The Japanese Food Adventure Chapter 2 - Day 3. Next stop Nagoya

At 4.30am I was woken by my wife, "you have to come and look at this sunrise" she told me. I jumped out of bed and headed up to the top floor of the hotel to take a look, she certainly had a good point as it was a stunning sight!

I don't recall getting back to sleep again after seeing the sunrise, we were far too excited about being in Japan. We headed outside in search of somewhere to have  some breakfast.

Our search for breakfast ended here, breakfast "A" looked nice enough and ¥600 (about £4) seemed like a very reasonable price.

It included a drink, I chose ice coffee which came with pots of sugar syrup and milk.  

I don't usually eat yogurt but also never waste food, it was ok but it's something I can live without in my life usually. The salad had a really nice dressing on it, it was strange eating salad so early in the morning though. The highlight was definitely the ham and eggs on toast.

The toast served in Japan is really thick and the bread used is really cakey and delicious.

We headed back to the Senjo-Ji Temple to have a proper look, less people were around this early in the morning making it a much more pleasant experience.

I spotted this in a vending machine, although I don't usually eat yogurt I do love a yogurt drink and this one was delicious.

We were thinking of visiting an old theme park, Asakusa Hanayashiki. It cost ¥1000 just to go inside though and there were lots of young children waiting to go inside, we decided to give it a miss. I did spot some incredible old signage close to the theme park though.

We needed to be heading to Nagoya so we collected our cases and made our way to the train station. On the way we spotted this building, it had a brutalist look to it with its bare concrete and narrow windows.

Tactile pavement strips for the blind or partially sighted are everywhere in Japanese cities. You often see these close to road crossings in the UK but here they cover every pavement.

The Edo Tokyo Museum is an impressive building that can be seen from Ryogoku station. I had a few minutes to admire it as my wife had just managed to get on a train as the doors were closing leaving me on the platform still. We met up at the next station but both of us panicked slightly, not a mistake we would be making again.

Close to Tokyo station we went to look at a lovely exhibition of ceramics by Midori Takaki.

At Tokyo station we reserved seats for the Shinkansen, as always it arrived on time.

No journey on a Shinkansen is complete without an ekiben to enjoy on the way, this chicken teriyaki one I picked up at the station cost me ¥1000 (about £7) 

When I opened the lid I was gobsmacked at the stunning presentation! A bed of rice coated in egg and topped with sliced chicken coated in teriyaki sauce. It also included ginger, potato salad and a vegetable selection. I can assure you that it tasted as good as it looked, I had chosen well!

An hour or so later we were in Nagoya, it has one of the worlds largest train stations by floor area (410,000 m²) and houses the headquarters of the Central Japan Railway Company.

Like all the cities in Japan, Nagoya had it's own distinctive drain covers.

Our home for the next 3 nights was Hotel Wing International. A double room here cost us ¥5500 (about £36) per night.

The room was fairly compact as most rooms are in Japanese hotels, everything you needed was there though and it had an en suite bathroom. The view out of the window here was a brick wall but we didn't plan on spending much time in the hotel so it really didn't matter.

Lots of these walkways went across main roads, the slope for bicycles was a simple but effective solution.

Many of the cities main expressways could be seen up above, very Blade Runner! 

You don't have to walk very far in Japan before you spot a Torii Gate, usually found at the entrance to a shrine.

It's always well worth exploring what's beyond the Torii Gate, this one lead to Gokoku Shrine.

It was a hot day so we popped into 7 Eleven in search of some ice cream. This looked interesting, cheese flavoured ice cream! I wasn't too sure what to expect but I can confirm that Cheese Monaka's are delicious!!

Back at the hotel in the lift we spotted the buffet breakfast available for ¥700 (about £4.50) We decided to try it in the morning, it seemed like a great deal and I was keen to try the Japanese breakfast.

We got our evening meal from the local Family Mart store, we fancied something quite plain and light. My wife chose a salad and I went for noodles with a selection of toppings.

These have got to be our favourite Japanese chocolate snack, a mushroom shaped chocolate and biscuit combo, great with a cup of tea. Still feeling a bit jet lagged we had an early night, we were going to explore a Final Fantasy style village tomorrow near Hamamatsu.

Click here for day 4

Hamamatsu and the Nukumori No Mori