Nagoya was founded as a castle town more than 390 years ago on orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who considered its strategic position on the Tokaido Highway useful for controlling Osaka and other points west. Today, Nagoya is Japan 's fourth-largest city with a population of 2.19 million -- yet it's a place most foreigners never stop to see. True, it doesn't have the attractions of many of the nation's other cities, but it does have a castle originally built by the first Tokugawa shogun, as well as one of Japan's most important Shinto shrines. You can also stroll through an aquarium famous for its penguins and sea turtles, visit the world-famous Noritake chinaware display rooms, spend hours at an open-air architectural museum (one of my favorites in Japan), and watch cormorant fishing in summer. Nagoya , capital of Aichi Prefecture , also serves as the gateway to Takayama in the Japan Alps and Ise-Shima National Park . In 2005, the World Expo was held just outside Nagoya .

Nagoya is a modern Japanese city, similar to Osaka . It has a reconstructed castle and a modern center. The city entered the tourist circuits in 2005 with the Aichi Expo.

Nagoya is the fourth biggest city in Japan , and its metropolitan area is the third largest. Nagoya is one of the industrial and business capitals of Japan . The city has some nice tourist attractions.

Nagoya is not entirely known for its tourism potential since it is mostly a business destination, but there are some sites that are definitely worth a visit. To help the tourists coming into the city a tourist information center is there to help the people find suitable places to stay and the places worth visiting.