Japan 2014: Nagoya Homecoming

It’s the last day of August and I’m still writing about my travels in May… (>_<) I hope I can get caught up before Christmas!

On 18th May, after a fantastic time exploring Kamikochi with my friend, we headed back to Nagoya. Nagoya is my home in Japan, and it was wonderful to return after three years. Amazingly, I managed to catch up with almost everyone!

First we headed to my favourite coffee shop, Komeda (コメダ), where I couldn’t resist ordering my ‘usual’ ‘cream coffee’ (クリームコーヒー) (gosh – I’d forgotten how big it was!).

Komeda Coffee’s ‘cream coffee’ – yum!

It was wonderful to catch up with my Japanese family, albeit briefly.

My Japanese family, outside Komeda Coffee

After a quick pit-stop at my hotel and a glance out the window…

Nagoya

I dashed off to meet up with all my old colleagues and students from my teaching days. My friend had arranged for everyone to meet in a tofu restaurant called Ume no Hana (梅の花), which was just lovely!

Catching up with old friends, ex-colleagues and students

The food was really good too! If you ever thought tofu was boring, I highly recommend going to a proper tofu restaurant in Japan – you’ll change your mind!

Tofu soup for the soul

Dengaku

 

The next morning, I was greeted by a sunny Nagoya:

Sunny Nagoya

I spent a day working in the Nagoya office of the company I work for in Bristol, which was really interesting. It was quite strange to be working in Japan and not teaching, but I did quite enjoy it. We went out in the evening for dinner at an Okinawa themed restaurant in Nagoya. I don’t know the name of the restaurant, but it was pretty neat!

Beautiful sashimi

A night out with colleagues & new friends

It was so good to be back in Nagoya. I miss it all the time, but it’s good to know I have such good friends there and I can still go back and be welcomed by everyone. I’ll definitely return to Nagoya on my next visit to Japan!