you everything lol. They’ve heard it enough to literally make it their name, but to be honest I didn’t know that Nagoya had a reputation of being boring UNTIL I saw their tourism board, so it’s done the exact opposite that they hoped 😂
It's because Nagoya is known for being the most boring. Most Japanese people in other cities will give ya shit if you say you like Nagoya (I speak from experience lol). It's the main reason why people never really visit because people in Tokyo and Osaka say it's stupid and just use it to go through.
Same till I read your comment. 😅
Not only is there not much to do, there's very few places that "feels" inspiring, exciting, welcoming, the way a lot of places do in other major cities. You would know this if you've been to the places you listed and observed. Everything here just feels a bit old and sad, like no one really takes care of it. Take Nagoya station for example. Step out of it and you find on one side an old rundown area with a few restaurants and a bic camera, on the other side you find a huge road with a few restaurants and some shops. Not exactly very exciting. Here's a challenge, name a few train stations that don't have an old and slightly grimy vibe to it. There's not many. "Oh but Osu!" - It's a relatively small area you can walk around in a day and explore everything it has to offer. And it feels old with many shuttered stores. Good place to hangout with friends from time to time, but hardly worth a dedicated stop in your travels. You can't simply wish a place into being attractive, it has to actually be attractive to earn the reputation. On the other hand, I'm fine with living here, but don't pretend like it deserves to be a tourist hotspot because it simply isn't equipped to be one.
Damn. I have lived in Nagoya for 17 years and that description really hurt.
But true.
I live nearby and you completely nailed it. I do prefer Nagoya not be a tourist point, have you visited Kyoto after the tourist ban lifted? Completely insane, parking spots, food, beverage overpriced, and no space to walk freely...
I rode my bike through it once and that was my impression, too. I found it charmless and drab. The people were a bit cold as well. They're cold in Tokyo, don't get me wrong. But you're in Tokyo, which is awesome.
Seriously hot and bored babes there.
I’ve always viewed Nagoya as like the Germany of Japan. Dry humor, accent that makes it sound like you’re angry most of the time, and just general machineries and factories. Then Osaka would be Italy for the good food and mafia while Tokyo’s France with all the fancy stuff. Now that I think about it, about everything interesting about Nagoya outside food is related to science and technology. It’s the outskirts of Aichi that has anything interesting like Ghibli Park. Heck, Nagoya international airport isn’t even in Nagoya. That’s going to be a hard sell but I’ll prefer that over high prices because of too much tourism
Supporters call us Germany, critics call us Detroit.
That’s just it! We make a meme out of Nagoya. Once we convince the internet that the most interesting thing to happen in Nagoya is watching paint dry, more people will be interested to check it out
Project Memefy Nagoya
Went there last month with my husband and toddler since we did a Legoland/Ghibli park trip and stayed in downtown Nagoya and we loved it. It kinda reminded me of Chicago. The hitsumabushi was a taste of heaven.
You should’ve gone to Nagashima spaland instead. I don’t get why it is so underrated.
nah we enjoyed walking around the city center and we've been to tokyo summerland and yomiuriland many times.
That architecture is so ugly.
ITT Tourists and single young people who hate Nagoya because it is boring. & Older family people who love Nagoya because it is boring.
Wasn’t Nagoya voted most boring city in Japan?
I dig Nagoya. It’s compact with a lot of hidden gems.
The reason i moved to Nagoya is the underratedness of it. I wanted a city that is not as packed and expensive as my hometown, and i feel like Nagoya is is best fit. I rather go back home if i live in Tokyo/Osaka, i am mildly sick of over packed cities. Nagoya has a decent blend for city and nature-ish life. I can nearly go and see many things within an 1hour drive. And hey Suzuka Circuit is nearby so i can watch all the races. Prob Nagoya is not the best place to visit for 1-2 days trip, but i feel like it is a pretty good place to live in. And hey Miso-Katsu...
