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The 10 best things to do in Nagoya, ranked

From a 2,000-year-old shrine to Ghibli Park's fantasy landscapes and Nagoya Castle's reconstructed feudal palace, Japan's most underrated city

Japan's fourth-largest city, Nagoya may lack the celebrity status of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and that makes those who go out of their way to discover its pleasures feel like true insiders.

Without the crush of mass tourism, Nagoya is an appealing place to visit for a few days, with everything from great eating, lively nightlife and family attractions to ancient shrines and historic fortifications, many reconstructed in the 20th century. Its handy location on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen bullet train line, which links Tokyo, Mt Fuji, Osaka and Kyoto, makes it an easy add-on to a trip around Japan's blockbuster tourist sites. The 10 activities below appear on Lonely Planet and cover the best things to do in Nagoya, Japan. Though large areas of the ancient city were destroyed during WWII, Nagoya still manages to hit a genuine sweet spot between old and new, with plenty of traditional culture found throughout its neon-lit streets and reconstructed historic sites, from ancient shrines to rebuilt feudal palaces standing alongside the modern city, along with a genuinely strong food and nightlife scene worth exploring after dark.

History runs deep across this list, from Atsuta-jingū's nearly 2,000-year-old religious traditions to Nagoya Castle's meticulously reconstructed feudal-era palace, giving visitors a genuine sense of the city's layered past despite the widespread wartime destruction. Modern attractions balance that history well too, since Ghibli Park's fantasy landscapes and the Toyota $TM 1.29% Museum's robotics demonstrations both showcase a distinctly contemporary side of the city that draws just as much genuine curiosity as its ancient shrines. Food and nightlife round out the picture, from Nagoya's distinctive local specialties to Sakae's neon-lit bars and towering architectural landmarks, giving travelers plenty of ways to experience the city after the museums and temples close for the day.

1. Atsuta-jingū shelters Japan's most sacred sword

Luo Jin Hong / Unsplash

Founded more than 1,900 years ago, Atsuta-jingū ranks among Japan's most sacred Shintō shrines. Sprawling across a large forest and flanked by towering cypress trees, it offers a peaceful place to stroll and watch worshippers go about their business.

Some nine million devotees visit each year to pay homage at the shrine housing the ancient sword known as Kusanagi-no-tsurugi, one of the Three Sacred Treasures that form Japan's revered Imperial Regalia. Legend holds that the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami herself handed the sword to the imperial family.

Visitors cannot view the sacred sword or enter the temple, though other famous swords remain on display at the shrine's Kusanagi-kan museum and the Bunkaden Treasure Hall, which showcases highlights from a collection of more than 4,000 Tokugawa-era swords, masks and paintings.

Religious sites such as Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines don't carry strict dress codes, though a few points of etiquette matter for anyone hoping to be culturally respectful. Washing hands before entering a shrine and speaking in quiet tones helps preserve the tranquility other visitors come seeking.

Ancient legend intertwined with living religious practice sets Atsuta-jingū apart from many other historic sites in Japan, since the shrine remains a genuinely active place of worship instead of a purely preserved relic. Visitors hoping to avoid the heaviest crowds should plan a weekday early-morning visit, since the nine million annual devotees tend to concentrate their visits on weekends and major festival dates. The surrounding forest also offers a genuinely quiet escape from the city, with the towering cypress trees muffling much of the surrounding urban noise. The shrine grounds also host several smaller sub-shrines worth exploring, each dedicated to different deities and offering visitors a fuller picture of Shintō practice beyond the main hall. This calm often surprises first-time visitors expecting a busier, more tourist-heavy atmosphere given the shrine's significance.

2. Tokugawa Art Museum houses 10,000 samurai-era treasures

Credit: Tokugawa Art Museum

The respected Tokugawa Art Museum holds a collection of around 10,000 priceless artworks, including nō masks from medieval dance-dramas, ceramics, paintings and prints, alongside samurai swords and armor.

Its most famous object, the 12th-century scroll of The Tale of Genji, ranks as the oldest surviving pictorial version of Japan's oldest novel. Due to its fragility, the museum displays the scroll only once a year, in late November, and a video recording stands in for it the rest of the time.

The museum's magnificent Japanese garden, Tokugawa-en, also deserves attention, offering a contemporary reconstruction of a garden destroyed in 1945. Wrapped around a traditional-style teahouse, the mix of woodland, flower gardens, ponds, bridges and water features creates a genuinely superb setting worth building extra time into a visit.

Visitors hoping to see the museum's most famous treasure should plan a trip for late November, since the fragile Genji scroll comes out of storage only during that narrow window each year.

Travelers $TRV 0.15% who miss that timing shouldn't feel too discouraged, since the breadth of the wider collection, spanning centuries of samurai-era craftsmanship, still rewards a visit even without the scroll on display. The museum's rotating exhibitions also mean the specific artworks on display change throughout the year, so checking the current schedule before visiting helps set accurate expectations about what will actually be on view. Audio guides in multiple languages also help visitors unfamiliar with the finer details of samurai-era craftsmanship appreciate the context behind individual pieces. The museum sits within easy........

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