Maps in Nagoya are being re-drawn at an incredible pace—evidence of the great changes underway in the city today. In the past few years, high-rise office buildings have been sprouting up around Nagoya Station, including the home of the Nagoya Branch, JR Central Towers, which is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest train station complex.
Housing developments are also booming, with many large projects of more than 200 units being built around town, and Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has been getting involved in the sale and development of such large-scale developments. Last year, we even posted a record for the instant sale of all the units in a popular new housing development.
People in Nagoya are said to be steady and reliable. Here at the Nagoya Branch, we plan to uphold MC's strong image and steadily provide housing alternatives to local customers that always live up to their high expectations.
People around the world have become familiar with miso via miso soup, which accompanies many Japanese meals. But miso actually has a wide variety of uses, especially in Nagoya, which is famous for its red miso. This miso is used in countless local dishes, including fried pork cutlets with miso, udon noodles with miso, and grilled tofu with miso sauce.
For lack of a better (or more appetizing) definition, miso is often described as "fermented bean paste". However, miso is also made from grains, like barley and rice. Red miso, however, is primarily made from soybeans, and when it comes to soybean miso, Aichi prefecture's Hatcho miso is king. Two traditional makers of Hatcho miso, Kakukyu and Maruya, offer tours of their facilities. By learning a bit about red miso before sampling the local cuisine, you may gain a deeper appreciation for Nagoya's specialties.
Nagoya is famous for its local dialect. Japanese comedians have been known to parody—and exaggerate!—the speech of people in Nagoya. The dialect is sometimes characterized as sounding like "miya-miya", suggesting the meowing of cats. In most situations, people in Nagoya generally speak a standard style of Japanese, but when a group of local residents gather in a casual setting, you may indeed hear them speaking a rather unique form of Japanese.
While TV personalities enjoy making light of Nagoya's dialect, the language actually is highly influenced by the dialect of Kyoto, the historic center of Japanese culture, and therefore it derives from the spoken styles of the aristocracy, making it very soft and gentle.
While Nagoya is famous for such historical figures as Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu, any "beginner's guide" to the city is not complete without a chapter on Nagoya dialect!
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