Did We Explore Nagoya the WRONG Way?
During our trip to Japan in November 2024, we spent 3 days in Nagoya. And I’m not going to lie, the way we did it was not the best way to see Nagoya. Make sure you hang around to find out why. We were going to be in Nagoya from Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning and had planned to go to Paagoya Aquarium, Nagoya Castle, Nabalana Nosato, and a few other places as well as Ghibli Park, Legoland Japan, and SC Mag and Railway Park. Our first stop was Osu Cannon, which was quite pretty, but we didn’t hang around long. We were then going to walk to the Porta Nagoya Aquarium, but I was feeling really tired, so we scrapped that and headed to PG Cafe, a penguin themed cafe. We thought we could still potentially make it to the aquarium, but by the time we’d finished at the cafe, we decided to scrap it. We started walking towards Sakai, which was where we’re staying for our time in Nagoya, but diverted to check out the newly renovated Nagoya Pokémon Center. And then we also checked out the Shonen Jump store which was nearby. They had a Demon Slayer setup going on which was pretty cool to see. While we’re in Nagoya, we stayed at Comfort in Sakai. When we originally booked the room, uh it looked a little bit dated, but we’re okay with that. When we arrived, we found that the room had been newly renovated, so that was a win for us. The comfort in in Sakai is very close to Oasis 21 and a train station, so very useful. There is also a donote across the road. I did have one minor complaint about this room and it’s the positioning of the toilet and the bathroom. It was up a step that was like literally a foot and a half tall, which is not great when you are 3:00 a.m. and half asleep and forget that there’s a stair there. All in all though, it was a really comfy room, very friendly staff, and I highly recommend the comfort in Sakai. We took some time to check out Oasis 21. If you’re not familiar with Oasis 21, it’s like a multi-use space. So, there’s shopping there, you can hold events there, and there is a lot of green space around as well. But the big draw card of Oasis 21 is the distinct ovalshaped like platform on the roof called Spaceship Aqua. And this is filled with water and you walk around the edge of it. Friday we spent at Jibli Park. Jibli Park is part of the Iichi 2005 Expo Commemorative Park and is split into five different sections. The Jibli Grand Warehouse, Hill of Youth, Valley of Witches, Monoke Village, and Dondoko Forest. Dondocu Forest is quite separate from the other four sections, so we decided to skip it for this trip. The Grand Warehouse and the Valley of Witches are incredibly welldetailed and have a lot to do, where Monokei Village and Hill of Youth feel like they are lacking some details. I still do highly recommend spending the day at Jibli Park, especially if you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli’s work. On Friday night, we checked out the Mi Tower, which has a viewing deck, and spent some time checking out the amazing view. Unfortunately, we didn’t film anything, but here’s a couple of photos that I took. On Saturday, we rallied and headed to Legoland Japan. Legoland Japan is aimed at 2 to 12year-olds, but there is definitely something there for everyone. Minand was our favorite section of Legoland, which consists of Japanese landmarks being built out of Lego. There is heaps of rides throughout the park as well. One thing I would note, especially if you’re traveling with a family, is that even by theme park standards, the food and drink is quite expensive. After Legoland, we explored one of the most incredible railroad museums on the planet, the SC Maglev and Railway Park in Nagoya, run by JR Central. It’s an amazing place to learn about the history of trains and highspeed rail in Japan. You can see all kinds of trains and train carriages and learn more about the mag lev line that is being built between Tokyo and Asaka. The train driving simulators are incredibly popular, so if that’s something that you want to do, I recommend getting there early. And yes, they do have one of the earlier iterations of Dr. Yellow there. See, by this part of the 3-we trip, we had become unwell. Not bedritten unwell, but unwell enough that we realized we were unwell, if that makes sense. All in all, we had made the rookie error for our time in Nagoya. We had overplanned. And we also made a rookie mistake for this entire trip, not planning any recovery days. I highly recommend doing as I say and not what we did. Plan for recovery days. And I think that’s really good advice for traveling in general, not just to Japan. Another thing that would have helped us a lot as well in Nagoya was to utilize taxis. This was our first time visiting the city and we didn’t quite know our way around. We spent a lot of time getting lost at Nagoya station and getting lost means a lot of steps. If we’d thought to take a taxi from Osukan to the aquarium on Thursday afternoon, we would have made it there comfortably and had a bit of a rest. Yes, it is potentially expensive, but sometimes you have to weigh up the financial cost versus the physical and mental cost. And if you’ve got the financial budget, you may as well use what’s available to you. Keeping our mistakes and what we didn’t get to see and what we did get to see in mind, I would absolutely love to come back to Nagoya again. There is so much to see and do, and I would absolutely love to spend more time here. Let me know in the comments below if you’ve ever been to Nagoya, and if so, what is your favorite place to go? If you’ve gotten this far into the video, thank you very much for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one.
Thinking of visiting Nagoya, Japan? 🇯🇵 Join us on our jam-packed 3-day adventure as we explore incredible sights like Ghibli Park, Legoland Japan, and the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park! We share our honest experience, including the travel mistakes we made (like overplanning and not factoring in rest!) so YOU can have an even better trip.
From the dazzling lights of Oasis 21 and Mirai Tower at night to the charming Ōsu Kannon temple and quirky PG Penguin Cafe, Nagoya has so much to offer. We also dive into the newly renovated Pokémon Center, the Shonen Jump store, and give you a peek at our stay at the Comfort Inn Sakae.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro & Our Nagoya Plan
00:13 Ōsu Kannon Temple
00:36 PG Cafe (Adorable Penguin Cafe!)
00:46 Pokémon Center Nagoya & Shonen Jump Store
01:02 Hotel Tour: Comfort Inn Sakae
01:50 Evening at Oasis 21 & Mirai Tower
02:47 GHIBLI PARK! (Grand Warehouse, Valley of Witches, Mononoke Village)
03:44 Mirai Tower Views
04:04 LEGOLAND JAPAN (Miniland & Rides)
04:43 SCMAGLEV and Railway Park (Amazing Train Museum!)
05:20 The Nagoya Travel MISTAKES We Made & Our Advice
06:29 Final Thoughts: Would We Visit Nagoya Again?
This Nagoya travel vlog is perfect if you’re planning a 3-day itinerary, looking for things to do in Nagoya, or want to learn from our travel blunders! We cover key attractions like Ghibli Park, Legoland Japan (Miniland Japan is incredible!), and the fascinating SCMAGLEV and Railway Park (hello, Dr. Yellow and Maglev!).
We hope our experience helps you plan your own amazing trip to Nagoya.
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Have you been to Nagoya? What was your favorite spot?
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