Heading South – To Nagasaki!
Today I headed south of Kobe for the first time since coming to Japan. Very south in fact – off Honshu and into Kyushu to visit the first of the two A-Bomb cities on my itinerary: Nagasaki. At 6 hours, the trip down was a bit longer than I expected, but there was lots to take in. Plenty of idyllic city settings; large buildings offset against green country side, with the occasional Japanese roof poking out of the trees inbetween the built up areas.
The train services were once again spot on to the minute, but this time I couldn’t take a direct service. 2 Shinkansens were required, followed by a highly luxurious Limited Express train to complete the final miles to Nagagasaki. Polished wooden floors, chrome bars on the roof and big, reclining leather seats…..at first I thought I had went into first class by accident!
Edging towards Nagasaki, the train twists and tilts its way through mile after mile of small villages with and ships lying on bare river beds because the tide is out. The views are spectacular; certainly the best scenery i’ve seen so far on my trip. The weather was great, making the views accross the small ports and harbours all the more eye catching. Very traditional Japanese houses litter the surrounding areas.
So when I arrived in Nagasaki, the sun was once again blazing and it was hot! Headed straight for the Ryokan to dump my bag. One real advantage of staying with Andy was that I only needed to take enough stuff for 3 days at a time…making for a far lighter backpack! The place is really nice – I was greeted by the owner with a hearty bow, and enough English to get me by. I put my bag in my huge room, which is very traditional, complete with iced mugi-cha…which I have come to think of as “weetabix tea” and I love it! Drank the entire flask there and then. Headed back out, and the owner was waiting for me and he had put together some local information and maps, and said “enjoy Nagasaki” as I left – what a nice guy! It’s called Fujiwara Ryokan, by the way.
Time was getting on so I immediately made for the A-Bomb museum and peace park for what would be my only sightseeing of the day. The trams are handy and are very easy to use, and they’re cheap at 100yen. The city has some really European feeling to it, which is due to past ties with the Dutch and the Portuguese…I will no doubt learn a bit more about that tomorrow.
Visting the A-Bomb museum and park was quite a surreal experience. “Never forget August 9th, 19.45, 11am” is the message told by the peace statue. This is the time when the Americans dropped the Fat Man bomb over Nagasaki, making it the second ever city to be nuked. You read about it in books and see it on TV but nothing can really prepare you for the sense of reality you get when you are actually standing at the hypocentre monument thinking of the utter destruction caused by the bomb 62 years ago. In fact this time 62 years ago it was just short of a month since the bomb, so the area where I was standing would have been in ruin. It’s such a peacful place, which makes it all the more difficult to imagine.
The museum houses lots of scorched and heavily damaged relics, with some pretty graphic photos alongside. Burned clothes, glasses, plates etc – all on display. Seeing peoples actual posessions drills it in even more and makes the whole thing seem so much more real.
I spent a long time in the park, taking everything in. It was hunger that moved me on! Nagasaki is a relatively small city compared to the others I have visted so getting around is quicker. I headed back to the mall at the train station, because there is a big food hall there and I was keen to try Champon – a Nagasaki specialty which is similar to ramen, packed with chicken, shrimps, squid, mussles and loads of fresh veg…aswell as the noodles and soup of course! I was given an English menu when I sat down!
Seemingly there isn’t masses to do for the lone traveller at night in Nagasaki, and there were no travellers at the Ryokan to talk to so I just headed back to my room to get an early night…watched a bit of TV and caught up on my journal. My tea flask had been refilled.