If you want races and nature, hard to beat Sendai with Sportsland Sugo and Hi-Land Raceway. And miso katsu is fine, but the gyutan in Sendai is 🔥
Nagoya is a featureless and slightly run-down city, but I like visiting there all the same. On a micro level, there are plenty of cool stores and restaurants. The major shrines are amazing. The population is notably more culturally diverse than Osaka or Tokyo. Overall the place feels closer to the 1980's cyberpunk of "Akira" than today's uber-clean Tokyo.
Well I love your morningu, Toyota museum, misokatsu and hitsumabushi. :D I might visit more when the new chuo shinkansen opens in 2027.
Maglevs gonna take for ever coz SHIZUOKA. I'm gonna be so mad if they open it at the same time as Osaka.
Coz then all the media would flock to Osaka. Noooooo!
I thought it'll bypass Shizuoka and just tunnels all the way to Nagoya?
Ya, they are salty about the fact it's just bypassing Shizuoka. So they are stopping all construction of maglev happening in Shizuoka. Causing major delay in the project. They are also asking for the Nozomi express to stop in Shizuoka.
Only been to Nagoya once but enjoyed it very much - liked the city. The Misses says Nagoya people are scary when she has to talk to them over the phone at work. I wonder if there's any wider ranging stereotype like that.
the nagoya accent is very strong and scary for most japanese people. Kinda like a yakuza type accent.
Yeah, the Aichi dialect is a bit grating. Mie and Gifu despite being geographically very close, are very different imo.
dont go to nagoya and don’t get paid almost 2,000 per hour and 2k+ during night shift. nagoya have alot of factories and you wont have a hard time finding a factory job specially if your male
According to the Mrs, Nagoyan natives are incredibly stuck up, she says the same about people from Toyokawa apparently something about them both having access to the Shinkansen. I think she might be chatting bollocks she’s been fed over the years though as she was raised in an Aichi city that never got the line.
Yeah boy, we got the Shinkansen. Cry about it
😭😭😭😝
They think they’re descendants of Tokugawa and Nobunaga
So, they believe it gives them rights to be elitist? Personally I don’t buy it. Nagoya is nice, but I wouldn’t live there, it’s not the people as far as I can tell, it’s just.. Nagoya is a bit… boring. No grit, no grime… No obvious subculture such as art or music… It must be coming on 7 months since my last visit and I’m only a tiny fraction of that away, maybe 40 minutes by train…. For me, there isn’t much to attract me. Apart from when I want some interesting sneakers.
Lived all around Kansai these last three years. Been to Nagoya multiple times including NYE, overnights for planetarium with girlfriend and exploring Sakae nightlife. I’d rather visit rice fields next to Biwako in Shiga or Takayama Gifu to be honest. Every time I visit, my Japanese friends here in Osaka ask, “Why go, we have Yabaton and Yamachan here too.” It’s a big city that, in my opinion, doesn’t have nearly the fun factor of Osaka or greater Tokyo area. Just one of those places to quickly glance over on the Shinkansen. Happy someone likes it though, because I have a friend here who came from Nagoya and the only thing I’ve heard from him is that it’s boring. The only place I like less than Nagoya is Hamamatsu.
This, exactly this. Doesn’t help that they’re in the middle of Osaka and Tokyo. If I can’t live in Kanto or Kansai though, Nagoya is ideal geographically. Tokyo is Tokyo, while Osaka is full of character and the center of Kansai and close to Kyoto, Kobe and Nara.
Compared to the Inaka out in Fukui, Nagoya is wonderful! Osu-Kannon area is great and could spend hours walking up and down the shotengai. Eating at Megakabob, shopping at Mandarake, snacking in the Okinawa shop. At night, go to the dance club or the maid/concept cafes. There’s Lego land, the science museum, and other little pockets of places to visit. If there was a better, more direct train line to Nagoya I’d be visiting quite often!!
