Japan 2025, July 20

Down at 7am for breakfast this time, and it wasn't too crowded. The variety hadn't really changed so I just went with cereal, yoghurt and some orange juice in tiny drinking glasses. I was feeling a little tired after the very high step count yesterday, and a lot of running with parkrun included. Due to these factors I only planned to run up to Nagoya Castle, similar to the route to parkrun, and straight back. Towards the end I actually started feeling better, so could have gone longer than the short 6.5 kilometres I ended up with.

I was ready to leave the hotel and bit earlier than usual today, before 9am, and set off for Nagoya station via the underground. There was a lot going on at Nagoya station:

• Above ground train from Nagoya station - the one I was getting to Gifu and beyond
• Above ground train from Nagoya station but a separate line - to another area near Nagoya port, but not the aquarium
• Above ground train from a second Nagoya station nearby, with a different name
• Shinkansen
• Subway

Once again this was good practice for the shinkansen tomorrow, so it's probably worth considering a trial run like this on future holidays too.

Eventually I made it to the right station for the Gifu rapid express just before it was due to leave. Of course this meant I was at the back of the line waiting to board, so had to stand for about 20 minutes once onboard, not a good start to the day.

At Gifu station I just made before a bus was going to depart, but that meant I was standing again for 15 minutes. Every "N" bus goes past Gifu Park apparently, so I just got the first one I saw. After a quick drink at the destination stop I headed straight for the ropeway station to reach the top of Mt Kinka, since I wanted to get up and down as soon as possible.

There was one cable car just preparing to leave but I easily made it on the next one. Since I wasn't one of the first to board I didn't have a good window view going up though. Some guy was filming the whole four minute trip on his phone, which seemed pointless.

It was short walk from the top to reach Gifu Castle, but with lots of steps so it was a bit tiring. Finally I made it to a very small castle on the top of the mountain, it had four levels but that was just enough room for stairs and very little else. After a bit of a look around I started to make my way back down to the ropeway station.

Along the way there was a restaurant with a good panoramic viewing area on the roof, but I couldn't tell which direction was the city and the ropeway. My conclusion was the greater Gifu area looks nice, with a large river running along the city. I decided not to stop in at the squirrel village as I'm not sure if there's anything to do besides paying to feed them.

Again I was able to get the second ropeway car back down, so an efficient round trip. At the gift shop at the bottom I had a look for a magnet but found no good options, none even said Gifu. I didn't want to repeat my mistake of Himeji however, so I left but only to visit the other nearby stores, some which were selling a combination food and gifts.

Finding no other magnets I quickly went back to the ropeway to buy whatever I could, and at least it had a castle on it. By the time I had made it back to the ropeway entrance the queue had multiplied, with probably close to an hour wait by now. I was feeling lucky that I got there much earlier, it wouldn't have been worth the wait otherwise.

Before getting back on a bus I walked over to the old Kawara-machi historical street, but there wasn't much happening. I also got a view of the river, which might still be used for local traditional fishing.

A bus was just leaving Gifu Park so I jumped on board. For the opposite trip every "E" bus goes back to the train station, but I remembered seeing a "G" bus number also in my research, so got on that bus and it still went to the right place. Near the city bus stop I found the Oda Nobunaga gold statue in front of a water feature. He is the legendary figure from this area from centuries ago.

Before leaving I checked this tourist information centre but again it had no magnets. After some drinks and snacks I was back to standing on another train back to Nagoya. For the afternoon I had to choose either:

• Central Japan railway museum
• Toyota museum of industry and technology

They both had good ratings, but the Toyota museum was closer so went with that. The entry was only paid in person, it was 10,000 yen entry but they accepted credit cards at least.

Checking the schedule of events I saw the robot playing violin was starting soon, so quickly ate lunch and headed over. For once I made sure to be a few minutes early as per Japanese custom. The demonstration only went for five minutes, it played some Toyota theme and then a bit of Pomp And Circumstance.

Out of the two options I went to the automotive section first, which progresses through from the Toyota beginnings as a car manufacturer to more current times. They had a lot of large machines, some with moving parts although not doing real manufacturing. The modern day information showed how they design their cars, like environmental standards, safety features, technology improvements etc. Overall there was a good amount of content to see and interact with, everything had a least an English title but often not the full description.

The textile section was the other half, and it wasn't as good. It contained a complete history of their machinery, mostly cotton looms, however the current machines looked very advanced and impressive. The gift shop didn't have any good unique items as I'd hoped, all I came away with was a Yaris magnet.

My feet were very tired from all of the standing and walking so I didn't add any other things to the day. A quick train trip back to Nagoya and then a short walk to the hotel to conclude by Nagoya activities across two and a half days. My phone battery has getting down to 50% by the end of some days, mostly due to Google Maps and having location enabled in new places like Gifu today.

I wasn't feeling too hungry but thought I might regret it later if I didn't eat anything. I also wanted to have some energy for a bit of a longer run tomorrow morning before leaving. Since it was close and easy I went to CoCo Ichibanya again for another vegetable curry.

Since arriving I hadn't totally unpacked everything for three nights, so the packing looked slightly easier this time around. Because of running and getting changed in the morning I have to wait until then to finish arranging the suitcase. The good thing about heading to my final hotel is there's not as much organising left to do, and I've deleted half of my itinerary notes. The bad thing of course is that it means the end of my trip is fast approaching.

Gifu - 5 out of 10

• Good
• A bit more nature just outside the city
• Easily accessible from Nagoya in just 20 minutes express, otherwise 30 minutes
• Not getting stuck in a big queue at the ropeway
• Bad
• Choice of magnets
• Not much for tourists besides the Gifu Park area
• Missed Out
• Kogane shrine
• Squirrel Village at Mt Kinka

Nagoya - 8 out of 10

• Good
• Could have added another day at least with more activities
• Good subway network
• No rain
• Bad
• Hard to navigate underground areas
• Pokemon Store queue
• Running options still limited, but quiet back streets on the weekend at least
• Missed Out
• Central Japan railway museum
• Ghibli park - further away and would require most of a day
• Mitsui outlet park - further away, near the amusement park
• Nagashima Spa Land - amusement park
• Noritake garden
• Osu Kannon temple
• Osu Shotengai shopping street
• Sealife Nagoya
• Tokugawa art museum

Public transport = 1810 yen (710 Gifu each way with train and bus)

Steps = 21,316 with 6.5 kilometres running