Nagasaki

April 10th
Nagasaki, Japan

Today was my first and only visit to Nagasaki, or so I’ve been told, so I had to make the most of it. I got off the ship with a group of people, which is something I usually don’t do because groups always go awry due to indecision and conflicting interests, but they had an idea of where to go and it seemed better planned than my idea to do the usual, meander through the city. So we got off the ship and made our way to our first stop, Peace Park, which is this large park in the city dedicated to where the US dropped one of the atomic bombs. We got there by taking a tram through the city which turned out to be a really effective and inexpensive way to get there. So the group of eight I was with all left the tram and found our way to the park, which was gorgeous. The cherry blossoms were still in bloom, so that just added to the beauty of it all. The park was filled with statues and memorials along with signs that would describe the events that took place August 9th, 1945. I was able to stand right under where the bomb exploded, and just being in that area where so much had been devoted to the victims was a really powerful experience. After that, we made our way to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. That place was really amazing, not to mention interesting just for the sake of getting the story from a completely different perspective. I always say I disliked history in school more than any other subject, but it’s times like these where you actually get to see it first hand and observe the effects that history strikes you in a more personal way. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the museum, so hopefully you can look it up online if you’re interested. But all in all, it was an extremely intense and eye-opening experience for me, and I’m not sure anyone could make it through those exhibits without being affected.
Following our time in Peace Park, we all made our way back to the main part of the city, nearer to the ship, where we’d begin the never ending search for food. After about 45 minutes of searching, certain people got impatient and took off to go find food at a shopping mall, something I’d never do. So the group shrunk to six people and we continued the search for a place that was more of my style – local and authentic. We did eventually come across a place right around the time everywhere else was closing up do to the end of “lunch time”, and ended up being very happy with it. It wasn’t quite as good as the first stop I had made in Fukuoka, but we got to sit at one of those short tables without chairs, and of course, had to take off our shoes.
When we finished eating, the next stop was for some of the group to try their hand at Pachinko, a Japanese casino game. Similar to slots, Pachinko is instead played with hundreds of tiny metal balls that bounce through this machine while a strange “role playing game” sort of scene is displayed on the monitor in front of you. I don’t have the slightest idea how to play, nor did I understand the monitor and the game these people appeared to be playing on it, but there was no question that a ton of steel beads flying like crazy and the flashing lights, beeps and alarms, made for the noisiest and most intense casino environment I’ve ever seen. But for whatever reason, the game is unbelievably popular and you see these casinos all over these Japanese cities, I have no idea why. Some people stayed and played a hyped up game of slots, while me and a couple others walked around a mall for a bit while we waited in safety.
There were a few other things on our to do list after we left that area, and as we navigated our way through the city, we would come to our different points of interest only to find out everything had an entrance fee. This was a usual deterrent, but we did pay a price to get into a Confucian Shrine, which was maybe not as interesting as the price made it seem, but cool none the less. We ended up getting kicked out after a half hour because we came just as they were about to close, so it was unfortunate that we probably didn’t get our money’s worth, but it was still something interesting to see.
Then we all headed back to the ship, most people got back aboard, but me knowing I still had 90 minutes in Japan, had no intention of stopping. After a brief walk along the pier, I set out to climb a large hill near the ship that I swore I saw an observatory at the top of. The hill was scattered with houses most of the way up, meaning I could navigate the streets to near the top, but the last 400 meters took me through these old neighbor hoods with traditional Japanese houses, and then up countless stairs that slithered it’s way through the dense foliage at the top. When I finally reached to summit, totally out of breath, I found I was right with my observatory sighting and spent the next 15 minutes sitting up there looking over Nagasaki. It was perfect. I was quickly running out of time though and had to make the 1km journey back down the hill and then walk a reasonable distance back to the ship within about an hour, but did it with out a problem. When I returned, they actually had a school band playing marches outside the ship, something that I was actually able to hear at the top of the hill and on the trip down it as well (something I pretended was my victory music for making it to the top).
I had a late set that night, but that was about it for the day then. It was a great day and I remain sold that Japan is probably the coolest country ever. I can’t wait for tomorrow when I get back to Fukuoka. Seeya!