Nagoya: Ghibli, Castles, and Food Nobody Talks About Enough

Nagoya is the capital of Aichi Prefecture, home to Toyota’s global headquarters, and the city most Japanese people don’t think of as a travel destination until they’ve been. International visitors almost entirely skip it — it sits between Osaka and Tokyo on the Shinkansen line, which means it gets passed through rather than stopped at.

This is a mistake. Nagoya has a castle with original 17th-century donjon towers (Kyoto’s were destroyed; Osaka’s and Tokyo’s are modern concrete reconstructions), a genuinely distinct food culture, excellent day trip access to the surrounding region, and since 2022, the only Ghibli Park in existence.

One to two days. Easily combined with Kyoto (35 minutes) or Tokyo (90 minutes) on the Shinkansen.

Getting There

From Tokyo: 1 hour 40 minutes by Shinkansen Nozomi (¥11,090). JR Pass valid. From Osaka/Kyoto: 50 minutes from Shin-Osaka, 35 minutes from Kyoto (¥6,680). JR Pass valid. From Kanazawa: 2 hours by Thunderbird + transfer or by highway bus.

Nagoya Station is a major transport hub — the Shinkansen, JR lines, Meitetsu private railway, Kintetsu lines, and the city subway all converge here.

Nagoya Castle

The most important castle in Nagoya and, by historical significance, one of the most important in Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered its construction in 1610 as the seat of the Owari domain — the Nagoya branch of the Tokugawa family. The main keep was burned in the 1945 bombing of Nagoya; a concrete reconstruction opened in 1959.

What’s original: The Hommaru Palace (御本丸御殿) — the shogun’s residential palace adjacent to the main tower — was largely dismantled before the war and the original panels and architectural elements preserved. A major restoration project (completed 2018) reassembled the palace to its 17th-century state using the original materials. The Hommaru Palace is now the reason to visit Nagoya Castle over most others — the reconstructed interiors, including painted fusuma panels by the Kano school of painters, are authentic 17th-century craftsmanship displayed in their actual spatial context.

Golden Shachihoko: The two gilded fish-tiger mythological creatures on the castle roof (a male and female pair) are the symbol of Nagoya. The originals were evacuated before the war, survived, and were remounted on the reconstructed main tower. The gold is real.

Admission ¥500. Open 9am–4:30pm.

Nagoya Food Culture

Nagoya has the most distinct regional food culture of any Japanese city outside Osaka and Fukuoka — and it is almost entirely unknown internationally.

The through-line is red miso (hatcho miso): fermented soybean paste aged for three years minimum in large cedar vats in Okazaki (30 minutes from Nagoya). It is darker, richer, and more intensely savory than the lighter miso used in Tokyo or Kyoto.

Miso Katsu — the defining Nagoya dish: breaded pork cutlet with hatcho miso sauce. The sauce is thick, dark, and genuinely different from tonkatsu sauce elsewhere. Yabaton (the original, opened 1947) has multiple locations in Nagoya. Every combination plate here pairs something with the miso.

Hitsumabushi — eel (unaju) over rice, with a specific Nagoya eating ritual: you divide the bowl into quarters. First quarter: eat plain. Second quarter: add the condiments (green onion, wasabi, nori). Third quarter: pour dashi broth over it and eat as ochazuke. Fourth quarter: your favorite of the three ways. Atsuta Horaiken (established 1873) near Atsuta Shrine is the most famous restaurant; Horaiken in the Kanayama neighborhood is the accessible everyday version.

Kishimen — flat wide udon noodles in a light soy broth. The Nagoya variation has a softer texture than standard udon. Available at kiosks inside Nagoya Station on the Shinkansen platform.

Miso Nikomi Udon — udon cooked directly in a clay pot with red miso broth. Richer and heavier than standard udon. Yamamotoya is the institution.

Tenmusu — a Nagoya invention (later associated with the entire Kinki region): shrimp tempura inside a rice ball (onigiri). Originally from a shop in central Nagoya in the 1950s.

