GUIDE
Getting Around Nagoya Without a Car
The short answer
Almost everything in this guide is reachable on the subway. The exceptions are the railway park, which needs the Aonami Line, and the Toyota Automobile Museum, which needs the Linimo. Both are single, straightforward rides once you know they exist.
The subway does most of the work
Nagoya's subway reaches the castle, Sakae, Osu, Fushimi and the port. For a visitor staying near the station, the Higashiyama line east and the Meijo line's loop cover most of what you are likely to want.
One naming point is worth knowing before you read older guidebooks. The Meijo line station for the castle is called Nagoyajo. It used to be Shiyakusho, and the renaming is recent enough that printed maps and some websites still carry the old name — the Noh theatre's official site, for one, still glosses it as the former Shiyakusho.
The two lines that are not the subway
The Aonami Line runs from Nagoya Station south to Kinjo-futo, and the SCMaglev and Railway Park is a two-minute walk from that last stop. The museum's own site gives the ride as twenty-four minutes one way. There are no changes, which makes it one of the easier trips in the city with luggage or children.
The Linimo is a magnetically levitated line running east from Fujigaoka, and it is how you reach the Toyota Automobile Museum. It is a separate operator from the subway, so a subway day pass will not cover it.
Walking distances from Nagoya Station
More is walkable from the station than the maps suggest. Noritake Garden is fifteen minutes on foot, and the Toyota Commemorative Museum is about the same. Both are flat the whole way.
In the other direction, Sakae is one subway stop rather than a walk, and the castle is not walkable from the station in any useful sense.
A note on what 'a short walk' means in the rain
Japanese venue listings often describe a station exit as being right at the door, and it is worth reading these carefully. The MIRAI TOWER is a good example: its official site says exit 4B at Hisaya-odori brings you up right beside it, which is true, but you do come up to street level. There is no underground route to the door.
The same caution applies to the art museum at Sakae. It is about five minutes from the station, and while the underground shopping streets cover part of that, the museum's own site does not claim a covered route.