[this mail from Chris Lee, forwarded with permission]

Hi Everyone, how's going for all of you? It is Chris here. First of all,
thank you very much for all of you who made my trip possible and a great
one especially Doi-san, Yung-san (CuSO4) and Mr. Alex Wong (Masakado).
Thank you so much m(__)m

Just a fast report on my trip so far:


3/27 Tokyo->Nagoya

------Nagoya City--------
Woke up late and missed the 11:38 bullet train (as usual ^_^;;). Ended
up taking the 12:08 train. Reserved seats were all sold out but
forturnately, I was able to grab a seat in the non-reserved car (lucky
^_^). 

Once arrived, I checked into the business hotel in the Marunouchi area,
leave the luggages behind and head out for food immediately. Nagoya is
very famous for the Miso-komi 味噌込み(bean paste?) cooking so I stopped
by a resturant 山本屋総本家 (Yamamoto-ya Souhonke) for a Miso base soup
udon. The udon is maded to be tough and always being mistaken as
under-cooked, but that was delicous. 

After lunch it was almost 16:45. Immediately I headed down to the
Telepia-Hall for the Inoue Kikuko Concert. There were a line already
when I got there, took about 15mins to get inside due to the baggage
check at the door. Recording/photography are strightly prohibited
inside the hall (as usual). 

-----Inoue Kikuko Concert-------
Once inside the hall, I immediately goes for the sovenier goods as I was
warned that they sold out last time in the Osaka concert. I bet
Animate(?)learned the lesson from the Osaka Concert and prepared plenty
of the goods for sale. Almost everyone was able to get the things they
wanted (except for the towel with Manbo- sysmbol was sold out). I have
got myself the telecard set, clear-file and of course, the concert
pamaplet (these are the only 3 goods that has Kikuko picture on). 

The hall fits about 400 people but it was not sold out, the front 3-4
rows had seats empty. 

I am not going to write about the concert here as some of you will be
going to the Tokyo one, dont want to spoil the fun ^_^ The concert
lasted about 2:45. Got out about 20:45-21:00

One thing is that if you have the ring that comes with her CD, bring it
with you and you will enjoy the concert more.

After the concert I met up with a friend and we went to dinner together. 
We could never imagine in a city like Nagoya, restaurants close that
early,most of them close around 20:30-21:00 so we ended up in some
Japanese style wester coffee shop for a light dinner. Everything was closed
at so the only thing I could do was go back to hotel and sleep......


3/28 Nagoya

-------City Tour-------
As usual, over slept and did not head out till 11:30. Immediately went
out to the Nagoya Station, visited the underground shopping mall, one of
the spot in the SG and Ojou-sama Express game ^_^). The underground mall
is like a network and inter-connected with each other, very easy to get
lost even with a map and yes, I was lost and bouncing around like Satomi
in Ojousama-Express ^_^;; So after 1 hour I was able to find the
restaurant that I was looking for. There it sells Kishimen(wide noodle)
with Ko-chin (Nagoya breed chicken), another famous crusine in Nagoya.
The noodle was like 1.5-2.0 cm wide and served in soup with the chicken
in it. Unlike the regular Amercian chicken, the chicken here actually
has the "chicken tastes" and is way more tender than chicken in the
States.

After lunch at around 14:00, I headed to the Nagoya Casstle and saw the
pair(male and female) of Golden Dophins on top of the casstle. Actually
the Golden Dophins were NOT 100% solid gold, the middle core is wood,
then covered by a layer of bronze. The gold were only the scales on them
(18K Gold scales, 112 pieces for male and 126 pieces for female). Scales
had been stolen 3 times before in the history. 

Inside the park the Sakura were almost all bloom so there were
Hanami-Dango sold to people to watch Sakura and eat. And where ever Dango
was sold, I can hear the famous "Dango Sankyoudai" song playing......Looks
like everyone had been brain washed by that song now
in Japan ^_^

Next headed down south-west to the Nagoya harbor (2nd SG spot), caught
the last departure of the Shyachi-maru cruise (compare to the Yokohama
bay bridge or Seto-Bridge in Takamatsu cruise, the Nagoya Central Bridge
is way less "romatic", all you see are industrial areas. The view is not
that beautiful. You can see lots of chimmies and oil tankers -_-;;;) for
40mins  and back to the port building. 

After the cruise, walked over the port bridge (the one shown on SJ TV)
and headed over to the Aquarium, but it was closed when I got there so
couldnt enter.

Left the Harbor area at 18:00 and went to Shirakawa park (SG spot3) and
checked the Science Museum. But also it was closed and I was only able
to get a shot outside. 

FYI- Another mistery of SG- The park scene shown in SG game for the
small park in Sendai with the swings, it was here in Nagoya at the
Northwest coner of the Shirakawa Park, NOT SENDAI.

Since it was still only 19:30, I decided to take a chance and headed out
to Higashiyama Zoo and Sky-Tower (Spot in Ojyousama Express and SG song).
Of course the zoo was closed already. Only Sky-Tower was still open
(till 20:30).  Went up there and saw the night view of Nagoya (it was
OK, better than Akita port tower where there were nothing at all).
Hanged around for 1 hour and headed back in town.

Back in town it was 22:30 already and the only thing that was still open
were either Ramen-ya or Izaka-ya. Since I dont want to drink I went into
a Ramen-ya near TV-Tower at Central Park. After that, it was late and
time to head back to hotel and sleep......

-------Nagoya One Point Hint------
The Subway is expensive, 200yen min. and for about 3 station, it will
cost you 260yen. It is a good idea to get the 1 day free pass for 860
yen.

Restaurants close early, should plan to have dinner before 20:00 or you
will end up with not much of a choice.

Thanks again for all of you who made this trip wonderful m(__)m

Contine next in Kanazawa......

===============ゲーム王子  gameouji@telnet.or.jp==============
---------1/2 Model Railroader--1/2 Game-Anime Maniac------- 
--------杉原真奈美ＦＣ[Manami Sugihara Express] No.34--------
----------杉原真奈美ＦＣ[県立白井坂高校OB会] No.54---------