JAPAN 2019
Much like Hiroshima, Nagasaki was another city that you don't think of when you want to travel to Japan, but it does come to mind when you think about the horrors of the Atomic bomb. We had come this far and we needed to see what Nagasaki had become.
February 7
Nagasaki
When we arrived at the Hotel New Nagasaki, we were very happy that not only did they let us in our room right away, but it was one of the nicest hotels we had stayed in. As always, heated toilet seats with butt wash features!
The view over Nagasaki from our room on 12th floor
The kidney stone pain was dull and constant, and trying to find Naproxen (anti-inflammatory) was going to be an interesting challenge. So a little online research and a couple pharmacies later...
Feeling a bit better, we booked a tour for a late night light installation that was on a nearby island, and we headed out for dinner.
Chinese lantern display at the Train Station (daytime/nighttime)
Wandering around the neighborhood, we found an English pub called Public house Mallaig. Apparently British pubs aren't very popular in Nagasaki, and we had a nice pub dinner at the empty bar.
The Light installation was called Island Lumina, as our concierge arranged we get on the Lumina bus at 9:00 for the 40 minute bus ride to Island Lumina on Iojima Island. Passing through tunnels and over bridges we get a late night tour of Southern Nagasaki.
When we finally arrive, it's a Cluster&%@#. The bus that brought us is the last bus back to Nagasaki! After translating to the staff there, and them shaking their heads, one of them goes away and comes back. we are given 30 minutes to quickly tour the display, and we would get a ride home on the staff bus. If they didn't do that for us, we would have been stuck on Iojima for the night.
"On an island where darkness reigns, there lives a little girl named Yura. Her story begins one fateful night when she overhears people in the village telling stories. Local legend holds that the darkness came when an enchanted jewel went missing. They say that the gemstone was stolen from the sky by a dragon. He hid the jewel in a mysterious long-abandoned ship, thinking no one would be brave enough to follow him there. And nobody was, until now... Yura discovers that the dragon's lair can only be reached by a secret passageway through the village well. Drawn by her curiosity, she sets off to find the jewel and bring light back to the island. On her journey, she must find help to overcome the challenges that wait. Join Yura on her quest through an enchanted underwater world that glimmers with magic. Help her snatch the jewel from the fearsome dragon's grasp and restore the balance between darkness and light!"
Through the use of lights and projectors, the story is told as you walk along trails through a forest and a beach.
There's a few unique areas along the way, like this stepping stone path that lights up and makes music as you go.
From videos projected on to the seaside rocks you find yourself in a bamboo maze, and need to use a special flashlight to uncover clues to find your way out.
The last interactive element is a battle against the dragon using drums to send bolts of light at the dragon, before the final part of the story plays out on the sails of a ship.
After a very awkward ride home on the bus with all the staff, we are dropped at the front door of our hotel. Maybe it was the stress of being stranded, maybe it was the 30 minute rush through the display, but what a colossus waste of of an evening. We never should have gone, but it sounded way better than it was.
February 8
After a very long night, I couldn't take the kidney stone pain anymore, our hotel phoned ahead and we took a Taxi to Nagasaki University Hospital. I am checked in as "Davit Walfeld" (It's a pseudonym I like to use in foreign countries). Then we wait for my name to be called...
We didn't wait long to see a doctor, then through the magic of google translate and a helpful partially English speaking nurse, tests started happening. Blood test, Urine test, echo, X-ray, and a few minutes later I am looking at an X-Ray showing four kidney stones.
I am walked down to a pharmacy in the hospital, and have a prescription filled, then shown to a machine to pay my bill of ¥25,000 (about $300). Two hours after we arrive I am all done, walking out the door with a much better medication in my pocket, told to drink lots of fluids... and wait for the stones to pass.
After all that, we went back to the hotel and ordered room service for dinner, maybe our most expensive meal of the trip.
Later that night, medicated and feeling much better, we took the tram to Nagasaki for the annual Chinese Lantern festival, yes, a Chinese Lantern Festival in Japan. Prepare to have your retinas blown away with colour.
Seriously, it hurts your brain just looking at all the colours.
Sometimes there's just so much to take in, like this giant display of actual pig heads, in celebration of the year of the pig.