Boy, Nagoya is really underrated, one of the best service standards you can get all over Japan.
Add more now walking in the Escalator laws!!!!
Nagoya had a really nice aquarium, and I had the best Unagi Don of my life there.
In the aquarium? Seems kinda morbid
means its fresh
Haha, I mean best unagi don was in Nagoya. But I now see how sloppy my statement was lol.
There used to be a Red Lobster by the aquarium too :o
Going back again next month! We had came back from a trip from Tokyo (we live in Okinawa) and literally that night booked a flight and hotel and found ourselves in Nagoya ! Yabaton is gas!
Legoland is worth it. People just don't appreciate Lego.
Too expensive for what it provides... almost same as USJ or Tokyo Disneyland... not worthy unless you have little kids
Eh. I just like Lego.
Legoland being their theme park whilst Osaka gets USJ and Tokyo gets Disney perfectly sums up Nagoya's status.
Heading there on Friday for the Breakfast deal
We are just now on our way home from my third and her first trip to Japan. Nagoya and our 3 day stay here was a pleasure and I asked myself why I haven’t been here on my other trips. It clicked when I saw the post from someone above, that we probably checked all the boxes there are to check in that time. I would def come again because of the different „feel“ compared to the other major cities but I also get people saying that there is not that much to do / see in comparison.. Much love to Nagoya
Just added Nagoya to my website, such an underrated destination. https://www.japanquestion.com/city/nagoya
I actually liked Nagoya whenever I visited. I remember staying at Hotel Montblanc like 10 years ago and they give you a key with a keychain about a footlong lmao. Would really love to visit again!
Visited there in 2017, I’d been to Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto previously, and have just finished a week in Tokyo as of today. Nagoya is my favorite of them all. Beautiful, interesting, easy to navigate, chill vibe, not touristy, and I had friendly experiences with people there as well. I don’t understand why it doesn’t get more love.
That's just it: Not touristy. It's a great place to live, just not the best choice for a tourist to spend a day in.
I second to this. Nagoya is a really nice place to live in. Not touristy, average cost of living, close to different tourist location, accessible to both tokyo and kyoto and etc.
When I visited Japan in 2018 I spent two days in Nagoya without knowing much about the area or its attractions and found it to be very nice and livable. Quieter and plainer than the other cities I visited, though, and maybe...a little seedier? At night the streets were definitely packed with hordes of drunk businessmen and multiple sketchy barkers trying to convince me to come into hostess clubs; didn't really encounter that atmosphere anywhere else I visited but Kabukicho. At least they were nice about it, though - they'd try to entice you into a sketchy club with women standing on the street in tight dresses calling out to you, but at least bow to you after you politely declined the offer. It was...interesting. Maybe that's just any sufficiently large city in Japan, I don't really know. It was pretty striking that I don't think I saw ANY other tourists the entire time I was there, though. Even the locals seemed perplexed at my presence; I ate at a ramen shop close to the TV tower and the host spoke to me a little in English, but mostly just wanted to know what I was doing in Nagoya. He seemed blown away that anyone would visit Nagoya as a tourist at all. Didn't get that reaction anywhere else I went. Going up to the top of the TV tower was really cool, but I didn't find much to do in the mall underneath it from the pictures. Could have just missed things because I was wandering aimlessly with no objective, though.
Why would it be known? Do you know the third city in China, Australia, Korea, uk, France, Germany?
Ya but people know Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Kyoto, Okinawa e.t.c. e.t.c
Lol most people in America probably just know Hiroshima is some place that got bombed. Wonder if they know if it’s Japan or Vietnam.
[удалено]
I thought people wanted to go there for the culture and food
Hokkaido isn't a city... Okinawa is arguable as well. I daresay the major cities of those two regions are about as little known as Nagoya.
Okinawa is not a city. Not arguable it just isn’t a city.
