This NHK World video features a biking tour around Aichi prefecture. Nagoya is the largest city in Aichi prefecture, so it is very important to sumo fans as the home of the July Honbasho. As the video shows, Aichi is also important to the production of “Tai”, sea bream, that wonderful red fish we associate with yusho, promotion, and celebration. Anyway, if anyone out there is planning a trip to Nagoya to see the tournament, chances are you’ll be looking for other stuff to do off-hours or on days that you aren’t able to manage tickets, so this video may give a few ideas.
Another important feature of this video is its focus on “craft”, monozukuri 物作り…literally “making stuff.” The concept is central to Japanese industry and life. We’ve seen that with the recent video Herouth pointed out that showed (among other things) how sumo wrestlers’ combs are made. I’ve been particularly interested in it lately, playing around with making whisky. My favorite part is malting barley. The smell of germinating barley is nice. In this video, there’s a factory making hamanatto…in a woman’s house. It’s so awesome.
As I find things like this around sumo venues, I’ll try to bring them to your attention so you find things to enrich any trips you make to Japan. I’d like to help others avoid “Lost in Translation” syndrome, having experienced it myself when I first moved there.
Nagoya is a great city! I’d like to repay you for the tips you gave me last year Andy, so I’d like to add a couple of other places I like in Nagoya:
Syachi Ichi: quite incredible curry udon, one of my favourite restaurants around
Trattoria Cesari: this pizza restaurant won something like an award for best pizza world in 2010! Usually a queue.
Sakae Station: there are two stations in Sakae Subway station I love, but I do not know their names so I will have to give directions. If you enter from the south western side, there is a place with a number of curry dishes round to the right. Their ebi furai curry is fantastic, one of the juiciest ebi I have ever eaten. If you walk north towards the Higashiyama line, there is also an izakaya on the right with miso katsu, and it is quite great (usually quite busy, particularly after work, where many workers seem to head for food and drinks)
Nagoya Castle is very impressive
Loads of great restaurants for hitsumabushi (eel-based dish famous in Nagoya)
Nagoya Grampus Eight play football in J-League 1, and their enormous stadium is located in Toyota, not too far from Nagoya. In certain sections of the ground, the atmosphere is electric.
Nearby: Takayama, Gifu, Kyoto and Osaka are all fairly close to Nagoya, so it is a great place to be based for nearby travel.
Andy, can you link to the comb making video Herouth talked about?
Yes. I’ll try to find it and share it when I do. She tweeted it about a month or so ago. The comb-making was just one segment but fascinating.