Nagoya is the city that builds cars, and it carries that practical, slightly modest air in everything. It is the fourth-largest city in Japan, with about two million people, and the home of Toyota, whose factories and museums lie in the surrounding plain. It sits between Tokyo and Osaka on the old Tokaido road, and although it lacks their fame, locals are proud of its food, its castle and its quiet confidence.
The castle, built by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early seventeenth century for his ninth son, is the symbol, with two golden shachihoko, mythical fish with tigers' heads, perched on the roof. The main keep was destroyed in the bombing of 1945 and rebuilt in concrete, but the palace buildings are being restored with fine painted screens. Atsuta Shrine, one of the most important Shinto shrines, shelters among old camphor trees, and it is said to hold the sacred sword Kusanagi, one of the imperial regalia.
Nagoya cuisine is bold. Miso katsu is a pork cutlet in rich red miso sauce, hitsumabushi is grilled eel served three ways over rice, and tebasaki are fried chicken wings seasoned with pepper. Kishimen are flat wheat noodles, and the breakfast habit of a cheap morning set with toast and egg in coffee shops is a local custom.
On a motorbike, the city is easy to navigate, with a regular grid, but traffic is heavy, and the expressways carry tolls. Fuel is plentiful. The mountains to the east and north, toward Okazaki, Gifu and the Kiso valley, offer good riding, with twisty roads and old post towns. Summer is hot and humid, with typhoons in autumn. Spring is a nice time to visit, with cherry trees along the castle moat. Park outside the centre and use the subway to visit sights, since one-way streets and expressway ramps around the station can trap a rider who has not planned the exit.