Endō-ji Shōtengai

A short north-south covered arcade fifteen minutes' walk west of Osu Kannon, less polished than the main Osu shotengai and kept alive by family-run specialty shops that have been here since the postwar reconstruction: a bag-repair atelier, two tatami-mat workshops, a knife-grinder, a mochi maker working the front window. The arcade survived two waves of urban renewal that flattened similar streets across Nagoya, and the survivors here are the kind of shops that don't exist on the main Osu strip anymore. Quieter and more browsable; expect older shopkeepers who appreciate cash and small talk in Japanese.