Hotels in Nagoya, Japan

A little about Nagoya...

Nagoya is the fourth-largest city in Japan. Located on the Pacific coast in the Chūbu region on central Honshū, it is the capital of Aichi Prefecture and is one of Japan's major ports along with those of Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama, Chiba, and Hakata. It is also the center of Japan's third largest metropolitan region, known as the Chūkyō Metropolitan Area. As of 2000, Chūkyō Metropolitan Area has 8.74 million people, of which 2.17 million live in the city of Nagoya.

Sightseeing:
Nagoya's two most famous sightseeing spots are Nagoya Castle and Atsuta Shrine.

Nagoya Castle was built in 1612. Although a large part of it burned down in the fires of World War II, the castle was restored in 1959, adding some modern amenities such as elevators. The castle is very famous for two magnificent Golden Orca on the roof, often used as the symbol of Nagoya.

Atsuta Shrine is known as the second-most venerable shrine in Japan, after Ise Shrine. It is said to enshrine the Kusanagi sword, one of the three imperial regalia of Japan. It holds around 70 festivals in a year, and many people visit the shrine year-round. Also, the shrine has over 4,400 national treasures representing its 2,000 years' history.

Other Nagoya attractions include:
The Nagoya TV Tower
JR Central Towers of Nagoya Station
Midland Square, the new international sales headquarters for the Toyota Motor Corporation and features Japan's highest open-air observation deck.
The Nagoya Port area (The Nagoya port area includes a themed shopping mall called Italia Mura as well as the popular Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium.)
Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens.
The Toyota museums, 1. The Toyota Automobile Museum in Nagakute and 2. the Toyota Museum of Industry and Technology near Nagoya station.
The Noritake factory (the home of Noritake fine chinaware) is also open to visitors and allows people to browse through the history of the establishment. Complete with cafe and information/technology displays, as well as shopping facilities, visitors can spend a whole day wandering through the displays and grounds. It also holds a few sad reminders of devastation during the final stages of WWII.
Nagoya was also home to a Pokémon-based theme park and a robot museum, but both are now closed.

Transportation:
Nagoya Station, the world's largest train station by floor area, is on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, Tōkaidō Main Line, and Chūō Main Line, among others. The Nagoya Railroad and Kintetsu provide regional rail service to points in the Tōkai and Kansai regions. The city is also serviced by the Nagoya Subway.

Education:
Nagoya is home to the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, a sister museum to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which was founded to bring aspects of the MFA's collection to Japan.

The Tokugawa Museum is a private museum belonging to the Owari branch the Tokugawa family who lived in Nagoya castle for 16 generations. Among other things, it contains 10 designated national treasures of Japan.

Several universities are also located in Nagoya, including Nagoya University and Nanzan University.

The Nagoya dialect is referred to as Nagoya-ben.

Some famous Nagoya foods: misokatsu (pork cutlet with miso sauce), tebasaki (a type of yakitori), kishimen (flat udon noodles), misonikomi udon (noodles in thick miso soup), Nagoya kōchin (a special breed of chicken).