Psst! Heard about the hottest "new" place in Japan? The city that's rapidly gaining a national reputation for being at the cutting edge of women's fashion and is, perhaps, the country's most vibrant economic center?
Welcome to Nagoya. Yes, that's right. Nagoya. No, it's not just a gray urban blight upon the landscape that you pass through on the shinkansen on your way to some place more interesting.
After years of being the butt of many jokes, ugly duckling Nagoya is transforming, albeit slowly, into a swan -- with a local economy that is doing well, and with a growing civic pride that has optimists convinced that Nagoya may one day be the second-most important city in Japan.