Jackie and Chris Travels: Catching Up

Chris worked all week so while he was working Jackie took a little time to explore the area around the hotel and relax in the room. Other than that we really did not do too much besides get home from work, head up to the lounge for a (free) drinks before dinner, head out for dinner for a couple of hours then head back to the lounge for a free nightcap. One of the perks of this hotel if you are willing to pay, which Chris’s company is willing to, is that they have a nice concierge lounge on one of the higher floors. The lounge is open from 6 AM to midnight. They have free breakfast in the morning (Japanese style and western style), snacks available all day long and free drinks (adult and children drinks) from 5 PM to midnight. After 10 PM the drinks become self-serve! The lounge is staffed by about a half dozen people who pretty much treat you like royalty. The last time we were here we became friendly with one guy. We kept in touch over the last few years and we will be joining him and his family for dinner later on in the trip.

Breakfast at the Marriott

On Sunday we took care of one important housekeeping item: laundry. The hotel will gladly wash your jeans for the small sum of $15 or a pair of socks for $4. We choose to do it ourselves but that means we have to walk to a Laundromat. The last time we were here we asked the concierge where we could find a Laundromat and they had no idea what we were talking about. Chris went to work and asked the in-country manager where to find one and he said there is no such thing...but if you ask for a coin laundry they will know exactly what you are looking for. So we went back to the concierge, asked for a coin laundry, and they showed us on a map where the nearest one was located. On this trip we had hoped this place was still there because we were not going to be paying $100 or more for a load of laundry every week. The nearest coin laundry is about 8 blocks from our hotel. We load up our backpack with a bag of dirty clothes and walk over in about 15 minutes. Now this Laundromat is not what you would find back home. Every time we have gone we have had the place to ourselves. From the outside you would never even know this was a Laundromat (unless it tells you in Japanese). Inside the place is about the size of a small shed. It is about twice as wide as a hall way and there are about 8 machines to wash or dry your clothes. Unfortunately just about everything is written in Japanese except for the word hot on three of the machines so we can only assume those are the hot water machines. We had to actually turn one on to see what temperature the water was before using it. The cost sure beats the hotel though. The cold water washing machine, though small, only costs 200 yen, or about $2.50. The hot water machine costs 300 yen. The dryer is 100 yen for 10 minutes, which is probably pricey, but it works.

Outside view of coin laundry

Our laundromat

While the clothes were washing, Chris walked around the neighborhood a little bit and found a geocache. Along the way he was impressed with how many people they seem to squeeze into such small spaces. Sure, this is the city, but no one seems to have any kind of privacy, forget about a yard, and everyone seems to live right on top of each other. The small alley-like streets were not crowded though, probably because it was Sunday. We took some pictures of self-serve parking (no attendants) where we think you park your car; go to a vending machine, maybe get some kind of ticket which locks your car in and then you pay to get it unlocked at the end. We will have to try to see somebody park to see how this works. We also took a couple of pictures of some of the narrow streets we encountered.

After finishing up our laundry we walked back to the hotel and dropped our stuff off. On the way back to the room in one of the common areas of the building we noticed an interesting sign certifying the building by Guinness as the world’s largest station building. The sign was well hidden and we doubt anyone ever sees it but it was kind of cool.

It was only about noon by this time and we wanted to still visit the International Center and do a little grocery shopping. The International Center we found last time we were here was a good place for non-Japanese speakers to find out what was going on around town and maybe meet up with other foreigners. We only used it for getting maps and coupons when we were last here. We also wanted to go shopping so that we would not have to count on restaurants and the lounge as our sole source of food. However, instead of going to the International Center we saw a sign for train museum just outside of town. We decided to spend our afternoon there instead of staying around the hotel area. We took a train ride about 25 minutes outside of the city to the end of the line to the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park. The museum has a couple of dozen pieces of railway equipment and it tells the story of the history of railways and high speed train travel in Japan. They also have several hands on simulators and other interactive displays that explain how trains and railroads work. The ticket to enter, which we had to buy in a vending machine and hand to a person behind the counter, was only 1000 yen, or about $12 per person. We paid another 500 yen per person for the rental of an English audio tour. They had actual equipment from the last 100+ years of railroading in Japan, including a steam engine, diesel and electric engines, different generations of bullet trains, and a maglev train which is under development to ultimately replace the bullet trains. We ended up spending a few hours there, much more than we had planned.

Vending machine where we bought tickets

We liked the fans on the ceiling

Notice the ashtrays by the seats

Experimental bullet train which held record for faster electric train at 443 km/hour

Experimental Maglev train, holds speed record for railroads at 581 km/hour

We still had to get to a grocery store and by now it was a little after 5. On the way out to the museum we saw a fairly large grocery store from the train so we decided we would go there on the return home. We got off the train only two stops from the museum and went inside to stock up on some snacks and other things we may need and we then returned to the train for our trip home. We arrived back at the hotel about 20 minutes later and took an underground route through the vast shopping area that exists under the train station before heading upstairs for the night.

Part of the underground mall

For the rest of the week while Chris was driving home, Jackie got to witness some incredible sunsets from our room. We then went out each night with Chris’s co-worker. We ate at several different places during the week including a place that had tapas type plates with different smaller food items, some place with some really spicy stuff that simmered in a bowl in the middle of the table, Kirin City (Kirin is a local beer), a Hawaiian food place and a Shabu-Shabu place. This is something we really like about Nagoya; there are probably thousands of different restaurants where you can eat just about anything. All restaurants seem to have two things in common: they are all pretty small and the beer is cheap and plentiful. The night we went to the Hawaiian restaurant we went out with one of the administrators at Chris’s work and we all sang Karaoke. Karaoke in Japan is a big deal. In the US most Karaoke is done at a bar in front of everyone there. In Japan they have private rooms where they bring you beer and you only sing in front of whoever you came out with. They also have a pretty good selection of English language songs so the songs are all familiar. We completed each night with a stop at the concierge lounge before heading to bed.