Once again the day began early with me heading down for food at the crack of dawn. I’m guessing there had been reports of a suspicious gadabout in the building since the number of security robots had doubled, but I was able to evade them safely make it to McDonald’s for Christmas breakfast.
Our goal today was the Osu shopping district, and maybe a (self purchased) Christmas gift or two. We hadn’t done much research so were eager to see why the district is on every list of things to see in Nagoya.
The subway was busy as any other workday. Despite being less than a quarter the population of Tokyo Nagoya is still a very big and busy city and in rush hour you’re one of a zillion people. If you didn’t like crowds you may be a little put off but this is one thing I love about Japan.
That’s Osu Kannon Buddhist temple, after which the adjacent shopping street is named. The temple is about 700 years old and has a rich history. The current version is relatively new (about 50 years) since the place had been razed in WW2.
We’ve got a tinge of travel flu (which may simply be due to the very dry air) so we were careful to breath in the healing incense at the temple. Given we feel better this afternoon I’m guessing it worked 🙂
‘Osu shopping street’ is actually a series of interconnected pedestrian covered shopping streets that span several blocks adjacent to the temple. Apparently they cover a few miles and have over 1200 shops. Of particular note to us was that a large portion of these shops (farthest from the temple) are game/anime/card shops, which makes this Nagoya’s version of Akihabara.
That’s the real entrance to an Alice In Wonderland themed store, and yes you must bend down to get through the door! The shop itself sells all sorts of slightly gothic Alice themed merchandise, and was quite popular.
I sent some postcards from the above postbox – you’ll probably get one – and I wonder if they’ll have a Christmas Day postmark? Be sure to check!
Osu seems to have several local idol groups (men and women) and there’s lots of posters and such along the shopping streets to promote them. Can you see me hidden in the above shot?
There’s lots of Game Centers as well, and with my unparalleled skill I effortlessly won Kristin this lovely hair clip (which she removed right after this photo).
I found a retro arcade as well. Can you guess which game I’m playing?
Naturally we visited many game/otaku shops, but I’ll probably do a dedicated post about that sort of stuff in time. One slight difference from Akiba was the fact most of the Osu maid cafes were concentrated in a very small area (most of them right next to each other) and there was quite a variety!
The above was a used book/cd/dvd shop ran by an ancient man. Most of the right wall are 7″ singles and there must have been thousands of them. I bet there were treasures to be unearthed in there…
This photo captures the spirit of today. Lots of laughs, partly due to tiredness and partly due to the mad, quintessentially Japanese stuff we saw today. It was a fun way to spend Christmas Day!
Speaking of Christmas, it seems here the holiday is mostly decorations and music. And they don’t skimp on the lights, with most large shopping centers having massive displays!
Advertising screens often show Christmas videos, and employees often wear Christmas decorations on their clothes. Considering Japan doesn’t celebrate Christmas, the decorations here are more abundant and impressive than anything I’ve seen in the USA.
The above was taken yesterday at the zoo for instance, and was a tiny (one inch) Santa in a fish tank!
This evening crowds assembled to pose for photos with the tree at the base of our hotel building. This seemed to be continuing all day so it seems important to many that you get a snap in front of a big Christmas tree!
Chicken still seems to be the flavoured Christmas meal. We saw long lines today at chicken restaurants and when I went to KFC the other day they had a dedicated machine set up for Christmas preorders.
Christmas cakes are also very popular, and sold almost everywhere. The above photo was taken in a department store (the cakes are about $40 each) but you can buy cheaper ones – almost always strawberry – at convenience stores.
Kristin today purchased herself two very special Christmas cakes! These are ‘piyorin’, a chicken shaped ‘pudding cake’ that is a hot commodity here in Nagoya. As you can see, today they were Christmas themed 🙂
Our hotel is the one in the middle, and we’re on the fourth highest floor on this side (in fact I can see our room in this photo). Today was a long, eventful and very fun day; a very happy Christmas!
I hope yours was wonderful too 🙂