This entire square is surrounded by lanterns of famous historical figures, and at one end there is a stage with traditional and non-traditional performers of music, dance, and really loud drumming.
We wandered into other areas of Chinatown, and then just stopped and watched in awe at the incredible Ferris Wheel parking machine. You drive your car in, and it lifts and rotates away, you bring your ticket and your car rotates back down to the exit.
Somehow we ended up in an outdoor mall at exactly the same time a parade came through with several long winding dragons. I guess it was our Lucky night, making up for my not so lucky day.
After a random turn down a random street, we stumbled upon another stage with amazing acrobatic performers. One of the truly great moments of awareness came, I am one of the tallest people here, and we can see over the heads of all the crowds.
When the group of boys came on and showed how they could flip hats on to each others head, it was time to go.
What started out as a pretty bad day, become a really fun and colourful night, so glad we decided to venture out.
One of the things you will discover when walking the streets of a Japanese city, there is hardly any litter, and very few if any trash cans. Due to a build up of garbage and litter, Japan introduced strict laws about recycling and waste. People are encouraged to take a bag with them to collect their garbage, and then it is properly disposed of at home using their recycling bins.
As a tourist you can look for garbage/recycling bins near vending machines or at train stations, or be like the locals and take a plastic bag with you and collect during the day, then dispose of it in your hotel room.
February 9
We really missed a lot of Nagasaki because of my rock collection, so we decided to spend the morning in Nagasaki. We had a bit of time before heading off to our next destination, so back on to the trams to check out a few key sights.
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Nagasaki Confucius Shrine is one of only a handful of shrines dedicated to the revered Chinese philosopher Confucius in Japan. The shrine was built in 1893 by Nagasaki's Chinese community.
Flanking the shrine's courtyard stand the 72 sages, life-size stone statues that weigh around two tons each and depict Confucius' disciples. The shrine encourages visitors to find among the statues one that resembles a relative.
The dragon details on the roofs are very cool.
From the Confucius Shrine to our next stop, it's a short winding walk through hidden neighborhoods. When we find the Church that is supposed to be the oldest church in Japan, we are kind of disappointed. It's very plain and constructed with bricks.
As it turned out, if we had of turned our heads to the left, we wouldn't have been so disappointed. Oura Catholic Church was first constructed in 1863 by two French priests, Fathers Louis Furet and Bernard Petitjean, after the opening up of a number of treaty ports in the last years of the Edo Period of Japanese history (1603-1867). Oura Catholic Church is said to be the oldest church in Japan.
Not far away is Glover Gardens. Glover Garden is a park built for Thomas Blake Glover, a Scottish merchant who contributed to the modernization of Japan in shipbuilding, coal mining, and other fields..
In it stands the Glover Residence, the oldest Western style house surviving in Japan. Along with the Glover residence is several other homes of the period and Masonic buildings.
Tamaki Miura was a Japanese opera singer who performed as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Known as Prima Donna, apparently she is tied to the families that lived here in Nagasaki, and had visited here in 1922. We see signs labeled as the "mystery of Prima Donna", but everything else is in Japanese. Apparently it will remain a mystery to us.
There is great views over the harbour from these gardens.
Along with the historical buildings are some fun elements used for parades and festivals.
It was time to head back and grab our train out of Nagasaki, but not before we walked past some other Japanese sights and oddities.
You have probably wondered about the cars and vehicles of Japan. You do see some of the standard Mercedes, BMWs or Audis around, but the majority of vehicles are of a smaller variety, cars, vans, and even trucks are typically smaller. The majority of Taxi's are Toyota Crowns. Their roads can be narrow, and parking is at a premium.
The best tip I can give you is, that unless you can read Japanese characters, don't bother renting a car. The signage on highways that are in English are minimal, and their train/subway/bus system is so good, you just don't need a car.
After getting back to our room, we packed up our clothes and my medications, and took the train to Fukuoka (which for some strange reason is also called Hakata). A short subway ride from there to the Fukuoka airport for our 2 hour flight to Okinawa.
After eating a sandwich in the airport food court, we find out there is an Ichiran Ramen shop right near our gate, how disappointing.
There was no options to book seats in advance online, and even though we arrived early, the flight is full, so we sat apart. As soon as we arrived at the airport we went to the check-in desk in the airport to book seats together for our return flight.