Autumn Trip to Japan: Part 2

Hello everyone and  welcome back to Tiro Finale! In the first part of my Autumn Trip to Japan, I went over several attractions including Nikko, Nagoya and Kobe. If you have yet to read that, allow me to point you that way before we move on with today's attraction. With Kobe done and dusted, it was time to head back to our base camp in Nagoya.

For a while now, I have wanted to pay a visit to Nagoya. Aside from it being a city full or history and heritage, another big reason I wanted to pay a visit to this grand city was because it was the home to Toyota. Not just the giant automobile manufacturer, that you and I probably know off, but the large manufacturing conglomerate that is Toyota.

Being home to Toyota, there are no less than 3 Toyota museums throughout Nagoya. The Toyota Automobile Museum in particular was one that was very high up on the list as it included a huge collection of historical automobiles which are all part of Toyota's personal collection and curation.

I call these yellow classics, the Mami Mobile!

Of course, no Toyota museum would not be complete without a Lexus LFA. Toyota's new Supra had yet to make it to the museum but, that was a small matter. Aside from the large collection of cars, the museum was also home to a large selection of automobile memorabilia which would have taken more than an entire day just to go through!

One other attraction that I would strongly recommend is the cafe over at the Toyota Museum where you can get a fairly affordable meal which tastes good too! Unfortunately, the Toyota 2000GT Hot Dog was not available on the day I was there.

The Automobile Museum is just one of the many Toyota museums in Nagoya as closer to the city was the actual Toyota museum which recounts Toyota's century long history from its humble beginnings as a textile production company.

Built on the grounds of the original Toyota factory, this museum is absolutely worth a visit. Almost every exhibit is a working functioning machine previously or currently used in the industry. On top of that, they also offered free guided tours all throughout the museum's opening hours.

There is even a sizable portion dedicated to Toyota's automobile manufacturing and I mean that in the literal sense. As there are a large number of functioning heavy machinery used to build said cars just on the museum floor which attendees are allowed to operate.

On the next day, we paid a visit to a spot which I had quietly been trying to avoid during the autumn season, Kyoto. Having been to Kyoto over the late autumn to early winter period, this current time frame I was in was likely more ideal to capture Kyoto's autumn beauty.

Nevertheless, I had my apprehension considering the density of visitors that would be around at this time of the year.

True enough, my fears and suspicions were proven to be true when the streets were filled to the brim with tourists. You could hardly even see the roads! As it stands, I already have a massive dislike for crowds. But crowds moving aimlessly, that is even worse.

Not wanting to squander the opportunity, I still tried to hunt out photo spots that were not too crowded with tourists. Though, these were really far and few in between.

Kyoto is mostly known for its bus service when it comes to public transport. Those are often packed and can be a little complicated for first timers. If you ever get the chance to take the heritage trains though, I would strongly recommend that.

Back to the city and what do you find? That is right, even more crowds. Not even Tokyo station is this crowded and at the time I was there, it was not even peak hours yet!

Fortunately, I left Kyoto earlier to grab a fairly empty shinkansen back to Nagoya for the other main reason that I had been meaning to visit Nagoya. Hobby shops and more specifically, Mandarake! I had been a big patron of Mandarake Nagoya in the past and had always wanted to visit the store in person. Unlike Kyoto, Mandarake certainly did not disappoint. More on that in a standalone post coming soon!

Aside from Mandarake, Nagoya turned out to be quite the otaku-hub too having several large and well known hobby stores such as Jungle, Rashinbang and Yellow Submarine. Rest assured, I have a dedicated post for each of these hobby stores.

Speaking of Rashinbang, the one in Nagoya has got to be one of the most impressive outlets of this hobby store I have ever seen. Not to mention, they were even having a big autumn sale where I managed to grab a large number of Mami merchandise!

For all you card game fans, make sure to head to Nagoya's local Yellow Submarine. They close a little later than the other hobby shops so, you could probably head there last.

Nagoya even has its own dedicated Cospa shop.

No trip would not be complete without some yakiniku and yakitori. The best is these establishments tend to close late at night which meant I could go after having done all of my shopping at Mandarake and Rashinbang.

On the next day, it was time to head back to Tokyo in preparation for our return flights. A quick shinkansen back to Tokyo made things easy and seamless. Prior to this, I had never taken the bullet train so many times in one single week.

Back in Tokyo, there was only one place I had left to visit, Akihabara! But with only a few hours at hand, it had to be an express run. Fortunately, I still remembered most of Akihabara's layout and had no trouble hitting up all of my favorite stores such as AmiAmi and Mandarake.

I even made time for the Love Live exhibition that was being held at Atre. More of that in a separate post!

Before I left, I had actually missed the opportunity to play this particular Gashapon. It had the new Dia swimsuit capsule figure that Takuya sorely wanted but, the risk of getting a Kanan meant the 500 Yen investment loss was not something he was willing to absorb. Oh well, another time then.

At exactly 9 o'clock, it was time to head to the airport to catch our flights back. This may not have been a long trip but, almost like a pattern, my Japan trips have gradually become more and more packed. This is definitely a good thing as it meant being able to see more than I could ever expect to if I were to stick with a relaxed time table. And with that, we come to the end of my 2019 autumn trip. As promised, each of the hobby highlights will receive their own individual articles which will be released over the coming weeks. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!