2025-04-25 08:50:45
I wanted to thank all of you before I launch into yesterday’s shenanigans. I’ve been doing this whole “blogging” thing for a bit, but never really done a “live blog” where I talk about what I’m doing. Most of you seem to be enjoying it and letting me know, which means a lot. I’d been trying to be less cynical and write about things that make me happy instead of angry, so I’m glad this is resonating. Arigato!
Yesterday was our first full day in Nagoya, and my first ever. We decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and explore the Nagoya Castle, the gardens, and the City Hall down the road. But first we settled into a local Starbucks because we couldn’t resist the gorgeous view of the Sakae park from their outdoor seating, and I have to have one of their matcha green tea American scones at least once per trip.
Honestly I could have spent the rest of the day just sitting there listening to the trees rustling in the breeze. Does it count as foreshadowing if the day was about to get even more of this?
Back on the road (so to speak), we decided to take the Subway to the castle because we’re massive train nerds; and as previously mentioned, Japan has the best ones. Taking the Meijō line to Nagoyajo station is the easiest way to go, though we were initially confused by travel guides because the station used to be called Shiyakusho until 2023.
What hasn’t changed, besides me still being a baka is this beautiful station entrance gate, which makes you feel as though you’re stepping back in time. They could have just made this a utilitarian exit like any other, but they did such a beautiful job, right down to the calligraphy.
While we’re on the topic of the subway: allow me to ramble about it for a moment. The Nagoya Subway is very much like the Osaka one, in function and appearance. It’s old, and definitely worn in places, but still extremely punctual and orderly even among the throngs of people. I’ve read it doesn’t quite have the coverage and reach of other large Japanese city systems because of, y’know, Toyota being in town, but I come from the Anglosphere, so this is already very good.
It takes all the big IC cards like my ICOCA that I’ve insisted on using on every Japan trip since our first in 2018, but we also decided to get the local manaca from one of the complicated IC vending machines because of course we had to. We also took the opportunity to take a photo of them in front of one of the many LEGO transit maps in the larger Nagoya Subway stations! This will go on our feature wall alongside our SUICAs, and hopefully more to come.
Back to the castle grounds, neither of us were aware that the iconic keep (what most of us think of when we hear the word “castle”) has been closed since 2018 over concerns about structural issues. The original keep was destroyed like the one in Ōsaka during World War II, but the rebuilt replica in Nagoya was rebuilt with less earthquake resistance. It’s a testament to the architectural planning and craftsmanship of people in 1612 that their structure could largely survive after hundreds of years, but a modern replica constructed of reinforced concrete would be deemed a hazard in need of repairs.
My favourite view of the keep was back towards the main gate after a day of exploring; hence the longer shadows. It was so tranquil, though I’m sure it wasn’t when the area was in use in the 1600s! It’s a stunning area, every bit as beautiful and well kept as the grounds of Ōsaka and Odawara where we’ve visited before.
The highlight for me though wasn’t the keep, but the Palace itself. It also burned down during the war, but surveyors had thankfully taken meticulous notes, photographs, and drawings of the building and its artworks, allowing for painstaking replicas to be built and painted on the same grounds where the originals once stood. Tourists were allowed to enter after we took our shoes off and placed them in the provided lockers, then we were shepherded through the various rooms and hallways.
I’ve re-written this paragraph at least twelve times, because it’s impossible to capture just how incredible this was to me. The entire building was gilded with gold in so many intricate ways, and yet there was such a profound, timeless, understated elegance at the same time. You see pictures of these spaces and you think they’re beautiful, but seeing the shadows of the trees through the slatted windows dancing on the floors, and the sounds of feet quietly pitter-pattering across the tatami… I caught myself mouthing the word “wow” to Clara in hushed tones as we entered every room.
The last noteworthy part of the day was seeing the City Hall buildings from the 1920s, which I thought were a fascinating mix of classical Western and Japanese architecture. This was somewhat testing the limits of my old prime 17mm equivalent lens on my OM-3 (AAAAAAH!), but it does give you a sense of scale for the buildings.
I love my weeb stuff, camera gear, music stores, and train adventures, but this was by far my favourite day on this trip so far. We’ve finally arrived.
By Ruben Schade in Nagoya, 2025-04-25.
2025-04-24 10:39:33
I apologise that the site has been a bit slow since it suddenly turned into a travel blog. My plan was to roll out my poor man’s CDN before we left, but I ran out of time. It’s definitely not just a nginx GeoIP lookup that refers image requests to a different cloud instance running in Toronto depending on where you’re coming from.
I’m trying to use the computer less on this trip—if you can believe it—but I’ll see what I can do to improve this a bit.
