Nagasaki: Wet, humid, and boring...

I left Hiroshima bright and early the next morning for my next destination and the site of the second atomic bomb attack: Nagasaki. The train ride was super comfortable: shinkansen to Fukuoka, and transferring to a limited express train to Nagasaki. But in Kyushu (the island south of the main island of Honshu), the limited express trains are manufactured by a different company and were way more comfortable and classy than the limited express trains in Hokkaido and Honshu (you'll get a chance to see below) - they had leather seats! But it went all downhill from the train ride. Getting to the hostel was a pain, even with their instructions. Like Hiroshima, the trams ruled Nagasaki, but it was so confusing when I first got there to figure out where to board the tram coming out from the station that I decided to walk to the hostel. They said it would take 10 minutes...it took me at least 20. The hard part was having to walk uphill with my big bag in the ridiculously humid weather...I was literally drenched in sweat by the time I made it to the hostel. It was a small hostel run by a couple called AKARI, and the owners spoke very good English, were very friendly, and very helpful (the husband even carried my big bag up the 4 flights of stairs to the dorm room!). It started raining as soon as I headed out for lunch a few minutes after, and it continued raining for the rest of the day. Including the fact that it was extremely humid, the most common umbrellas in Japan are not wide enough to cover the average North American frame, and I had to juggle holding an umbrella, water bottle, and camera when trying to take photos, the sightseeing in Nagasaki was not the greatest experience. It was so humid that on the first day, while slowly strolling around (in a quick-dry t-shirt) on Teramachi-dori (a street with no incline), I was sweating more after 5 minutes than I had after 30 minutes of hiking in Shiretoko! And the second day didn't get any better; in fact it rained even harder (which made it extremely difficult to take photos and keep the camera dry at the same time)! My camera got more wet than the normal amateur photographer would let happen; I definitely have to give a nod to Canon for building such solid, durable DSLR cameras. So please enjoy my photo-taking efforts over my 2 days in Nagasaki (though I didn't visit as many sights as I could have)!

On the limited express train from Fukuoka to Nagasaki; notice the black leather seats.


Arrived in Nagasaki.


I headed to a nearby Chinese-styled restaurant (recommended by the hostel) called Keikaen for lunch to try a Nagasaki specialty: champon. It's ramen noodles (different in taste and texture to the ramen in Hokkaido though) served in a salty white broth with a large mix of toppings (including a processed fish patty, pork, squid, cabbage, mushrooms, and more), that is supposedly influenced by Chinese cooking...I actually could sort of taste some Chinese cooking influence. Nagasaki was one of a few places where there was heavy Chinese influence in Japan.


Koei-ji, a temple across the canal from the hostel.


On the side of an elementary school I passed by. I found it interesting since they're depicting Christian scenes (and it's Japan, where Christianity isn't that big). Nagasaki was the oldest and most influential Christian community in Japan.


Photos from my walk along Teramachi-dori (literally Temple Street) - an entire street of temples. There were so many temples (and because I'm writing this so long after I actually did it), I don't exactly remember which temple is which in the photos...though I know the last 5 photos are of Kotai-ji. The 1st photo is of an otorii gate made of porcelain, which is very unusual and unique, and the 6th photo is the main gate of Kofukuji (I didn't go in, it cost money).


A Nissan I passed by that I think is only in Japan(?). It's the March - I've never seen one, and it looked like an interesting car.


There was so much rain, and it was so humid, I had no energy left to explore the rest of the temples (which were actually more prominent than the many smaller temples lining Teramachi-dori) just adjacent to Teramachi-dori. Instead, to get a break from the rain, I headed to Nagasaki's shopping arcade, the Kankodori and Hamanomachi shopping arcades, where I bought black sesame ice cream (and it actually tasted like black sesame) to cool down as I strolled around.


Spectacles Bridge (or Meganebashi in Japanese), the oldest stone arch bridge in Japan. It's called "Spectacles Bridge" because the reflection of the bridge off the canal water makes it looks like a pair of spectacles...I didn't see the big deal about it (Nagasaki features it as a tourist attraction).