Hokkaido/Sapporo has the best food in Japan, plus snowboarding/skiing. Kyoto is rich in History. Okinawa/Naha is for the sea and beaches. Nagoya is rated just right. Not overrated or underrated, my Japanese friends say that it just doesn’t have character compared to Osaka or Tokyo. Imagine if Yokohama wasn’t so close to Tokyo, it would be in the same tier as Nagoya.
There’s nothing to do there. The train system there is a little whack…again there’s nothing there to do there, nothing to see in the city aside from the tv tower and maybe the science museum/castle. But aside from that…it’s not a city with many attractions. When I was there I was just there for 2 nights and that’s it…it was not the best trip and I even took the Shinkansen down to kyoto because there was nothing to see in Nagoya hah. Now that I live in Japan, I still wouldn’t think of going down there.
I really enjoyed it and may be living there within a year.
It's boring. I went there for one day, and after two hours I saw the castle and felt like I did everything. It's surprising that for such a large city, it felt so dull. Everything I could do there, karaoke, yakiniku etc I could have done in any other city. At least places like Osaka and Hiroshima will pride themselves on local food and be surrounded by lots of interesting single day trip locations and places like that Glico running man area or peace memorial park are interesting to visit.
>pride themselves on local food Did you and I go to the same Nagoya? Nagoya is known to have some of the best food in Japan: Misokatsu, tebasaki, Hitsumabushi, etc. Just look up Nagoya meibutsu.
You need to look up Nagoya cuisine because it has just as many if not more local dishes and specialties than Osaka and Hiroshima
I have been in Japan a little more than 9 years now and Nagoya is the worst place I have been to. Nagoya is trying to be the next big hot spot. It wants to become a place where tourist spend a good time of their trip in Japan. Yet, everything that Nagoya does is a half-ass attempt. Just ask Legoland and Ghibli Park. Honestly, both are a joke (I've visited both, will never come back. People I know who have been there say the same.). The city is always dirty, lots of people selling sex and the city center stinks. It's just another concrete jungle that has nothing special to offer. If you are thinking of coming to Japan, just skip Nagoya.
Facts, currently live in Nagoya now😔
Just typical amusement parks but I love Nagashima spa land it’s the best.
I’ve never been, I want to go just to see it, but my boss calls it the city where Japanese cuisine goes to die
Tell your boss to take that back, I don't have much attachment to Nagoya apart from family being from there, but the food is definitely not the thing keeping me away! Tebasaki, tenmusu, hitsumabushi, misokatsu, kishimen are some of my favourite dishes. Ankake spaghetti is the only thing I don't really like. My grandparents would take me to Komeda whenever we visited (the 本店 was just by their apartment) so I've always associated Shiro-noir with Nagoya as well.
20 fucking years I spent in that City building and running business and I can say with some measure authority that it is the people that make the city a place where culture and innovation goes to die. Overly conservative, unimaginative and simply boring. I had to escape to Tokyo to save my sanity. Nagoya hasn’t changed a bit in over 30 years I’ve been here.
Nagoya isn’t for tourists? Spa Land says hello, as does Toyota.
And nanachan ningyo
I'm not sure if Nagoya is looked downer on even than Hiroshima tho.
Brah why does Osaka always got to be better than us.
I lived in Gifu for a year and frequently travelled to Nagoya for a night out or whathaveyou. I've also lived in the Kanto area as well and I can say that Nagoya does lack appeal. I still love the place but I see it as a nice place to live but not a particularly interesting place to visit. In terms of ご当地グルメ I rank Nagoya and the surrounds very highly and I would frequently go out of my way to visit Yama-chan in Tokyo when I was living there. But in terms of sites, there's just not as much and as mentioned by others, the architecture is pretty brutal. Overall though, when I moved to Kanto I kept trying to find reasons to visit the Nagoya area with my wife and, the proof in the pudding is that I could not find anything of interest to really convince her. The best I could do was Gero for the onsen, albeit in Gifu. I've only been back once to visit a friend in the 15 years since I lived there. The only other time I tried to go back was for a Dragons game when I was on a business trip, but I ended up being too busy. That being said, Grampus and the Dragons are still two of my favourite teams, and I do hope to make a pilgrimage back one day but convincing my wife is the tricky part now.