By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2025-04-24.
2025-04-24 08:37:46
Yesterday we took the Shinkansen fron Tōkyō to Nagoya, a city I’ve never been to before. Clara had been for a brief stopover, but hadn’t seen much of it beyond its port. Much of yesterday’s post may have been spent extolling the virtues of high-speed trains before I even got to what I was supposed to discuss.
It’s always bittersweet leaving Tōkyō. It’s a bit of a cliché to say you love it as a tourist, when there’s so much more of the country to see. But there’s a reason why people flock to it: it’s one of the greatest places on Earth. Just about anything you could ever want to do, see, or eat can be found there, and it’s such a pleasant place to be. That’s the thing I think surprises people the most; people expect Tōkyō to be all crammed peak-hour trains and endless bustle, but the urban landscape retains a sense of human scale that other large cities don’t. I might write an obsessive post about this at some point.
We made it to the Tōkyō Shinkansen station with plenty of time to spare, which is good because even for seasoned travellers to Japan it can be confusing finding where you need to go among the warren of corridors, underpasses, escalators, and floors. It’s a massive hive of activity, not unlike an airport. We book our tickets in advance from SmartEX as most tourists do, then proceeded to the gates clearly marked as SmartEX gates… which didn’t work. Instead, we needed to go to the QR code gates, which did work. I also dropped my hat, but naturally a Japanese woman came running after me apologising profusely for having the gall to return it to me!
We arrived in Nagoya, and it felt weird actually getting off the train. I knew Nagoya to be an industrial port city you zip past on the way to Kansai or further south, so to be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. You can read all the articles on Wikipedia, see photos, and talk with friends who’ve been, but it’s a very different experience to stepping off onto the platform into a new Japanese city to which you’ve never been. Aaaaa, exciting!
When we were first planning our Nagoya leg of the trip, we naturally made a list of all the things we wanted to see. They seemed to cluster around two areas: the park area around Sakae, and the Port of Nagoya. We found a cute hotel right near the long Sakae park, and took the Nagoya Subway for the first time to get there. It felt much more like the Ōsaka subway than the post-Olympics stations in Tōkyō, which I loved.
Suffice to say, I was taken by Nagoya from the moment I arrived. It’s hard to describe, but I feel like I immediately entered the holiday mode of my brain spending five minutes walking around. The atmosphere is definitely more chill, again just like Ōsaka. There are so many more people on bikes. Cars drive slower. There are fewer suits, though still far more than you’d see in the West! And the linear park in Sakae is gorgeous; we’ll be doing a proper end-to-end walk of it hopefully in the next day or two.
We checked in and got food at this adorable little Mos Burger off the main shopping street in Sakae, given the amount of grief I received proclaiming it to be S-tier. It was a surreal experience sitting there hearing The Cranberries, Oasis, and other 90s hits playing through small speakers in a Japanese fast food joint in new city with flowers out the window and surrounded by trees. And yes, the food was immaculately presented and tasted amazing, as you’d expect. I had the teriyaki chicken which actually tasted like teriyaki chicken!
It was getting late in the afternoon, so we went to relive some childhood memories at Tower Records, because Japan is where nostalgic Western chains go to live out their retirement. I’ve blogged about these places a few times here over the years, but it’s always fun exploring the rows of CDs, checking out the merchandise, seeing all the music posters, using those CD sampling machines. It’s like I’m back in the late 1990s, only with K-Pop bands, anisong, and vtubers. Even better, in other words!
We rounded off the evening by walking down the main street parallel to the long Sakae park, which was gorgeous. Nagoya, you’ve made a hell of a first impression ^^.
By Ruben Schade in Nagoya, 2025-04-24.
2025-04-23 13:19:20
I’m typing this today as we travel from Tōkyō to Nagoya on the Shinkansen, the best form of transport in the world. It’s fast, quiet, convenient, smooth, spotless, punctual, and the booking system is even understandable after you’ve made a bunch of mistakes! The seats in the reserved Green Cars are bigger and more comfortable than business class on a loud, shaky aircraft, and the windows are gigantic. You also board at a station without going through all the rigmarole of an airport.
I’ve been lucky enough to go on the Shinkansen half a dozen times now, and it never gets old. It’s the peak of human transport. I would fight people who disagree, but (a) I wouldn’t be able to bear the secondhand embarrassment, and (2) I’d want you to at least have a bit of dignity. I’m considerate like that!
It’s wild that I’m using the free Wi-Fi, while connected to the WireGuard VPN back at our house in Sydney. For the next hour, our home Internet is on a bullet train! How cool is that!?
