Getting Around Nagoya: Subway, Buses and Day-Trip Trains

Nagoya's subway network has six lines and is genuinely comprehensive for a city its size — the Sakuradori and Higashiyama lines alone connect Nagoya Station to the castle, Sakae's entertainment district, and Higashiyama Zoo, while the Meijo Line loops past Nagoya Castle and out toward Atsuta Shrine. Fares start around ¥210 for short hops, and a one-day subway pass is worth it if you're making more than a few trips, since it also unlocks small discounts at some museums.

Nagoya Station itself is the connecting point for almost everything beyond the subway — JR lines for the Shinkansen and regional trains, Meitetsu lines toward Chubu Centrair Airport and Inuyama, and Kintetsu lines toward Nara and Osaka.

The Me-guru is a dedicated sightseeing loop bus that stops at Nagoya Station, Nagoya Castle, the Tokugawa Art Museum, Atsuta Shrine and several other major sights, running at roughly 20-30 minute intervals. A one-day pass costs a modest flat fee and also gets you small discounts at several of the attractions it stops at — it's specifically designed to solve the problem of Nagoya's sights being spread out rather than clustered in one walkable core, unlike central Kyoto.

Meitetsu's Inuyama Line reaches Inuyama Castle — one of Japan's twelve surviving original castle keeps — in about 30 minutes, making it the easiest genuine day trip from Nagoya. Tokoname, the pottery town near Chubu Centrair Airport, is a similar distance on the Meitetsu Airport Line. For the mountain routes — Gujo, Hida-Takayama, Shirakawa-go, and the Nakasendo post towns of Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku — direct trains exist but connections are limited enough that most visitors use a guided day tour with private transport rather than piecing together local buses on unfamiliar mountain roads.