Nagoya not a very attractive town?

[Sacto1985]

Asahi News Network (ANN) in Japan ran a TV report on why it seems Nagoya is not a attractive town for visitors:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaHOrCeuM5U

 

I myself can easily hazard a guess why: because of the city's very close association with the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company (after all, that part of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu was founded in Nagoya in 1920!), the city itself was essentially bombed flat by USAAF bombers in 1945, essentially destroying all the historical structures in the city and eliminating (in my opinion!) most of its value as a tourist attraction for many years after World War II.

 

As such, Nagoya is arguably one of the most monoculturally Japanese cities, period. Even attractive museums in the city--the two museums founded by Toyota, the Tokugawa Art Museum, the SCMaglev and Railway Park, and the Noritake Garden museum of ceramics--doesn't exact dispel this public perception. I really hope that the government of Nagoya rectifies this, because Nagoya is so easily reached by Shinkansen service from both Tokyo and Osaka.

[westfalen]

SCMaglev and Railway Park, Meitetsu, plenty of freight trains including DD51's.  What more could you want? :)

[railsquid]

About this time 19 years ago I arrived at Nagoya on the overnight Seishun 18-kippu-compatible train from Tokyo at about 6am, traipsed around for about an hour then for some reason decided it wouldn't be worth waiting around for the city to burst into sparkling, scintillating life. After breakfasting in a remarkably fly-blown McDonalds I found a bookstore, skimmed through a couple of guide books and decided the day would be much better spend somewhat further down the Tokaido line at Hikone (which proved to be a good choice).

 

IIRC there are plans to rebuild the castle in wood, but I still can't help thinking the city's tourism slogan should be "Nagoya: that place between Tokyo and Kyoto where the Shinkansen always stops". ;)

[Sacto1985]

SCMaglev and Railway Park, Meitetsu, plenty of freight trains including DD51's.  What more could you want? :)

 

That'll be great if you're a railfan of Japanese railroads, but general tourism, not so much. It's still a great industrial city because of Toyota east of the city and Mitsubishi still having a lot of facilities in the area, but that ANN story points out the problem of why it's not so attractive. Tokyo because of its cosmopolitan nature is still very attractive for tourism, and of course the Kyoto-Nara corridor has a lot of tourists because both cities were relatively untouched by USAAF World War II bombing, and as such has many well-known historical sites dating back hundreds of years.

 

railsquid, in fact even nearby Gifu is more interesting to tourists than Nagoya itself. Gifu is famous for its many traditional arts and crafts, and is a gateway to the historical cities of Takayama and the the Shirakawa-go traditional village.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Sacto1985

[westfalen]

Well I suppose I'm not the average tourist, when I see a city described in a guide book as an 'industrial or port city, not worth visiting' it goes straight on my to-do list.

 

I guess not every city can be a tourist attraction, you've got to put all your industries and so forth somewhere.

[bikkuri bahn]

Up to now, I reckon Nagoya and the Tokai region has been too busy being the automotive and aerospace capital of Japan to bother with attracting tourists. That said, Nagoya has less showy attractions which up to now haven't been promoted very much. As the report details in the latter half, the regional cuisine is very unique and has a lot of depth. I think Nagoya should promote its heritage more, emphasizing Tokugawa Ieyasu and its location in the center of Japan- neither Kansai, which it is very close to geographically, nor Kanto, though linguistically it seems closer to Kanto.

 

Anyway, I've come to appreciate Nagoya more over the past two or three years, both for its food, and the fact that Meitetsu is one of the most interesting private railways in Japan. Plus the Toyoko Inns usually have rooms available on weekends, unlike those in Tokyo or Kansai.

[Sacto1985]

Up to now, I reckon Nagoya and the Tokai region has been too busy being the automotive and aerospace capital of Japan to bother with attracting tourists. That said, Nagoya has less showy attractions which up to now haven't been promoted very much. As the report details in the latter half, the regional cuisine is very unique and has a lot of depth. I think Nagoya should promote its heritage more, emphasizing Tokugawa Ieyasu and its location in the center of Japan- neither Kansai, which it is very close to geographically, nor Kanto, though linguistically it seems closer to Kanto.

 

Anyway, I've come to appreciate Nagoya more over the past two or three years, both for its food, and the fact that Meitetsu is one of the most interesting private railways in Japan. Plus the Toyoko Inns usually have rooms available on weekends, unlike those in Tokyo or Kansai.

 

I really think if Nagoya wants to attract more foreign tourists, it should really push for celebrating its industrial heritage, easily one of the greatest in all of Japan with its historical association with Mitbubishi's industrial divisions and Toyota (both in the textile industry and in automobiles). And there should also be a major push for showcasing Nagoya's quite unique take on Japanese cuisine, which is more on the level of "comfort food" and in many ways quite different than what you get in other parts of Japan (kishimen and miso nikomi udon, for starters).

[katoftw]

There are lots of cities in Japan that aren't attractive to visitors.  Nagoya just happens to be the biggest and well know.

[Nick_Burman]

On my trip to Japan we stayed in Nagoya because I wanted to see the SCMaglev Park (a museum that even my mother who likes trains but is not a die-hard railfan liked) and both mother and I wanted to visit Meiji Mura (wesfalen you forgot that one...) in Inuyama. The town is indeed devoid of much of interest for the ordinary sight-seeing visitor. Despeite this both of us found the city agreeable with its wide streets and avenues; it has a very American feel to it, but with the convenience of a Japanese city. But then, when compared to the horror that is Sao Paulo, any Japanese city (even dreadful Toyohashi) is better...

 

Cheers NB

[westfalen]

Meiji Mura (wesfalen you forgot that one...) in Inuyama.

 

Cheers NB

I forgot that one because I haven't been there yet.  For a city with nothing to do there is a lot to give me reasons to keep going back.

 

I've actually spent the last couple of nights trying to cull down a short list of new things to see during a four or five hour visit in September.  Did I mention Japan's only guided busway or the quirky Tōkai Kōtsū Jigyō's Jōhoku line with its kiha 11-300's up on a viaduct out in the suburbs.

Edited July 20, 2016 by westfalen