Born in Nagoya, but I barely know my hometown.
So I decided to Quest it.
For almost 3 years, I've been exploring Cebu by following clues from people — asking questions, getting things wrong, and letting strangers teach me things I didn't know.
This time, the Quest started in Nagoya.
And I had a simple question:
"Where do Filipinos gather around here?"
I asked a station staff.
"I don't know."
So I tried the tourist information center.
"Maybe you know where Filipinos usually gather?"
"I don't know."
Okay...😂
Two places.
No answer.
I was honestly starting to think maybe I was asking the wrong question.
Then, just as I was about to give up and head back, an older man said,
"Obu. There are a lot of Filipinos there."
Me: "Obu?"
A new clue.
But still not really an answer.
So I followed the clue I'd been given, searched online, and eventually found a Filipino restaurant.
Maybe this is where the next part of the Quest begins.
I'm curious to see who I'll meet, and what I'll learn about the Filipino community here.
I've spent almost 3 years Questing through Cebu.
Now, I think it's time to Quest my hometown.
Back in Nagoya for a little while 🇯🇵🇵🇭🖖
I've spent almost three years chasing small mysteries in Cebu — following a stranger's offhand comment into a market, a rumor into a barangay, a single word into a whole afternoon. I got good at it. I got comfortable not knowing where I was going.
Coming back to Nagoya, I expected the opposite. This is where I was born. I thought the only thing waiting for me here was familiarity.
Instead, two people in a row told me they had no idea where the Filipino community in my own city even gathers. Not the vague, half-remembered kind of not knowing — the flat, immediate kind. It made me realize how much of my own hometown I'd simply never looked at.
Different culture. Different countries. Same posture, though — a stranger handing me a fragment and trusting I'd know what to do with it. "Obu." That's all I had. No address, no name, just a word an older man said.
What I was really searching for wasn't just a place where Filipinos gather. I was realizing that I could treat my own hometown like somewhere I don't actually know yet.
| Date | September 17, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Location | Nagoya Station, Aichi, Japan |
| Event Type | Community Search |
| Access Method | Self-directed — asked station staff, tourist information, and passersby |
| Food Featured | None yet — a Filipino restaurant was identified but not yet visited |
| Cost to Attend | Free |
| Rarity | 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ — An ordinary transit-hub search, not rare in itself |
| Bayanihan Index | 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ — No community contact made yet, only a lead |
Whether Obu holds an actual community, or just one restaurant with no one in it, is something I won't know until I go.