Roving Sun – Here and there but not quite everywhere!

We visited Washington, DC in the morning today to see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. It was, unfortunately, well past peak bloom.

Happy New Year! We woke up before sunrise and headed up to the lounge at the 名古屋マリオットアソシアホテル Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel for breakfast and for 初日の出 hatsuhinode, the first sunrise of the year! We then headed up to 犬山 Inuyama for 初詣 hatsumode, the first temple or shrine visit of the year, which we did at 針綱神社 Haritsuna-jinja. We spent the rest of the day visiting the 国宝 National Treasure 犬山城 Inuyama Castle and the nearby 三光稲荷神社 Sanko Inari-jinja. After lunch and snacks at the 犬山城下町 Inuyama Castle Town, we walked east to visit the large Buddhist 大聖寺 Daisho-ji, a temple on a hill overlooking the city, before returning to Nagoya to end our last full day in Japan of this trip.

Today is New Year’s Eve! After breakfast at the 名古屋マリオットアソシアホテル Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel, we visited 妙厳寺 Myōgon-ji, more commonly known as 豊川稲荷 Toyokawa Inari, in 豊川 Toyokawa to the southeast of Nagoya. We returned to Nagoya in the afternoon and visited 大須 Osu, the shopping district around 大須観音 Osu Kannon and 万松寺 Banshō-ji. We had a late lunch and lots of snacks before returning to the Marriott to end the last day of the year.

After breakfast at the 名古屋マリオットアソシアホテル Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel, we ventured south to visit the 伊勢神宮 Ise Jingu, the holiest of all the Shinto shrines. We visited both the 内宮 Naiku and 外宮 Gekū and also spent some time having snacks and lunch before returning to Nagoya for dinner.

After breakfast at the 名古屋マリオットアソシアホテル Nagoya Marriott Associa Hotel, we headed out to visit 名古屋城 Nagoya Castle… which was closed for the Japanese New Year holiday! We ended up walking around it before having the local 味噌煮込みうどん miso nikomi udon for lunch nearby at 山本屋 Yamamoto-ya. We then visited 熱田神宮 Atsuta-jingu before spending the rest of the afternoon and evening around the 栄 Sakae district and オアシス２１ (Oasis 21). We had dinner in the area at 矢場とん Yabaton, a local chain that specializes in the local 味噌カツ miso katsu dish.