When tourists do the ‘Nagoya skip,’ do they know what they’re skipping?

Nagoya – Atop the fifth-floor observatory at the Gifu Sekigahara Battlefield Memorial Museum, a thick fog hangs low over the surrounding narrow valley on the morning I visit.

A guide mentions that, minus the intermittent mid-September rain, it’s eerily similar to the weather that fell over the small town almost 426 years ago on Oct. 10, 1600 — the day a clash between more than 160,000 samurai led to the end of more than a century of civil war and the start of the peace, stability and cultural blossoming of the Edo Period (1603-1867).

And yet, there are barely a few dozen attendees — all of them Japanese — at the museum during my visit. Despite samurai being a universal symbol of Japan overseas, it’s nearly always kitschy, samurai-coded “museums” and “experiences” that draw tourist crowds. Rarely, it seems, do sites like Sekigahara — actual battlefields where samurai armies crossed swords and spilled blood — attract a significant number of travelers.

How ironic that the Tokaido Shinkansen passes through Sekigahara, ferrying tens of millions of tourists in the blink of an eye past the battlefield that shaped modern Japan.

The site of the most consequential battle in Japanese history, Sekigahara is a rare place in Japan where samurai spectacle is authentic, | OWEN ZIEGLER

It’s an unfortunate reality for the neighboring prefectures of Gifu and Aichi: Despite gems of historical sites like Sekigahara, unique regional crafts and a distinct food culture, they barely attract a fraction of Japan’s inbound throngs. Though 42.7 million overseas tourists visited Japan in 2025, just 6.8% set foot in Aichi (barely more than Okinawa, despite its remoteness) and only 3.3% in Gifu.

Long before Japan’s tourism boom, the “Nagoya-tobashi” (Nagoya skip) was a recognized phenomenon: In the 1980s, visiting musical acts deemed Japan’s fourth-most-populous city not worth their time. But surely the more than 10 million people who live in Nagoya’s metropolitan area can’t all be living in the doldrums?

South of Nagoya proper, a look into the region’s traditional crafts suggests they’re not. In the small town of Arimatsu, locals still twist, tie and tint fabrics in the style of Arimatsu shibori, a manual tie-dyeing tradition that dates back to the early 17th century. At the Arimatsu Narumi Shibori Tie-Dyeing Museum, older residents intricately fold and bind raw cloth with rope, needles and bamboo stands they create to suit their own styles. Around the corner, a dyeing experience for beginners offers the chance to fold and dye handkerchiefs, hand towels and T-shirts in Arimatsu shibori patterns that, while simple, wouldn’t look out of place on the kimono of a figure in an Edo Period woodblock print.

Farther south on the Chita Peninsula sits Tokoname, the center of Tokoname pottery considered to be one of the “Six Great Kilns” of traditional Japanese ceramics. Thanks to the region’s rich clay, potters here have long favored unadorned rich, red finishes over fancy glazes. Indeed, unglazed, almost-vermillion kyūsu (small teapots), sometimes accented with spindly lines created by wrapping seaweed around pieces as they’re fired, are a hallmark of Tokoname ware and displayed across town in shops and studios (some of which, like Chaden and Kakuzan, also offer tea and pottery experiences for visitors).

South of Nagoya is Tokoname, the home of one of Japan's six greatest pottery traditions. | OWEN ZIEGLER

When night falls, Nagoya’s city center is no sleepy backwater. In the bustling downtown Sakae neighborhood, unpretentious izakaya (traditional Japanese pubs) serve up Nagoya meshi (meals) — regional specialties like tebasaki (chicken wings), tenmusu (rice balls filled with tempura and wrapped in nori) and a seemingly endless variety of dishes made with akamiso, Aichi’s richly umami miso variety.

And for a final taste of local culture, a visit to one of Sakae’s many sunakku (small bars often including karaoke) offers the chance to chat with a mama-san (the typically older, female host-owner of a sunakku). You will probably see how, while Nagoya might have the big-city vibe of Tokyo with the friendliness of Osaka, it’s very much its own thing.

It’s hard to see the “Nagoya skip” disappearing any time soon, but everything the region has to offer makes you wonder: Do the tourists whose only exposure to Aichi and Gifu is a few minutes staring out a shinkansen window truly know what it is they’re skipping?

Transportation and accommodation for this story was provided by JR Tokai Tours. No portion of this story was shared with any third party prior to publication.