Nagoya · SakaeNo.995★★★Open in map →
Miso Katsu
— Nagoya's pork cutlet under a dark bean-miso sauce
A pork cutlet finished with a dark sauce built on Aichi's bean miso, and the Sakae district at the centre of Nagoya, where the underground streets and the park above them put a day's worth of restaurants inside one walk.
- FromNagoya Station
- One subway ride, no walkSubway Higashiyama Line, direct
- Get off atSakae Station (Subway Higashiyama and Meijo Lines)
- On foot
- Miso Katsu
Where it is
27 more notes in Aichi · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Sakae-chikathe underground shopping street beneath Hirokoji-dori, running into the station concourse
- Oasis 21a glass roof carrying a sheet of water, with a free walkway around its rim
- Hisaya-odori Parka long strip of park running north from the crossing, with lawn, benches and event space
- Nagoya TV Towerthe steel tower standing in that park, now known as Chubu Electric Power Mirai Tower
How to actually get there
- Nagoya Station to Sakae on the Higashiyama Line, with no change.
- Leave by the east ticket gate, which opens directly into Oasis 21.
- Climb to the Spaceship Aqua roof, then walk north along Hisaya-odori Park toward the tower.
- Subway from Nagoya Station to Sakae
- Take the Higashiyama Line east from Nagoya Station to Sakae — the prefecture's tourism site gives this as a ride with no change. Both the city and the prefecture describe Oasis 21 as connected straight to the east ticket gate, so there is no street walking at the end.
- Return from Sakae Station
- The same line back to Nagoya Station from the east gate. Meitetsu's Seto Line ends at Sakaemachi Station, whose gates open into the same complex, if you are heading northeast instead. Check the last departure posted on the platform if you stay for dinner.
About the place
Miso katsu is a breaded pork cutlet served under a sauce built on mame-miso, the dark soybean miso of Aichi. Nagoya's tourism bureau describes the miso as blended with other seasonings rather than used straight, which is why the sauce runs thick and heavy at one counter and thin and sweet at the next. Sakae is where that range is easiest to sample without covering much ground. Subway lines meet under the crossing, a long park runs north from it, and a lit underground street joins the two, so the restaurants stack in layers rather than spreading out. Oasis 21 sits on top of all of it, free to walk through.
How to enjoy it
The city and the prefecture both list the Spaceship Aqua walkway as open from ten in the morning to nine at night, and free to enter, while the plaza underneath it opens earlier. That gives a simple order for the visit: eat first, then climb up for the view north over the park and the tower, rather than the other way round.
Background & history
The dish is usually traced to the years just after the Second World War, when a customer at a Nagoya food stall dipped a skewered cutlet into a pot of miso-simmered doteni — an account both the city and the prefecture repeat on their official food pages. The district around it changed shape in the meantime. The stalls gave way to covered blocks and underground streets, and in 2002 Oasis 21 opened above the station: a glass roof carrying a sheet of water, a public deck rather than a building you pay to enter.
Before you go
- Cash
- Entry to Oasis 21 is free — the city and the prefecture both list no admission. Restaurants and shops set their own payment methods, so carry cash as well as a card.
- Before you go
- The rooftop walkway keeps shorter hours than the plaza beneath it, and it is open to the weather. The underground streets stay usable in rain and in the summer heat, which is when most of the walking here happens.
- Another way
- The Meijo Line also stops at Sakae, so you can arrive from the Kanayama or Nagoya Castle side without returning to Nagoya Station first.
- After you get off
- Sakae Station's east ticket gate opens directly into the complex. Both the city and the prefecture describe it as connected, with no street crossing between the platform and the plaza.