And finally to the third part of the title: Nagasaki was boring. I'm not sure how else I could say it except for putting it that bluntly. I had no energy to do anymore sightseeing for the day because of the weather, so I headed directly back to hostel after Spectacles Bridge (which was on the way back). This was when I started to work on finishing up my blog posts for my time in Hokkaido since I had free internet at AKARI. But I came back at a good time; a guy came in a few minutes after me and told me it just started pouring. Luckily, AKARI had a few DVDs of English movies, perfect for killing some time, so we ended up watching Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (which I had never seen before). After that, he popped in Armageddon as 2 girls staying at the hostel walked in; and of course they watched along, because there was nothing to do in Nagasaki at night. After working on my blog for a bit, I left around 9PM to find a place to eat dinner...almost everything was closed! I figured the many restaurants at the shopping arcades would at least still be open, but they were all closed too! I ended up having to eat at McD's, my first time in Japan. I grabbed the biweekly special, the Chicken Tatsuta: grilled chicken with shredded cabbage and wasabi mayo! It was actually pretty good. I also ordered the cheeseburger to see if it was any different (it wasn't) and a lemon iced tea...I had to add the sugar syrup and lemon flavour to the tea myself (oh McDonald's, you're so disgusting hahaha)! But the inside of McDonald's are so much nicer in Japan compared to North America - the bar and stool area had glass separators and even an outlet for charging your cell phone or you laptop! On the way back (most street lights were already turned off and it wasn't even 10PM!), I picked up a ice cream dessert at 7-11, red bean paste inside vanilla ice cream - very delicious. The guy and 2 girls were finishing up the movie when I got back (it was like we were the only 4 guests there that night), and it was actually the guy's birthday that day, so we all went out to grab a beer at a nearby convenie - we got autumn brew editions! - and then returned to the hostel to watch some hilarious Japanese game shows on TV and just hang out...because there was nothing else to do.


The next day, despite the pouring rain, I decided to attempt some sightseeing and headed out to the Nagasaki Peace Park first. The water display in the 2nd photo is supposed to look like dove wings. There were many statues sent from other countries on display in the park (I'm only showing a few). The main one (with all the school children in front in the 5th and 6th photos) is the famous Peace Statue.


Then I headed over to the nearby Urakami Cathedral, the oldest and largest Catholic church in the Orient. It was not only nice to finally visit a church in Japan to pray, but it also gave me (and my camera) a much-needed break from the pouring rain. God does provide! The street leading up to Urakami Cathedral is named after the church too!


Pizza California, a pizza shop I passed back on Urakami Cathedral Street...it looked so out of place to me.


At the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park. The 1st photo is of the remains of Urakami Cathedral that stood after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. The 2nd photo is of the tall black pillar marking the exact spot of the A-bomb epicenter (the bomb was actually detonated 500m above ground). The 3rd and 4th photo go together; I'll let you read the description of the statue.


It was raining way too hard to do any more sightseeing with an umbrella that wasn't big enough for me, so I headed shopping mall adjoining the train station to grab some lunch. I finally ate from the conveyor belt at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant! Then I spent some time listening to some records at the Tower Records there, and then grabbed a small Haagen-Dazs treat at a supermarket I walked by inside the mall (it's the new Apple Calvados(?) flavour, I knew I had to try it). It tasted like apple to me...I'm not sure what Calvados tastes like since I've never had it. You might also notice I'm holding chopsticks...I had no spoon to eat with haha. Then I headed back to hostel (I didn't feel like visiting the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum since I had been to the one in Hiroshima, and the one in Nagasaki cost more), the weather was just too awful to do anymore sightseeing, where I finished up the rest of the Hokkaido blog posts.


I went to dinner at some all-you-can-eat buffet place in the shopping arcades that the hostel recommended that used mainly locally grown foods. It wasn't the 1000 yen to me; the food wasn't that great, and the selection was poor. But I felt I hadn't seen much of Nagasaki (and I really didn't), so I headed to nearby Chinatown. It's quite small, just 2 short intersecting walking streets, covered entirely with yellow lanterns overhead along both paths.


A restaurant I passed by while walking back to the hostel. Read some of the English on the vertical signs...I'm not even sure what to make of them haha.

When I got back to the hostel, since there was nothing to do at night in Nagasaki, me and one of the girls from the night before (the guy and other girl had left) watched The Last Samurai (which I also had not seen before) and some more Japanese game shows...exciting eh? But I'm so glad the hostel had a few DVDs otherwise we would have been bored out of our minds (I guess the hostel owners know too haha).


A model of a boat (don't ask me of its significance) at the train station as I waited for the train to Fukuoka the next morning. Nagasaki continued to screw with me even as I was leaving: I didn't want to do the walk between the hostel and the train station with my big bag again, so I decided to take the tram. But the trams that would have gotten me to the station on time didn't come...and neither did the next 3 scheduled ones (a strange occurrence in Japan)! So I ended up missing my train and had to make the walk anyway. And wouldn't you know it (with my luck), it finally stopped raining that morning!

Some advice to any travellers planning to visit Nagasaki: you can do it as a day trip from Fukuoka and easily visit all the major tourist attractions. To be quite honest, I spent 2 too many nights in Nagasaki hahaha (in case you weren't following, I spent 2 nights in Nagasaki).