Nagoya First Impressions

We are stoked!  That's the only way to describe our first 30 hours in Nagoya.  We arrived before noon yesterday (Tuesday), and met up with Mike Ackerman of MSGF.  Following a great lunchtime with him and one of MSGF's board members (also visiting), and time to refresh at our hotel, we spent a great evening eating Pizza Hut pizza with the team at the Ackerman home.  It was a rich opportunity to meet some of the team members and get to hang out until jet lag really set in.  Then it was back to the hotel to crash.


Today was explore the neighborhood day.  We were on our own until mid-afternoon, which meant lots of walking and checking stuff out in our part of the city.  And there's lots to see, since Nagoya is a city about the size of Chicago.  It has 3+ million in the city proper and about 9 million in the metro area.  Everything was an adventure, since English is definitely not used by most people.  We tried to figure out directions, purchases, food, and even conversation. (OK, we mostly failed on any kind of conversation, but it was still fun!)


We're trying to discern some obvious values and cultural distinctives of people here, and we'll share some of our discoveries a little later.  For now, I'll share a few pictures, and a video of our lunch experience in a noodle/ramen eatery we discovered.  It was a great time!  So enjoy, and we'll be back with more a little later.

Andy Rodriguez of MSGF and Matt talking over pizza 

Everything is compact here- even the vacuum cleaners!

A gas station- pump dispensers come down from above!

For your phone- I've got no idea!

Typical side street- tons of signage

A view of Nagoya's own Central Park

Check it- I'm home again!

Can you pick Matt out of the Halloween mannequins?