Field Notes
And before you jump to the conclusion that she was an alcoholic having a rough morning, she wasn’t the exception. After I finished lunch and walked through the shopping street inside Nagoya Station, a bar was already in full swing with locals downing drinks, chatting, laughing. This was a Thursday working-day afternoon.
What do you all do to celebrate New Year’s Day?!
This was my first visit to the city, and I was here for the Aichi Triennale. As I stepped off the train, it hit me that I knew nothing about this place. Sure, I had a place to stay and an event to go to, but nothing else. What do they eat here? Where do people go? What’s cool about this place?
And that’s how I ended up at the yakitori bar in the station. The first spot that looked decent, full of locals, and serving something to fill my stomach.
Nagoya often gets overlooked compared with the usual suspects: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. Most visitors come for Nagoya Castle, Ghibli Park, or just pass through on their way to places like Gifu. It’s more of a stopover city, something you notice on the map rather than plan a whole trip around. It sits between Japan’s two most visited cities, but never quite gets the same attention.
It’s the fourth largest city in Japan and a manufacturing hub for brands like Toyota. People here make things, from ceramics and textiles to high-tech vehicles and robotics. Some even call it the “Detroit of Japan.”
Exit the central station and you might think you’ve landed in Tokyo. Malls, skyscrapers, familiar brands like Takashimaya. Keep walking and it starts to feel different. People move fast, but lighter, without the sharp collars or intensity you see in Tokyo. Outfits are casual, hair a little messy, phones in pockets rather than glued to hands. Drinks and meals cost less, there’s no tourist tax in restaurants, and no one seems to be trying too hard. It feels like a city that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
I was starting to like Nagoya already.
And did I mention people love drinking here? A lot. At any hour.
I stopped for a coffee late one morning. Two ladies in their 60s took the table next to me. A moment later, two one-litre beers landed in front of them. A strong choice for brunch.
As you walk through the city, Nagoya is filled with people and events. Everywhere you turn, something is happening. An outdoor performance. A farmers’ market. Live music drifting across a plaza. Seniors strutting down a runway for a fashion show. Rows of pop-up stalls selling food from all over the world, each with that unmistakable Japanese twist. Vietnamese pho, Mexican tacos, homemade craft beer. A full clash of cultures. The city feels alive, a constant stream of things to see, do, and eat. A cocktail of flavours on every corner.
Nagoya is also known for its morning and weekend markets.
Yanagibashi Central Market opens before sunrise and is famous for fresh seafood. Here, the usual rules of Japanese etiquette don’t always apply. Staff smoke on the street between loading and unloading boxes of fish, a can of beer in the other hand. Inside, the place is packed with boxes of everything the sea can offer.
Markets like this are some of the best places to have sushi. You are right in the middle of it all. Only a few stalls were open when I arrived. While waiting for a seat and listening to the mix of languages from visitors, I noticed the staff speaking to each other in Vietnamese.
Scenes like this were becoming common. It no longer felt unusual to see people from all over the world living, working, and blending in with the culture, helping shape a new Japan.
Inside, tents of all sizes, food trucks, long lines of people: families, kids, teenagers, adults, seniors. Anyone and everyone. No one was trying to be cool, no one was here to impress. They were all just here for a good time. Campfires at the front, pop-up stalls with games for kids. A stage with live music and hosts from the local TV station. Quite the sight, I’ll tell you.
After a day of R&R, I made my way to the main event, one of Japan’s largest international arts festivals, held every three years since 2010.
Unlike the Biwako Biennale or Setouchi Triennale, where unused buildings are turned into temporary galleries, most of the Aichi Triennale exhibits are in museums. The work and mood feel different too. Bigger, sleeker, more intricate. Each exhibit has its own docent, dressed in black suits, arms folded behind their backs. It feels more serious than the other two festivals I visited.
Aside from the two museums, the third location, Seto City, is an old town an hour’s train ride from downtown Nagoya. It is home to world-famous ceramic ware that dates back a thousand years. Known as one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns, it is wrapped by low mountains and blessed with an abundant supply of high-quality clay. Its name was the origin of the word seto-mono, a synonym for ceramics.
After visiting the previous art festivals and now the Aichi Triennale, it’s clear it’s not just about the art. It’s more about revitalising local communities and lesser-known regions of Japan. An excuse to grab an event passport and stamp your way through multiple locations and exhibits. A fun way to explore old towns and islands where people have left for bigger cities.
Most of the artworks are site-specific, made for the space and nowhere else. Unlike other art shows where the audience is mostly students or practitioners, here it’s everyday people. The work doesn’t try to impress or make you feel small. It’s neither low brow nor high brow. It’s just what it is. A reflection of what the artist sees and feels about the place, a mirror for anyone who comes by. It’s not about big names or star power. It’s about turning underutilised spaces and overlooked regions into a reason to spend a nice afternoon.
In the end, Nagoya turned out to be a surprise. I came here knowing nothing and expecting nothing. This was my last day of a two-week trip through Japan, from the Seto Inland Sea for the Setouchi Triennale, Osaka for the World Expo, Omihachiman for the Biwako Biennale, and finally Nagoya for the Aichi Triennale.
Japan has long been one of the most beloved places to visit. They’ve ruled pop culture with movies, books, and music, and led technological innovation with the Walkman and Nintendo that changed the world. They’ve taken the fashion world by storm since the 1980s with Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, and Jun Takahashi, alongside everyday brands like Uniqlo and Muji, now seen in almost every major city. They’ve given us camera phones, handheld calculators, anime and manga, tea ceremony, matcha, the martial arts, QR codes, bullet trains, instant noodles, and the emoji. The list goes on and on and on. Few countries have captured the hearts and imaginations of billions. You could spend a lifetime here and still not experience everything this country has to offer.
Still, this is a place people will keep wanting to visit again and again. With the yen at an all-time low, a boom in affordable short-term accommodation, low-cost flights, and up to 90 days visa-free, the number of tourists visiting Japan will only keep increasing. The challenge is how to encourage them to travel beyond Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. To do that, the country has offered free domestic flights to promote lesser-known regions and introduced a tourist tax in cities like Kyoto to ease overtourism. Initiatives like the Setouchi and Aichi Triennale and Biwako Biennale are strong ways to draw visitors further and deeper.
I finally replied with a tiny list of three places I had a really good time at, with the caveat that everyone has their own list of “must-go” places. But Japan also contains so much people don’t know about, and the best way to uncover it is to go with no expectations, no idea of what’s there or what it’s known for, and just wander and see what you find, which, to me, feels like the only good reason for not staying at home. You might just come across the same lady with three drinks at 12 in the afternoon.
Travel is a way to learn from and about the world. Field Trips is a new series of notes about the people and places we meet along the way.
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Felix Ng
Co-founder, Anonymous
@felix.anonymous