The city of Nagoya is one that my wife and I have wanted to visit for many years now but we never seem to quite get as far as booking anything as there always seems to be a better option. That didn’t mean I couldn’t go alone though so with her going back to work a few days before me, I had some time to myself so decided to stop off in both Osaka and Nagoya on my way back to Tokyo.

About 15 minutes walk from Kanayama station is this quirky sight which I wanted to see so on my return from Toyokawa Inari shrine I thought I’d seek it out. Just as I was starting to think it may have disappeared (as my information was from a few years back) I could see what is it’s tail.

Housed on a tiny playground area, this unique building is actually a warehouse used by firefighters which was built back in 1986. When coming up with an idea for the building they didn’t just go for your typical bricks and mortar style but instead wanted something popular with children (maybe because it’s in the playground!) which is why they chose the dog. It was also because they thought it would nicely compliment the big maneki-neko one elsewhere in Nagoya which I sadly didn’t have time to visit.

That dog building may have been the main sight I wanted to see in Nagoya (yes, really!) but believe it or not the most popular sightseeing place in the city though surely has to be Nagoya-jo Castle. I paid the 500 yen entrance fee to the castle grounds and took a quick wander around the place (below) but as I was pushed for time I really didn’t linger too long. Maybe I’ll go in when I return with my wife next time.

Once I was done with the castle I met up with my friend Yuki again and we took the train to Kamimaezu on the Meijo subway line and as we were making our way to get some lunch (click here for details of that) I came across these interesting playground structures (below) including a mini Mount Fuji climbing apparatus and the pirate themed swings.

We wandered through Osu shopping arcade and onto Osu temple itself. We spent so much time looking at another shrine which was a filming location in ‘Mr Baseball‘ (1992) that we couldn’t be bothered with another place of worship, particularly one that was so heaving with both locals and tourists lining up to do their New Years ritual.

Having only had around four hours sleep I was starting to flag after that but we decided to walk from the temple to Nagoya station via a few stops to see some interesting architectural buildings (below) like the Nagoya City Science Museum, the Mode Gakuen Spiral Tower and the giant mannequin which for some reason is something of an icon in Nagoya.

It had been something of an epic day and by 5pm I was totally done in so just decided to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo rather than staying and prolonging things. It’s sometimes good to leave a place wanting more and hopefully I’ll be back later this year with my wife alongside me.

Click here to read ‘Dining Out In Nagoya’