The heat won’t stop. Once again I have to cycle for a whole day at 36°C. It’s one of those days on which one can drink six litres of liquid by going only once to the toilet. As if the heat wouldn’t already be enough it gets even hotter at a certain spot of my route. But this is because of a house fire on which fortunately, as far as I can tell, no one was injured. As you can see on the video the Japanese fire brigade is at least as well equipped and organised as we know it as well.
Nagoya, inhabited by 2.27 million people (8.74 million in city centre and metropolitan area) is mainly an industrial and harbour city. The headquarters of Toyota‘s luxury brand Lexus are located here, as well as Mitsubishi‘s Research and Development Department. Plenty of national or international automotive suppliers maintain their headquarters or subsidiaries here: The automotive supplier and QR-Code inventor DENSO (a fully owned subsidiary of Toyota), the Austrian-Canadian automotive supplier MAGNA which was once fancied as an acquisition candidate for the German General Motors Brand Opel…
Like Tokyo, Nagoya was also severely damaged in World War II. Thus the city offers little for tourists. Nagoya has a castle, however it’s a replica. Not that I wouldn’t honour it with a visit but I’ve seen quite a few castles on my journey – and even originals. They are all very beautiful, but in terms of architecture and style they seem kind of similar.
My host is a Mexican who has lived in Japan for years. He owns a second hand bookstore for English books. Which makes him fluent in Spanish, Japanese and English. But the digital age does also not spare his business of course. So him and his employees also offer Web 2.0 services which works much better compared to paper books.
Nagoya’s city centre is more famous for a huge shopping arcade. Not to be compared with the luxury shopping area of Ginza in Tokyo, but more for ordinary mortals, and suits me perfectly. Countless clothing boutiques, plenty of sports gear shops, various restaurants, creative art dealers, and even well equipped HiFi-, IT- and video game shops can be found here. Today I drop culture and enjoy strolling. Although, this also is a culture, a shopping culture! :)
Special thanks to: Akira Yasuda (Japan/Canada), text revision; Sonya Bleakley (U.S.A.) Jose Escobar (Mexico), Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich
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