Aichi Prefecture

Do
Compare eel the way each region cooks it
Unagi, freshwater eel brushed with a sweet soy glaze and grilled, is cooked differently from region to region: split from the back or from the belly, steamed before grilling or not. Try the local version wherever your trip takes you, from crisp Osaka eel to Nagoya's hitsumabushi, eaten three ways from one wooden tub. Many of these restaurants are popular and some close when the eel sells out, so go early.
Do
Eat mochi pounded right in front of you
Mochi is made by pounding steamed sticky rice with a heavy wooden mallet in a large mortar. Freshly pounded mochi is soft and stretchy in a way packaged mochi never is. At these shops you watch it being pounded and eat it while it is still warm.
Do
See three castles built to show off power
Nagoya, Osaka and Kumamoto castles were built around 1600 by the warlords who unified Japan and their generals, with all the wealth and skill they could command. Compare Nagoya's golden shachihoko, fish-shaped ornaments on the roof, the giant stones of Osaka's walls and Kumamoto's steeply curving walls.
Town
Tokoname
A pottery town with a lane walled in drainpipes
Tokoname, south of Nagoya, is one of Japan's six oldest pottery centers, and its old workshop quarter is still full of brick chimneys and kilns. Follow the Pottery Footpath, a signed walking route, down a slope walled in clay pipes and past a kiln that climbs a hillside, then paint a piece of pottery yourself. It is about 30 minutes from Nagoya by Meitetsu train, on the line to Chubu Centrair airport.
Do
Visit an aquarium or art museum after dark
For a few weeks in summer or autumn, some aquariums and art museums stay open into the evening or run special night tours. With the lights turned down and fewer people around, the tanks and galleries feel calm and quite different from the daytime. These openings run only on set dates, so check the schedule before you go.

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