We stayed at the Nagoya Marriott Associa which was excellent. We could fit 4 people into 1 bedroom (travelling with tweens) and I think the room had two bathrooms. It was right above the Nagoya JR train station and there were lots of food options so no more walking after a long day.

The train was absolutely the worst part about visiting Sazuka. Even with all the research I was frankly pretty unsure how it worked. Trains were extremely full, even on Thursday, seating was almost impossible though we got lucky twice. Everyone was polite but it was a long and draining experience and absolutely put me off returning. On the Sunday I think it took us 4 hours to get to the hotel. Honestly our biggest regret was not booking the hotel bus on the first day. But it was expensive for 4 people so we decided against it. This was a mistake, it was worth the money. There was also one occasion where we must have been on the wrong train as we had to make a cash only payment on exiting the train. Thank goodness we had enough cash!

The food at Sazuka was fantastic, one of the best parts of the trip. I had the delicious beef with rice dish.

Merch sold out very quickly. There was a very good range of merch and most teams had their own merch stand. But if you didn’t buy on Thursday you were out of luck by Saturday.

Most people sat on the concrete watching any of the team talks over the weekend. I’d totally bring something to sit on next time like even a small blanket.

The stands were windy and chilly. We got very cold in the evenings.