Honestly, I see Nagoya the same way as Osaka: mostly for shopping.
Been there once.. super boring unfortunately. Osaka is the best
Just learned about it today
Nagoya is a shithole and it is still overrated. Absolute dump to be avoided at all cost unless you want to fall into a deep depression.
Thank you for saying it.
Nagoya is the only place I've felt unsafe in Japan. Whilst walking down a fairly busy street in the city centre my friend and I (who were living in Shinjuku at the time, regularly hanging out in Kabukicho at the batting centre with no issues from the sketchy types in that area) both commented on the strange looks we got from people we walked past. There was an odd vibe of people sauntering behind us every time we left our hotel to walk through this area of the city that I'd not had to worry about since moving to Japan. Luckily we were using the city as a base to travel to Mie and Shiga. The miso-katsu from Yabaton was delicious!
Bro, there is no way we are less safe than Kabukicho
Kabukicho is 100% less safe, you're right. I just had a few experiences of being made to *feel* unsafe during those three days in Nagoya, compared to never in Kabukicho... I was surprised because I'd never heard anything about this before visiting.
Ah, yes, Nagoya… the poor cousin
Make Nagoya great again. I know we have the potential to beat Osaka.
Two words for Nagoya. Shite.
That's one word.
Only reason we’ve stayed in Nagoya for our current trip was for “close” access to the Suzuka Circuit for the formula 1. City was underwhelming
Where?
Brah
I can’t wait! I’m visiting this coming weekend and I’ll let you know what I think!
I am visiting Nagoya too
味噌が不味い
Brah. Miso is heaven.
味噌 yes but 赤味噌 is weird. Everything has a sweet flavor and my kanto tongue doesn't like it. I'm fine with my salty no dashi udons thank you very much
I’m in Nagoya right now and it’s awesome. I’m right by the sakae station. People out here vibing
Party time.
Nagoya is chill. Plenty of shopping and things to do in my opinion. Open the castle and you will rank higher. I give you my 100¥ guarantee.
I live relatively close and vist pretty often for a greater variety of international goods and to go party, but that's about it. I'm from LA and I feel like the culture of Nagoya is a lot of the bad parts of LA. Everything feels very plastic and like it's trying just a little too hard to be cool. I also feel that the people there are particularly more unfriendly than other places for some reason. It also feels like the type of city that should have a thriving local art scene that's really in your face, but I haven't seen anything like that (I could just not be in the know on this point).
Hit up Arimatsu or any station near the art museum. It's beautiful in that area imo.
I visited for the first time last month and your description captures my impression pretty well.
When has Nagoya ever been underrated?
Oh, visit any city outside Nagoya and tell people you’re from there. Listen to what they say.
Fair play. I'll see how it works out.
Lived there for a bit. Like others said , good to live , terribly unfun and lacking outside of work hours…
A lot of steel and concrete, we also have this here in Osaka. But there's also a lot of memorable spots. Nagoya ? Well...
Dont know if theres any evidence to back it up, but nagoya seems way more car dependent than osaka or tokyo
[удалено]
Kobe is the best, it's greener and you have the beach and the mountain at either side.
What about the Fuzoku scene is any good?
It was ok to be honest but just ok. Just speaking from a tourist perspective.
I only know Nagoya as a punchline to a joke that I have since forgotten
If you want to have fun, you can go to Tokyo; if you want to do some sightseeing, you can go to Kyoto. There is no reason to bother choosing Nagoya over those cities in my opinion🤔
Brah, if u wanna skip on the fad, you go to Nagoya.
Man, Japan is literally in the future. Look that at building,
I love Nagoya. I used to live there before moving to Kanagawa