Travel Notes #1 — Nagoya 名古屋

7 min readJun 29, 2022

Hello everyone, it will be the first English article I upload to Medium. There are three reasons why I want to start English writing. (最下方有中文版本～～)

The first one, of course, is improving my English writing skills.

The second is learning new words. Since graduating from high school, it has been hard to know new words if I don’t actively learn some new terms. Sometimes I could learn new words from textbooks or abroad websites, but it’s still limited.

Last but not least, when I enter graduate school, I will have many opportunities to write an English essay, so I would like to have a sense of English writing first.

After thinking about writing an English article, I started considering what topics I should write. After a few days, Somethings pop into my brain, “What about the travel notes.”

In this travel note, I will share my trip to Nagoya and talk about where I’ve been and what food I ate. Without further chit-chat, let’s start!!

Outline:

Itinerary
Meiji Mura
Nagoya TV Tower
LEGO LAND
Postscripts
Chinese version

First of all, let’s start with the itinerary.

DAY 1 (Meiji Mura)

Taking the night bus → Nagoya → Go to Hotel(Comfort Hotel Nagoya Fushimi) → Go to Meiji Mura → Back to Nagoya→ Eating Dinner(山本屋) → Taking a stroll around Nagoya Tower → Get some midnight snack(世界の山ちゃん) → Back to Hotel.

DAY 2 (Atsuta Shrine＋City Tour)

Hotel → Atsuta Shrine → Lunch (蓬萊軒)→ Osu shouten machi → Shopping Mall street→ Take a bus to Nagoya station → Dinner() → Take the subway to 栄（さかえ） → Nagoya TV Tower → Back to Hotel.

DAY 3 (LEGO LAND)

Hotel → Lego Land → Window shopping at Nagoya station → Dinner → Head to Osaka.

On the trip to Nagoya, It was my first time traveling alone. As a high school student, I always imagined what it would look like to travel alone. Many books say that travel alone could expand our vision, know ourselves better, or be more flexible when facing a problem. But what does it actually look like? I keep asking myself. That’s why I have been searching for the opportunity for a long time. Though I have been to a lot of places, I would only choose three of them to share.

1. Meiji Mura

I chose to go to Meiji Mura first because I would like to see the building in Meiji Period and how they are presented to the visitors. Is there anything I could learn from the village? Is it possible for Taiwan to construct a similar town showing old Taiwan streets or buildings?

There are a few things that astonished me. The first is the transportation in the park; a village bus runs the length of the village, a tram, and a steam locomotive.

Because I forgot to take the photos of anything of them, use this steam locomotive to serve as the village transportation😅

The second is the hospital, which is called 名古屋衛戍病院. I admire that Japanese people are thorough. Inside the hospital, they prepare the plastic sample of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then we can know what patients ate during that period.

the left side is lunch, and the right side is dinner

The third one is the prison, which is called 前橋監獄雜居房. In the beginning, there have three big posters, which they wanted to create a visual extension of space. Keep staring at it; I could feel like I was standing in prison during that period.(I forgot to take the photo.🥲) Looking inside the jail, I could always smell that some people were scheming to escape here.

BTW, I also saw the X-ray machine, and it is hard to believe they could make an x-ray machine in that era.

2. Nagoya TV Tower

As I know, we can see any kind of tower in Japanese cities. Without exception, Nagoya has its own tower too, but recently the name has been changed to Chubu Electric Power MIRAI TOWER. Beside the building is a small linear park with many restaurants and clothes shops. Eating there must feel like living abroad.

LEGO LAND

If you ask me, I would say LEGO LAND was my favorite place throughout this trip. The site takes me back to 10 years old. To be honest, I also went here by myself. It might sound a little weird, but I tell myself that I must go to Lego Land once in my life. It’s on my buckle list!!

While waiting for the ticket, I felt stressed that I was going by myself and the people surrounding me, either parents or kids. I have seldom seen a teenager or college student. However, after finishing the first facility, I have the feeling that I am totally free, which means I got the courage to be myself. My inner voice came up and told me. Why do I always care about how people think about me? And then what Steve Jobs used to say came up to my mind.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice, and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Just have some fun. Do whatever I can while I am still young. Keeping these words in my mind.

I will share some cute photos of LEGO LAND Japan below.

Postscripts

Traveling alone was a fantastic experience. Everything seems to be unpredictable but also fascinating. Throughout the trip, I tend to be braver than I used to be. Starting to ask for help if I couldn’t deal by myself. Learning how to make a better choice; since I can’t go anywhere I am interested, it is crucial to choose the site from the bottom of my heart. At that time, I found out the principle when I make a decision.

＊I should first work on reducing decision-making time while buying some things.🙂 🙂

That’s all, folks!! See you guys next time!!

中文版

一直想要用英文寫寫看一篇文章，總算找到比較適合我的主題可以發揮。會想要用英文寫文章的原因，第一當然是想要增進寫作技巧，第二想要擴大一些英文詞彙量，老實說自從離開高中後，能增進單字的量非常有限，大多只能從教科書中，或是查資料中，才能學到新的單字，因此想要透過寫作的方式，去認識平常不會看到的單字。第三則是未來進入研究所後，一定會有很多機會要用英文進行寫作，所以提早準備好像也沒什麼不好。

想好要進行寫作後，接下來的問題是我要寫一些什麼樣的主題呢？苦思了一番，想到：「嗯嗯先從旅遊日誌開始吧！」，所以就這麼開始了。

在這篇旅遊日記中，決定來分享之前去名古屋的去了那些地方、吃了什麼食物。那話不多說，就讓我們開始吧！（以下的文字會比較像是遊記，寫法比較隨性一些～～）

首先，先從行程開始。