Anyway, that’s today, I’m supposed to be writing about yesterday. I think the Beatles sang a song about that. Yesterday was our last full day in Tōkyō for a while, so we went hunting for the OM SYSTEM OM-3 that we’d failed to find in Akiba on our first day. We did a bit of digging and found one going for almost ¥20,000 cheaper in a Yamada Denki in Shinjuku, which we took as a sign.
We got to the store, and sure enough there was a whole row of OM SYSTEM kit alongside the Nikons that I’m sure I should have got if I weren’t so irrational. But picking it up in person and using it for five minutes, the OM-3 reminded me of everything I loved about my old Olympus E-M10. The retro-styled Nikons were fun to use, but the OM-3 felt so precise, engineered, and crafted in a way that’s hard to describe, and that no other camera company gets close to. I didn’t even need to think twice, and a few minutes later the very attentive and flustered staff member was running around assembling all the pieces we needed to complete our order. He was also exceedingly cute, though you didn’t read that.
I needed to charge the battery on the new toy, so we broke for lunch while we headed back to the hotel. We stopped in a little hole in the wall soba store where I successfully had my first solid food of the trip! We figured strings of carbs with light sauce would be easy on the stomach. I could have cried; the food is what I miss most about Japan, and I finally felt like we arrived! There was likely nothing special or unique about this plate of food, but it was the best fucking thing I felt like I ever tasted.
After spending my months of savings on a silly slab of photographic gear, and remembering what food tastes like, we made a quick detour to Harajuku to see if the Pompompurin cafe had space! Alas, they did not, but we enjoyed some coffee at another lovely little café near the station before heading back to the hotel. Neither of us are the target audience for Harajuku, but it’s probably not one of our favourite places in Japan. I’d say it’s because it’s swarming with tourists, but that’d be a bit hypocritical (cough).
We dropped stuff back at the hotel and headed back to Akiba to see if luck would strike twice. We hadn’t seen our favourite English vtuber Ninomae Ina’nis’s autographed memorabilia or life-sized cutout at the new AmiAmi vertical figure store, but we thought maybe it might be around in their previous anchor store in Radio Kaikan. And she was!
She’d signed the massive lifesize cutout, and a bunch of other art and prior releases that were on display. There was also a tonne of previously released merchandise for other Holo talents, of which we may have partaken (cough).
I feel like there was more Hololive stuff in general around the weeb stores this time around, both in new and second-hand outlets (it used to be that Niji had them cornered). It’ll be interesting to see how that changes with some of the high profile departures of late. I love Hololive, the community, and all the talents, but it’s hard not to worry there’s something brewing internally that’s dissuading some of their biggest names from staying.
Anyway! The plan was to check out some HARD·OFF second-hand hardware stores in Akiba, but we ended up spending the rest of the evening exploring all the stores in Radio Kaikan. You know you’ve been there a while when that orchestral Aud Lang Syne rendition starts playing everywhere. Rather than taking the JR and Metro back to the hotel, we decided to have an evening stroll instead. Japan, like Singapore, is such a joy to walk around at night; it’s so clean and safe. It also gave us an opportunity to get a cheeky snack from a certain ubiquitous establishment.
Next stop, Nagoya! I’ve only ever gone past it on the train—this specific Shinkansen service, funnily enough—so I’m looking forward to seeing a new part of the country.
By Ruben Schade in Tokyo, 2025-04-23.
2025-04-22 08:04:16
Yesterday was our first full day in Japan again! It was so much fun getting back into the routine of konbinis, train station jingles, wanderings, and spontaneity. It really hits different to anywhere else in the world, a fact I’m sure you don’t find shocking. The urban landscape of Japan is endlessly fascinating, though I’m just as much looking forward to the more rural parts of the trip too.
Alas, while my stomach bug was in remission, it was still very much a fixture of the day. Food is the other major reason one goes to Japan, but fortunately the convenience stores and pharmacies had a bunch of electrolyte drinks and meal replacement jellies I could eat. Those CalorieMate bikkies were a godsend; they’re like shortbread, but are easy to digest and fill you up.
We spent the morning wandering around Jinbōchō near the hotel. The area is known for its numerous bookstores, and while I can barely read anything more than Hiragana, it was still fascinating to see. One art store had books chronicling the history of wood cut art, something my mum and I were fascinated with when I was growing up. She really would have lost herself around here, it still makes me sad how we were going to explore the world together once she was cured. Somehow I like to think she was walking alongside Clara and I.
(I was going to include a photo here, but I realised I didn’t take any! I must have been even more engrossed than I realised).
