for some reason we chose to go to nagasaki today, instead of amakusa or takachiho. we planned out our bus/train routes and the ride would take about 3 hours… yikes.
we got to the station and we were about…. 30 seconds too late. the right train left as we were climbing the stairs to the ticket counter thingy… *sigh*… the other train (non-express) came and we jumped on that instead. we get to the next station and jump on another train, which was not the express and ended up taking about an hour and a half longer than the express was supposed to. instead of arriving at 12-1ish, we got there around 230 – -; and, it was raining. hard. what a crappy… ngah. on the train we went through several areas that were very countryside-ish and it was just a platform, the train driver would check the tickets and everything… i also saw a bunch of coasts that were veryvery low tide or something, boats were resting on the bottom of the lake, still tied to the dock.
when we arrived at urakami (right before nagasaki) station, we bought some buns for ‘lunch’ and umbrellas. we stopped at urakami because it was the station closest to the nagasaki peace memorial museum and peace park, which were the priority of the trip to nagasaki.
we easily arrived at the nagasaki peace museum, our feet were completely soaked, ugh. i hate it when my socks get wet inside my shoes T_T… here, there were about 4 small museums gathered together but the other ones were closed. anyways, we headed towards the nagasaki bomb museum and went through it.
compared to the hiroshima museum, this one was a lot smaller, (and cost more) but i guess it is still part of the experience, learning about the atomic bombs. although the bomb on nagasaki was larger (fatman) the museum, asides from it’s own local landmarks and testimonials, seemed like a summary of the hiroshima bombing.
there was also a ‘special exhibit’ by a japanese photographer who has taken several photographs in the middle east, mainly iraq, and examines how the war is affecting the people there through photography, and comparing it slightly to what had happened to japan. he had a couple of stories about children who had been suffering through the war about their home, lack of health care, and their problems. one story was about a boy he had photographed, he saw that he had amputee legs and wanted to take a picture, altho he didn’t ask how it happened, he thought to himself, that he must have stepped on a mine. years later, he found the same boy again and learnt that his legs were not actually destroyed by a mine but he suffered from polio and he did not have full control over his legs and they were not strong enough to stand by themselves. the wooden legs were to support his legs to enable him to walk. when he was younger, if he was able to go to a different town to receive the medical treatment, it would have not turned out this way. but because of the war, he has suffered a lot. (i’m positive the impact of the photographs and story were a lot better than how i told it… T_T)
afterwards we walked to the hypocenter of the bomb, where a large spire marked it and circling steps surrounded it. it was a very large and quiet area. there was also a statue as well as a duplicate of a part of the urakami cathedral after the bombing.
we walked on towards the peace park. we saw several different statues given by various countries to commemorate peace and the bombing. they were all very interesting statues. in the centre, was the peace fountain which is shaped like dove’s wings, also resembling the shape of the harbor. these wings of water open up and the peace statue is seen directly between them. altho i don’t know the story behind the large peace statue, it actually looks like its directing traffic or something… i’ll look it up later. it was huge tho.
after this, we decided to try and find the half torii gate, surviving the bomb, it stood on one leg. we walked for a while and we only came to a place that looked like a shrine, but was closed. no other place could have been it… we’ll never know. (unless we look it up and stuff…)
it was STILL raining, so instead of heading down into chinatown to try one of their famous dishes that combined western, chinese, and japanese, we headed back, beginning our 3 hour ride back… where we sat and got kicked out of several ‘reserved’ seats :P…
when we finally did get back, the rain had already stopped and david picked us up from hikari no mori… we drove around a bit and most of the places were actually closed T_T, this was around 930pm… and we went to a sushi place instead of the ramen places we were aiming for.
this sushi place seemed a bit different from the others. the chefs were in the back, the track ran into the back and out again. to order specific dishes, it was through a telecom. altho it was very…. ‘efficient’ i guess… it was very odd and seems less authentic and nice than having the sushi chef right in front of u. it was like a fast-food version of sushi on a track thingy (i’m sure there’s a better word for it that i’ve forgotten… :P) but nevertheless, the sushi was good and 105¥ per plate. when we asked for the bill (kaikei, not okanjo) the waitress plugged in into an electronic device then input it into a numbered card o.o… we take the card up to the cashier and it reads from it again… crazy. but interesting…
so… our day trip to nagasaki was… ok.
all the days we’ve actually spent in kumamoto were good
once we stepped out into nagasaki… bad. 0.o… weird.
the peace fountain and statue
menu at the sushi place…
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