Japan 2025, July 19

I made a quick plan on Friday night to get to the morning parkrun at Meijo Koen, which translates to Meijo park, at the usual time of 8am. The venue was about 3 kilometres away, so it hardly seemed worth walking to a station and then getting two different trains, perhaps for the return trip if I was tired.

I also spent at least another hour trying to find out how to reserve Lawson tickets online, then actually redeem the physical tickets from a vending machine in a store. Finally before bed I had yet another long nose bleed in the shower, just when I thought they might be over.

The Google maps walking estimate to parkrun was 3 kilometres and 45 minutes with traffic light delays accounted for. I estimated 20-25 minutes for the trip with jogging, so left at about 7:10am and was there by 7:35 at the latest. I didn't think to have anything to drink before leaving so I was already very thirsty when I arrived, but found a water tap nearby at least.

The run director did their announcement in Japanese although most people were talking in groups, and there was some really loud insects chirping as well. From the race start one guy went off quickly then I was in about fourth with a few people close ahead and behind. There was also a lot of people using this small park for their exercise so it was hard to tell for sure what was going on. The course was a mix of gravel and paved, and it often wasn't possible to take the best route due to all the other groups of people.

Later in the first lap one more person went past, but I slowly caught a couple of others, and I could also hear someone sitting right behind me the whole way. By about the third 1.25 kilometre lap I was feeling more dehydrated and it was getting a bit more challenging, but my lap times were still good. In the final lap I put in a bit more speed and dropped the guy behind me, and just caught someone else before the end for third overall.

The course came in over 5.1 kilometres due to the wide route taken, and I was happy to come in under 20 minutes considering that. The barcode scanners were in a bit of a panic thinking I was going to disappear with the finish token, but I was just standing around trying to cool down. After another drink to recover I decided to jog back to the hotel and got nearly a perfect run with the usuually very slow pedestrian crossings.

I was just able to get changed and down to breakfast before the 9:30 entry cut off. The selection was alright, but because it's a smaller hotel didn't have the same range as Osaka.

Before leaving I tried to go through the procedure of purchasing a ticket from the Lawson website for the Capcom exhibit at the Nagoya City art museum. I got it to work eventually and it even gave a QR code, which was meant to automate some steps on the machines inside the stores.

I decided to change the order for the day as I had to walk to a Lawson store somewhere to determine if I could get this ticket or not. There was a Lawson between the hotel and the museum so I went there first. The hardest part in the end was trying to get the QR code to scan off my phone. Using the gallery and photo apps the code kept rotating or showing another menu over the top of it, since I hadn't turned off auto rotate. Finally it worked and then I just had to enter a name, and from watching a video online I knew how to switch to the English alphanumeric input. After I got a receipt I just handed it to the man and paid with credit card and I was finally done.

The walk continuing to the museum was a little over one kilometre, just past the science museum. The science museum has very mixed reviews, and more negative due to having little to no English provided anywhere. Therefore I just went straight to the art museum and entered the Capcom exhibit with my Lawson ticket. They had a good collection of information, artwork and videos, although a lot of the newer games I wasn't too interested in. There was a good amount of Mega Man and Street Fighter, but not as much for Final Fight, Ghosts and Goblins, and Resident Evil (or Biohazard).

It was probably a bit overpriced for $25 but not too bad for an hour or two as a unique temporary event. I just got a magnet and some kind of towel from the gift shop before leaving.

I had a bit of walk from the museum to the closest train station, but there was also a Parco with another Pokemon store along the way. This trip was an immediate failure as the store was overloaded, there was even some ticketing system just to enter the store. It was only a five minute detour for my day at least, so no energy wasted. I also went to the large Animate store while I was there, but had no idea what I was looking at.

Next on the list then was Nagoya Castle. I knew you couldn't go inside so I figured this would be a quick trip, but involved much more walking than I expected. The ticket cost 500 yen (cash only) which provides access to the inner grounds, and the main feature was a walk around the Honmaru Palace rooms. The palace had lots of display rooms, with nice artwork on the walls and it was very gold paint themed. I managed to find a Nagoya magnet (cash only again) which was the same style as the Kyoto, Nara, Osaka set I got previously - if only Himeji had one of the same.

The rest of the castle visit was just walking around the grounds and then coming out at a different exit. It was a bit of a walk back to the station where I came from, and then just one stop to Hisayaodori where I was yesterday. I was overdue for lunch so got some food at the convenience store and sat down outside the TV tower, but it didn't look there was anything else to see there. Since I was running a bit low on cash I got another 10,000 yen which should last at least a few days I hope.

My next stop was a longer train journey to Nagoyako at the end of the line, meaning Nagoya port. I already purchased a ticket for the port aquarium, not knowing if I'd be going to the one is Osaka too. This aquarium was a bit different at least, there was some orca pool at the entrance and then a big main pool for dolphin shows. It seemed like I came just towards the end of a show as the outside seating area was all full, and within a few minutes everyone was leaving again.

There was a separate second building which had more of a variety of fish, and a large room full of penguins at the end of the route. Overall maybe not quite as good as Osaka, although I missed the whole dolphin show, but it did have a few different things too.

My step count was dangerously high at close to 25,000 and both feet were sore so I didn't want to push it much further. I had one "probably" and one "maybe" activity still on my list but decided to postpone both and see what happens tomorrow.

It took a while to get back to the hotel and required at least one train line change, plus more walking at the end. Getting off at the main Nagoya station I was at least able to find a bakery and some convenience stores, and a convenient exit leading towards the hotel. The Lawson store finally had a bit of drink variety - a Fanta mello yello and some Fanta collaboration that was described as white grape, milk, and sour - so I skipped that one.

Back to the hotel a little early before 6pm again, but I needed the recovery time with possibly another big final day in Nagoya tomorrow. I had to spend some time as usual organising a trip to Gifu and back, and anything else to do if there was time left over.

Public transport = 960 yen

Steps = 26,769 with 10.6 kilometres running