I was exhausted after a few hours, presumably because I hadn’t eaten proper food for two days! So I went back to the hotel and had a hot shower that accidentally turned into a bath. The plug had been set into the shower/bath drain, so after standing there for five minutes I leaned into it and sat down. The bath was comically small for my long legs, but it felt incredible on my tired bones and sore tummy. Trust the Japanese to make me fall in love with baths again!
We’re only in Tōkyō for a few days, so naturally nerds like us wanted to go to Akihabara again. Originally an area catering to electronics, cameras, scientific gear, and the like, the last couple of decades have seen it also turn into a mecca for Japanese pop culture. On previous trips we’ve spent days wandering around all the anime, manga, music, and book stores, but this time we had two specific goals in mind.
Hololive’s cutest artist Ninomae Ina’nis (featured on my blog sidebar) did a collaboration with the AmiAmi anime figure retailer last year, where she recorded some of the announcements in the store and had some art up. Most of this had been taken down by the time we managed to get here, but there was still a couple of easter eggs about the place :).
Alas, we weren’t able to find a retailer with stock of the OM System OM-3 that I’d been saving for, but we did get to a Sofmap that had a massive assortment of lenses and other camera gear, including the last Olumpus PEN which I was sorely tempted to part a chunk of money for. I’ve bought so much second-hand kit from these stores in Japan over the years; the way they’re transparent with the condition, and the extent they must QC it all, I’ve always had a wonderful experience. Perhaps my next Micro Four Thirds will come from here!
We also went to Lashinbang to look for more Prince Cat stuff for Clara. While that was a bust, we did see a tonne of Hololive, Fate, and Atelier stuff. The highlight though was a store further down the road that had vinyl releases of popular anime and vtuber albums, including my Japanese oshi Suisei, the soundtrack for Toradora, and even some Bocchi! I couldn’t justify the cost given I’m about to spend too much on an OM-3, but this was wonderful to see.
We went to a few capsule stores, then finished the evening at an adorable little pancake house upstairs off the main road called The Flying Scotsman which we had to go to just for the name. I still couldn’t eat much, but I was able to have a couple of bites of Clara’s Japanese pancake. It was the first solid food I’d eaten in days, and it was sublime. If you have tired feet from wandering around Akiba all day, and maid cafes or host clubs aren’t your thing (or you’ve done them too much, shifty eyes), we can high recommend this place.
Today we’re off to Shinjuku to hunt for an OM-3, and maybe even… eat some actual food again! Those meal replacement jellies were a lifeline, and I’ve already gone down a belt hole, but I’m craving some real food. Maybe some simple soba will work.
By Ruben Schade in Tokyo, 2025-04-22.
2025-04-21 09:28:37
Yesterday we flew into Haneda Airport in Tōkyō to start our Japan trip! Non-stop Japan Airlines trips used to fly from Sydney to Narita, but this seems to have switched to Handea after COVID started.
JAL remains one of my favourite airlines. It doesn’t have that premium feeling of Singapore Airlines, but it’s as punctual, clean, well-maintained, and friendly as you’d expect of a Japanese carrier. I rate planes by their bathrooms, and they were immaculate.
We were on one of their Boeing 787s, for which I have mixed feelings. The higher pressure cabin and the skill of the pilots meant I felt zero ear popping, which was absolutely wonderful! Clara and I also had a two-seater in economy which was comfortable with plenty of leg room. Alas, 787s don’t have window shades, instead using a dimmer with buttons. Much of the flight you can dim this to zero, but during meal service you can’t. The westerly sun was absolutely beating down on us through these windows, which when you have a migraine was awful. Boeing, I know the 787 is your flagship, but give us window shades!
That said though, the larger windows did give us a spectacular view of the Tōkyō skyline as we approached. It looks even more amazing at night, but wow. It reminded me of the views when we flew into New York.
We arrived at Haneda, and naturally were greeted with some beautiful little displays. We’re too late for the sakura season, but that didn’t stop them displaying all those lovely motifs. My favourite had to be the station entrance.
Alas, as I ranted about on Mastodon shortly after arrival, I had a nausea migraine which made the trip from the airport to the hotel in Jinbōchō a… challenge! I won’t share details, but suffice to say we’d go two stops on the train, then I’d have to jump out and get to the nearest bathroom. I won’t lie, it was grim! But after almost three hours for a trip that should have taken 45 minutes, we got to our beautiful little hotel, and Clara scouted the area for electrolyte drinks.
I’m typing this the following day and I feel like a new person which is a massive relief! That said though, the plan is to take it easy and just do some walking. It’s a stunningly gorgeous day for a stroll :’).
By Ruben Schade in Tokyo, 2025-04-21.
