I want a NAVI...

Anyways, morning arises yet again, and I decided to watch some early morning TV before I meet up with Yoshiko... you know, I never realized that there are a lot of different shows that mimic the Power Rangers TV shows that most North Americans know. The one I was watching was called SPD, and it had the typical 5 young Japanese heroes, but their leader was some dog (basically, it was a human in a dog costume). However, the episode I was watching ended up having to dog getting killed by the invading forces of evil and I had to wait until next week to see the next episode (damn it all). But the real scary part was that in the end credits, those 5 Japanese heroes would be doing a dance number. As a North American, I viewed the end credits as TOTAL CHEESE.

I met up with Yoshiko around 9:30 am, and we went to check out one of Nagoya's most famous attraction - Nagoya-jo. The thing was that we had the option yesterday to see if we should go see the castle on Saturday or Sunday - we decided on Sunday, and it was a good thing we did select this day because the sun came out (and if you remember some of the Saturday pics, the sky was pretty gloomy).

	This is a statue of a famous samurai or daimyo... oh snap, I forgot who it was! Sorry Yoshiko!
	The entrance gate to the castle.
	Nagoya-jo in the background. There are a lot of castles in Japan, and many of them are very nice to go through. However, a lot of the castles today are replicas of the original - the originals would either be burned down by fire, crumbled down by earthquakes, or destroyed by war. Therefore, the replica castles would be made mostly by ferro-concrete (instead of wood) and inside, these castles would be modernized as a museum with TV screens, video, replica village settings, and artifacts behind glass displays. Nagoya-jo happens to be a replica, and inside, it will have the history of the castle as well as the city's background.
	A closer look at Nagoya-jo.
	A house that display paper dolls and some important artifacts inside.
	The sign that is displayed in front of the paper dolls house.
	A paper doll display.
	The original dolphin statues that were on top of Nagoya-jo before the castle burned down. Originally, these dolphins were covered in gold.
	Another paper doll display.
	A closer look at Nagoya-jo.
	Another picture of Nagoya-jo.
	A front view of the castle. I will type a heads-up here: when you go to most castles in Japan, you cannot take pictures inside the castle unless you are at the rooftop and you are overlooking the city, or you are at a designated picture-taking area.
	Yes, I'm a dork.
	A rooftop view of Nagoya.
	Me with Nagoya-jo in the background.
	Yoshiko with Nagoya-jo in the background.

After visiting the castle, I was invited to visit Yoshiko's family at their home and join them for some lunch. I accepted the invitation and off we went.

	This is Yoshiko's house. One thing that really surprised me - the family owns 5 cars! It's for each member of the family (Father, Mother, Yoshiko, her sister, and her brother) as they all have different reasons to need a car. And if I remember correctly, they were all Toyota cars, and Yoshiko works (or worked?) for Toyota...
	The Suzuki family plus a Kwan - clockwise from top right: sister Satoe, father Michio, mother Kiyomi, and me.
	Another Suzuki family pic plus a Kwan, but with Yoshiko replacing Satoe in this picture. Yoshiko's brother is not present in either pic - apparently, he was sleeping during the whole time. Also, if you were wondering, I forgot his name.

The lunch I had at Yoshiko's place was simply AWESOME! I still can't believe how much food they prepared - sushi, sashimi, inari, sweets, desserts, fruits, drinks... they just STUFFED me with such great food. Also, I learned that a good addition to add on salmon nigiri is mayonnaise. Very tasty! However, they just made SO MUCH food for the everyone that all the food could not be finished - I felt really bad because I wanted to finish as much as I can, but I was just too stuffed to eat anymore.

After that experience, Yoshiko's dad Michio offered to drive the family members and I around the nearby Gifu prefecture to see life outside of the main city areas. I was definitely interested - it would give me a chance to see Japanese life off the beaten track.

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