I Regretted My Lack of Education at Nagoya Castle
I recently started reading "Ashigirl," and having finally reached volume 15, just before the final volume, I somehow felt like visiting a castle.
Then, over the long weekend, my husband said, "Oh, I want to go to Nagoya Castle," so I did a fist pump like the protagonist Yui-chan and off we went to Nagoya Castle.
In terms of the "Ashigirl" timeline, I suppose Nagoya Castle represents the period after that, since that's when Nobunaga appears. The Nobunaga drawn by Kozueko Morimoto was so cool...
We walked five minutes from the main gate and toured the Honmaru Palace, and everything I saw was gold! From the vividly colored sliding doors to the transoms, even the fine details showed such artistry—or rather, what should I call it... a level of dedication that made it truly worth seeing.
The children looked at it with me, but they seemed nervous just because of the crowds and the many staff members telling them not to touch anything.
That was when I realized my own lack of knowledge and education; I wanted to convey how amazing it was to the children, but I couldn't find the words at all!!!
Why are leopards and tigers depicted? Are the sliding doors larger than they are now? Was the black frame a technique from long ago, or is it a modern technique for display? What was the dining style of that era? What is the purpose of the ornaments at the intersections of the pillars? There were so many things I was curious about that weren't in the free pamphlet.
At times like this, I think that if I had listened properly in class, I might have been able to talk more about Nagoya...
When you decide to go to a "certain place," are you the type to go there with a blank slate and learn on-site? Or are you the type to research it before you go because you're visiting?
I used to be the type who thought, "I'm going there, so I'll just learn about it there," but while learning etiquette, I learned about pre-war study methods. Also, hearing that Empress Masako and Princess Aiko do extensive research before going anywhere made me realize that preparation is important.
Since our trip to Nagoya Castle was decided on the spur of the moment, I did look up parking and lunch, but it was a shame that I didn't research Nagoya Castle itself...
So, here are some points for those planning to visit Nagoya Castle with children in the future.
You can park on the street on weekends, but it's first-come, first-served, and it can get very narrow when parking or leaving, sometimes making it impossible to get out, so paid parking is recommended for peace of mind. 180 yen for 30 minutes.
Strollers are hard to move on gravel paths, so a baby carrier is useful.
Socks are required for the Honmaru Palace. If you don't have any, you can borrow slippers, but since slippers can be hard for small children to walk in, bringing your own socks is recommended.
There was a 30-minute wait to enter the Honmaru Palace (on a public holiday).
It's a good idea for children to have a hat when it's sunny.
There are restaurants inside Nagoya Castle. The Yoshinao Zone near Nagoya Castle has places like Yabaton and Yamamotoya, but they all have 20-30 minute waits, and please note there are no restrooms within that zone.
It's a 10-minute walk from the Yoshinao Zone to the Muneharu Zone, and there is a Poke-futa (Pokémon manhole cover) in the Muneharu Zone.
Gold leaf soft-serve ice cream is sold in both zones.
Nagoya Castle is free for junior high school students and younger.
If you go to the neighboring Meijo Park, I think you can enjoy the lawns and playground equipment, but since you walk quite a bit inside Nagoya Castle and then have a meal... I couldn't make it to Meijo Park, so it might be better to choose one or the other.
As expected, there are many foreign tourists, and I quite like shadowing the languages they speak, even though I don't understand what they are saying💦
Looking at it this way, I thought it was very important to preserve historical buildings from hundreds of years ago, but I find myself wondering if there will be anyone in the future who wants to preserve the things of the current Heisei or Reiwa eras, and whether the buildings of the Heisei or Reiwa eras are worth preserving.
Also, while the splendor of the castle was interesting, I thought it would also be interesting to think about the lives and homes of the common people and how they spent their time. For example, I became curious about how people who applied gold leaf or carpenters decided they wanted to become carpenters, and how "jobs" were created back then.
Without "companies" like we have today, how did people get those jobs? What genre of books should I look into to find that out? I realized there are still so many things I want to know and so many things I don't know.
Those are things you don't learn in class, and I also thought that if a child ever became curious about such things, I would like to be able to help them research them thoroughly.
*I borrowed the lovely photo of Nagoya Castle from Koro-san<m(__)m>