Due to Nagoya being a fair distance away from Takayama (around 2 hrs and 30 mins) by train, we left relatively early once again. Our first stop was for Nagoya castle. The walk was relatively quiet with a strategically placed strip of restaurants and souvenir shops. Ninjas seemed to be a big theme for Nagoya Castle, as there were places advertising souvenirs/food with these historical figures.
Nagoya castle was undergoing renovations on the main keep, but we were able to see the outside of the main structure. It looked really similar to Osaka castle for me.
After the castle, we ventured onto our next location, which was SC Maglev & Railway Park - a museum dedicated to trains run by JR (or more specially Central JR). It was a massive museum with a wide variety of trains on display. The first exhibit had three trains: an old, what I'm assuming, express train for back in the day, to the modern shinkansen, and the future magnetic levitation trains. It was a great introduction of what to expect for the rest of the museum.
There was also a small outdoor exhibit of a current N700 train that had been decommissioned and turned into a sitting/lunch area. People could go into the cars and relax/eat food. I spotted a Green Car, which is the equivalent to business class on a plane, and ventured there to explore since I've never gotten the opportunity to try Green Class.
Perhaps the exhibit I enjoyed the most, would be the main exhibit with the wide variety of older trains on display and with some being able to explore. One car in particular gave me extremely strong Spirited Away vibes.
After exploring for a while, we were starting to feel hungry, thus warranted a trip to the cafeteria. It seems to be a big thing this trip, but I went for yet again another bento box. This one had 30 different things to try. I wasn't interested in counting the 30 things - rather I quickly devoured my box.
After lunch and exploring the bits we missed, it was off to our last location for the trip: Toyota Techno Museum. In here, I learned that Toyota started off as a textile company before moving onto the automotive side of things. There was plenty of English signs explaining the various items they had throughout, which made it more meaningful to me (rather than just looking at an object).
There were also a few robots on display that Toyota designed - with one giving a live performance on a violin! I was thoroughly impressed by how well it performed. The museum also had a small car exhibit with past cars and upcoming models, including their hydrogen fuel cell car.
As we were leaving the museum, we caught sight of a small play area with arcade/carnival games. The museum was slated to close in ten minutes, but the staff were kind and asked us to explore. We ended up going to a "driving school" simulator where you drive a small kart and follow a dotted line. The more accurate you were, the higher the score you'd get. My brother ended up in first place while I came in a close second.
The train ride home was again long (2 hrs and 30 mins), thus we ended up coming back to Takayama at around 9 PM. Most restaurants were closed, so my brother and I went to a Family Mart close to the station for food.
Tomorrow is going to be another long day as we head back to Tokyo for the next leg of our trip.
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