Day 119 - 27th of December

11:36am　名城線
天気：晴れ
On the subway to Sakae; I only woke up an hour ago; I must have really needed the sleep. Alex only just got also, so it’ll take her a while to get to Sakae. In the mean time I’m going to get some brunch. Today is warm, and fine, and I’m feeling ready to pull another all nighter; at karaoke.

11:07am　栄
Still waiting for Alex; I’m in the station. Just got a text… I got food at a bakery (called Steiner) in Oasis 21 (that’s the name of the plaza in Sakae station). Gosh, I love Japan’s bakeries; so good. I spent the rest of the time exploring; went in the NHK character store (had a lot of Ghibli merchandise too), the Jump shop (anime paraphernalia), and the Pokémon centre, then the park, and aqua spaceship again; very different in the day… Found Alex; she’s getting food from Makkas now. It’s so crazy here; in this Makkas, you actually have to separate the straw and lid from the cup, and then put them in separate bins. The line is way out the door, but the service is excellent (as it is everywhere); Alex will be out in no time…

1:47pm　名城線
We’re on the subway to 市役所 (shiyakusho – city hall), and from there walking to the castle.

4:00pm　名城線
On the train back to Sakae. Just came from the castle…

4:03pm　東山線
Just made the train; going to Nagoya station. Almost there already…

6:07pm　桜通線
We’re making our way to 大曽根 (Ozone), just because of the name. I think we’re going to eat dinner there. We joked that someone should have a place there called “The Ozone Layer”; that would be epic. We were just at Nagoya station, watching this amazing light display; got it on film.

6:17pm 名城線
This is so random, and so much fun. We’re only 4 stops away, on the Meijo line. The subway system here is so cool, and the fact that you can get a whole day pass for such a low price makes it all the more awesome. There’s so many different ways to get where you want to go, and everything connects to the loop line; Meijo.

9:01pm　名城線
Alex loves watching the guy work (aka, watching the conductor opening and closing the train doors). We are conducting a little experiment here; how long it takes to get all the way round the Meijo loop line. This is so awesome, and it’s a good time to update my journal. Mmm… just finished a Milky Way; thanks Alex… today has been so random. I really enjoyed the castle. We wandered around the gardens before entering the main grounds. There was a group of guys dressed as samurai for people to take photos with; they were very popular among the girls in particular. There was also a lot of construction going on; we found out that they are reconstructing the 本丸御殿 (Honmaru Goten – Hommaru Palace), next to the castle; it was burnt down during the WWII. They’re estimating it won’t be completed until 2018; I’ll have to come back then to see it. Oh yeah, and 2010 marks the 400th anniversary of the incorporation of Nagoya city; that’s pretty awesome.

Anyway, we explored the 天守閣 (tenshukaku – keep) for a while, and took in the views from the top, before making our way back down and out. I stopped at the gift shop outside and I bought myself another pin for my bag. After that, we went to Big Camera near Nagoya station, and I had a lot of enjoyment playing the piano there, while Alex listened. Then, we both had a lot of fun playing with Lego on a little kids table (it had four seats and boards incorporated into it). I built a tower and Alex a spaceship, and then we both wrote our names in Lego; that was so cool. After that, we went to Ozone and had an amazing dinner at this ramen place while watching the ice skating on TV.

I noticed that today was 仏滅 (Butstumetsu – Buddha’s Death), which is supposed to be a very unlucky day in the six day Buddhist cycle ~ 赤口 (shakku – unlucky for all activities, with only the period around noon being auspicious), 先勝 (sensho – lucky for the morning, but not the afternoon), 友引 (tomobiki – good day for business and lawsuits), 先負 (senbu – lucky day, but not in the morning), bustumetsu then, 大安 (taian – auspicious day); then it repeats. These days are displayed on many calendars, and that’s how I noticed it. Well, it certainly wasn’t an unlucky day for us. We joked that everyone elses bad luck left surplus good luck for us. Seriously though, the number of times we just made the train…

After dinner, we went to another electronic shop nearby, and I convinced myself I wanted a DS lite; didn’t have enough money to buy anything then though. We then got on the train and started our experiment; we’re only one stop away from Ozone again now. After this, we’re going to jump on as many of the other lines as we can… And we’re done; it took almost 49 minutes! Alex said doing this experiment makes everything feel closer. Okay so now we’re moving onto our second experiment; transfer time and train times on other lines inside the loop. We’re going to end up in Motoyama, then take the subway to Hongo, and then bus it to where Alex lives and find Karaoke…

10:46pm　鶴見線
Alex just realised that the last bus is at 11; we won’t make it in time. We’re on the 鶴見線 (Tsurumi line) now, doing our crazy subway experiment…

11:05pm　名城線
Mission aborted… we were worried we wouldn’t make it to Sakae before the last train, so we’re going now there now…

11:44pm　栄
We’re in Karaoke now; got till 6 am. See you tomorrow…