Toyota & Nogoya: sports day long weekend

 11 - 14 Oct 

Toyota, Nogoya

Blue skies for days

So my brother joined my in Toyota for the long weekend and we hit up the following spots:

Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, Nagoya: large museum with many moving parts about Toyota, the automobile company and its predecessor Toyoda, the automatic loom company. We spent 3 hrs here but could have probably spent longer.

The gift shop had some interesting items...

There was also a very cute geocache hidden at the museum.

Toyota museum of art, Toyota: nothing was particularly stand out here, the building and grounds were perhaps the most impressive. I wouldn't class myself as an art lover and while much of the art was nice, the special exhibition was a little too modern/contemporary for my small brain.

The coffee and cake was good though.

Yahashira Shrine, Toyota and bo-no-te festival: I'd done some digging into local festivals happening this long weekend and fould that all the local bo-no-te (a traditional choreographed martial artistic, an Aichi Prefectural Intangible Folk Cultural Asset) clubs were performing at various Shinto shrines around Toyota. The closest to our hotel was Yahashira Shrine where 5 different clubs/schools/districts were performing. The performs ranged in age from 5 to 75 and performances were done in groups of 2 to 20. There were some groups that performed alone, showcase performances, and other times multiple pairs/groups would perform, general performances. There were also a couple of food and carnival game stalls set up. 

The day ended with mochi throwing, everyone packed into the area before the shrine and then mochi and snacks were thrown to the masses. My brother managed to catch the last mochi of the event, we were bested by ruthless old grannies all our other chances.

Port Of Nagoya Public Aquarium, Nagoya: there were lots of people here on account of the long weekend. The fish and coral displays were very well done. I didn't realise before going that they do have a pod of dolphins, two Beluga whales and an orca on display - can't say these were my favourite.

Nagoya Port Building observation deck and maritime museum, Nagoya: good little museum with a great view and interactive displays about Nagoya port, the largest and busiest port in Japan.

Antarctic Museum and Former Research Ship Fuji, Nagoya: really cool museum on board the former research ship Fuji. Part of the ship has been refurbished to house the museum but the rest remains in ship shape.

Wandering