Today marks the last day of my stay in the hotel and the end of my 'never-will-it-happen-ever-again' 3 month long holidays. Tomorrow, I will finally move over to University dormitory (which should of happened back in march). Anyway, since I was lazing around in the hotel room the whole day yesterday, I thought I'd go out again today to make the most out of my time.
I started the day with a nice heartwarming bowl of ramen, thanks to Sugakiya.
Pretty much every single place I've went to this week involves something to do ---48. Sakae - SKE48 shop, Ichinomiya - Kitarie's hometown, Osaka - NMB48 Shop. It's really my only motivation for going anywhere at this point in time, so today is no different. Although it's a bit far fetched, I headed out to...
Thank goodness Gifu has it's own prefecture, otherwise coming all the way here (45mins) to get foreign registration and all the paperwork done would be a pain in the rear.
Just outside the station is a beautiful smell of flowers.
Not far a walk and I got to here, Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, quite amassive building.
But this isn't where I was suppose to go...
THIS, is where I'm suppose to go!
Nagoya Castle!
The thing is pretty big!
I couldn't take pictures inside but it was filled with artifacts and writings of the history about the castle, including the lid of the bomb that destroyed the original castle! Mmm, I can still smell the reek of American patriotism.
I got pretty knackered after just simply strolling around 5 floors (there were 6, I just skipped one ok?), so I just went right to the top...
I see the light!
The views were unbelievably spectacular
Got myself a neat little souvenir
On the way home, I passed a store that was SO shiny, that it lit up the subway station like it was midday. Packed with people, they were lining up with tongs and trays for their turn at the shelves filled with golden pastry. It was literally a gold rush. As if that wasn't enough, the aroma coming from the store was ten times the strength of gravity. I couldn't escape. I HAD to go in...
Cascade bakery
Everything looked and smelt SO good, I kid you not, if you managed to ignore it completely, I would give you a hundred... slaps in the face.
After being in a daze for about 5 minutes, I started looking around and realized that 99% of the people in there were female. Now there's a reason for this, but before I go ahead explaining it, I just need to race to the counter and pay for my purchases.
Phew!
Now, in my three very long (not) years of Japanese cultural studies, I've learnt that it is 'stereotypical' that women are allowed to enjoy sweet foods such as cakes and pastries. For a man to eat such things, it is seen as 'un-manly'. However, there is a solution for this, and I have written about it here. Of course, today's young Japanese are breaking down these stereotypical barriers but it might take a little while before we see businessmen licking lollipops on their way to work.
Last but not least, the reason why I went to Nagoya Castle today:
She's pretty good isn't she?
For those who don't get it, the girl, Yamamoto Sayaka (NMB48), is known for her imitations on buildings, one of the them being the Nagoya Castle.
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