Nagoya, here we come!

After eleven hours and twenty Sudoku puzzles later, we finally landed at Nagoya's Chubu International Airport. This airport was newly built when Nagoya hosted the World Expo in '05. Walking out of the airplane, I immediately noticed the humidity in the air. Here we are...! We were going to take a train into Downtown Nagoya. Outside of baggage claim, there are a number of airport volunteers (looked like local ladies) waiting around, and they would answer questions and direct travelers to wherever they need to go. I talked to one of them, and she told me how to get to the train station.

It was nice since I was totally disoriented after a long flight and was not in the mood for consulting with multilingual signs...

A half hour train ride took us to Downtown Nagoya. According to the map I downloaded, our hotel was within a walking distance so we walked out of the station. What we saw is a sea of pedestrians walking every which way. Walking in it is like being pushed by an ocean current; you just need to push yourself out of it when you make a turn or want to walk into a store. I cannot help looking at those young girls clad in pretty summer dresses and cell phones. Every time I come home, I am amazed how different things are from the last time. What girls are wearing is one of those ever-changing things.

We checked in at a hotel not too far from the main station. After cleaning up a little, although jet lag was setting in, we resisted the urge to take a nap and walked out to the street again to find a place for dinner. Every major city in Japan seems to have underground shopping malls. The land being so scarce, I suppose they need to expand either up or down. It is like a whole another town underground. You can get on and off trains, shop for your clothes and shoes, eat at restaurants, and grab your latte, all without coming out to the ground.

We stumbled upon a restaurant in one of these underground malls and ate dinner there. This restaurant was specializing in tuna dishes. They had all kinds of reasonably priced set menus. I had one with very fresh Tuna Tataki, and it was wonderful!!