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TOYOTA COMMEMORATIVE MUSEUM OF INDUSTRY & TECHNOLOGY

Toyota, the world’s largest automobile maker, started in another very Japanese industry: weaving. About 10 minutes’ walk northwest of Noritake Garden, this museum (Map; 551-6115; www.tcmit.org; 4-1-35 Noritake-shinmachi; adult/child ¥500/300; 9.30am-5pm Tue-Sat; Sako, Meitetsu Nagoya line) is on the site of the company’s original Nagoya weaving plant (1911). It’s filled with displays and demonstrations of metal processing and textile machinery, and hands-on experiences with principles of force, electronics and such, but the rubber meets the road in the 7900-sq-metre automotive pavilion. There’s English signage, and an English-language audio guide for ¥200. See the boxed text for information on factory tours.

Nagoya Castle Area

NAGOYA-JŌ

Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered Nagoya-jō (Nagoya Castle; Map; 231-1700; 1-1 Honmaru; adult/child under 15 ¥500/100; 9am-4.30pm; Shiyakusho, exit 7) to be built for his ninth son, from 1610 to 1614. Although it was destroyed in WWII and replaced in 1959 with a Ferro concrete replica, it’s worth a visit for the fine museum inside featuring armour, treasures and histories of the Oda, Toyotomi and Tokugawa families. A lift will save you climbing stairs. Note the 3m-long replicas of shachi-hoko (gilded dolphin-like sea creatures) at either end of the roof (and in every souvenir shop).

Within the castle grounds, the garden, Ninomaru-en (), has a tea house in an attractive setting. It’s a sight during the cherry-blossom season (around early April), and on Fridays ceremonial tea (¥525; 9.30am-4pm Fri) is served here from a golden urn.

Nearby is the stately Nagoya Noh Theatre (Map; 231-0088; 1-1-1 San-no-maru; admission free; 9am-5pm), which has a small museum containing kimono, masks, fans and art related to nō, the world’s oldest continuously performed art.

TOKUGAWA ART MUSEUM

A must for anyone with even a passing interest in Japanese culture and history, this museum (off Map; 935-6262; www.tokugawa-art-museum.jp; 1017 Tokugawa-chō; adult/child under 7/child/student/senior ¥1200/free/500/700/1000; 10am-5pm Tue-Sun) has a 10,000-plus piece collection that includes National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties that once belonged to the shōgunal family: furnishings, arms and armour, tea-ceremony implements, calligraphy, painted scrolls, lacquerware, and masks and costumes from nō theatre. A priceless 12th-century scroll depicting The Tale of Genji (Click here) is locked away except for a short stint in late November; the rest of the year, visitors must remain content with a video.

The museum is three minutes’ walk from the Tokugawaen-Shindeki bus stop, east of Nagoya-jō.

Sakae & East

While Sakae doesn’t have big-name attractions, it’s ground zero for shopping and people-watching. The wide central park in the middle of Hisaya-ōdōri is busy all day, and Sakae’s side streets are packed with revellers well into the night. For more classic sights, head a few subway stops east of Sakae to Kakuōzan, a historic temple town.

INTERNATIONAL DESIGN CENTRE NAGOYA

Just a short walk from Sakae, the futuristic, swooping Nadya Park skyscraper houses the International Design Centre Nagoya (Map; 265-2106; 4th fl, 3-18-1 Sakae; adult/student/child under 16 ¥300/200/free; 11am-8pm Wed-Mon; Yaba-chō, exit 5 or 6). It’s a secular shrine to the deities of conceptualisation, form and function, from art deco to the present, from Electrolux to Isamu Noguchi, and from Arne Jacobsen to the Mini Cooper. Signage is in English.

Also in Nadya Park is the Loft department store, which design-shoppers will find equally alluring. Nadya Park is about five minutes’ walk from Yaba-chō Station.

OASIS 21

Yes, it’s a bus terminal, but if all the world’s bus terminals were as interesting as OASIS 21 (Map), recipient of good-design awards, everyone would take public transport. The ‘galaxy platform’, a fantastical glass disk, seems to hover storeys above the ground, and you can