Nagoya - Part 2

First warm and humid, then rain and humid :) On the last day in Nagoya, before going to the language school in Gifu, I visited THE landmark of the city (Nagoya is actually quite ugly :D): Nagoya Castle. The castle is surrounded by a park and the Hommaru Palace. From the outside, the castle, which was destroyed in an air raid in 1945, is really beautiful to look at - from the inside, not so spectacular. The castle even has an elevator attached to one side. On the roof, you can see two golden dolphins that are supposed to protect the castle from attacks and fires. However, they started scraping off the gold layers - due to lack of money in the 17th century or as stolen goods. That's why many claim that the castle burned down during World War II.

When I came back to the hostel in the evening, I was already expected by the other backpackers and residents. I actually didn't expect that, as most of them had hardly said a word before and were in their own world. Farewell pizza party was announced, as some of the helpers were moving on. So now there were 5 Japanese people, an Australian, a French woman (and I thought the whole time she was Russian :D), an Iranian, an Irishman, a British couple, and me in the small common room, eating pizza and drinking beer. By the way: Japanese people have come up with very funny pizza toppings (e.g. mochi: sticky rice flour balls. Fun fact: in Japan, it is said that older people have choked on mochi because it sticks to their mouths!). A very funny evening with bizarre stories and a very infatuated Iranian (he had fallen in love with a German woman two weeks earlier, who was also in the hostel). You could really see hearts floating above his head :) It's a bit sad that this was also my last evening in the hostel. But there wouldn't have been much more to see in Nagoya anyway :D