Morning sets: Nagoya invented the Japanese café culture “morning service” (モーニング) — coffee with free toast, hard-boiled egg, and small salad, available until 11am. Local cafes compete intensely on the quality and quantity of what comes free with the coffee. It’s a legitimate institution: coffee is ¥400 and the food is free.

Ghibli Park

The Studio Ghibli theme park opened in November 2022 in Aichi Expo Commemorative Park, 20 km east of central Nagoya (40 minutes by Linimo maglev train from Fujigaoka station).

This is the only Ghibli Park in the world, and it operates on a fundamentally different philosophy from conventional theme parks: no rides, no costumed characters, no manufactured spectacle. The park is built around environments inspired by Ghibli films — buildings, landscapes, and interiors you can walk through and inhabit. The experience is exploratory rather than performative.

Areas currently open (as of 2025):

Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse — a large indoor facility containing film exhibitions, detailed recreations of key scenes and settings from Ghibli films, a children’s play area, a small cinema screening Ghibli shorts, and a massive shop. This is the most exhibition-dense area.

Hill of Youth — themed around Whisper of the Heart, The Cat Returns, and early Miyazaki works. Includes the Antique Shop Baroque exterior recreation and an elevator tower visible from across the park.

Dondoko Forest — the outdoor area themed around My Neighbor Totoro, including a large recreation of Satsuki and Mei’s house (the actual house prop used in the film, reconstructed full-size). The forest walk around it is pleasant regardless of Totoro familiarity.

Mononoke Village (opened 2023) — themed around Princess Mononoke, set in a forested hillside with Irontown-inspired architecture.

Valley of Witches (opened 2024) — themed around Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Tickets: Advance booking required — sold via Lawson convenience stores in Japan (for domestic visitors) and via official Ghibli Park international booking site (for overseas visitors). Tickets for specific dates sell out weeks to months in advance, especially for the Grand Warehouse. Book before finalizing your travel dates. Price: ¥2,500–4,500 depending on area and date.

Time needed: Grand Warehouse alone = 3–4 hours minimum. Full park visit = full day.

Day Trips from Nagoya

Inuyama: 30 minutes by Meitetsu from Nagoya. The castle here (Inuyama-jo) is one of only five Japanese castles with an original keep from the Sengoku period (1537). Small, compact, and authentic in a way that the larger reconstructed castles are not. The old town below it has preserved machiya and sake breweries. Half day.

Okazaki: 30 minutes east by Meitetsu or JR. The birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu and home to the Hatcho Miso brewery, where the miso aging vats (each holding 6 tons) can be toured. The tour is free and the tasting at the end explains why Nagoya food tastes the way it does.

Ise Jingu: 90 minutes by Kintetsu limited express from Nagoya. Japan’s most sacred Shinto shrine complex — the Grand Shrine of the sun goddess Amaterasu, rebuilt every 20 years in the same form. The surrounding pilgrim town (Okage Yokocho) and the forest approach are the experience.

Practical Notes

Subway: Nagoya’s subway is efficient and covers all the main sites. IC card accepted. Day pass ¥760.

Station food: Nagoya Station’s basement food hall and station building are legitimately good for food shopping — the major regional specialties (miso katsu bento, hitsumabushi, tenmusu) are all available in take-home form.

Toyota Commemorative Museum: For anyone interested in industrial history — Toyota’s original textile loom factory, converted to show the development from looms to automobiles. Genuinely interesting engineering history, well-presented. Admission ¥500, 30 minutes from central Nagoya.

Nagoya is the city that shows you something about Japan you hadn’t noticed before: that outside the obvious circuit, the country has cities with their own distinct food, their own industrial histories, and their own reasons to exist that have nothing to do with what tourists are looking for. Come for the miso, stay for Ghibli, understand Inuyama’s castle, and wonder why you hadn’t stopped here before.