Nagasaki, Japan

We spent today at Nagasaki. It is, of course, best known to us as one of the two Japanese cities hit with atomic bombs at the end of WWII. Historically it has been an international trading and ship building area for Japan. Because there were so many foreigners (mostly Portuguese, Dutch, and Chinese) in and out of the city over centuries it has been and still is the area in Japan with one of the largest concentration of Christians.

We were about an hour late coming in to port this morning. The captain said it was a combination of some rough seas slowing us down along with an hour delay for the medical evacuation last night and another hour delay in leaving our original port in Yokohama due to another medical emergency. He said that they were able to make up most of the time, but not all of it. Because of the delay we actually had time to watch the shoreline as we came into Nagasaki. In appearance it was surprisingly similar to going into Ketchikan, Alaska…just much warmer and more humid.

We used the local tram system to get around. It was nice, easy to use, and inexpensive (unlimited rides for the 3 of us for the day for about $15). They have 4 different tram lines that can get you close to most of the sights. The stops are numbered so it’s relatively easy to keep track of where you need to get off.

We started off at the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial and Peace Park. It is up on a hill with pretty gardens going up with the stairs. At the top is a fountain (made to look like wings when it is on) and beyond that is a large statue and memorial. The site of the Peace Park was a prison that was leveled by the atomic bomb. It was only about 100 meters away from where the bomb was dropped. The walls around the prison were about 4 meters high, 0.25 meters thick, and made of concrete reinforced with steel. They were essentially leveled. The bomb killed over 73,000 (out of a local population of about 240,000) and injured another 75, 000. All of the houses within 4 km of the bomb site were damaged with those within 1 km being reduced to rubble. The actual site of the bomb blast (called the hypocenter) is marked with a large black monolith and plaque. While we were there we were able to watch some of the Japanese go stand and bow at this marker. Near the marker there is the remnant of the Urakami Cathedral, a Catholic church built in 1895 and nearly completely destroyed by the bomb. This portion was relocated to the bomb site when the church was rebuilt in 1958.

We next went to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Here they do a good job of relating the history leading up to and after the bombing. They also have many artifacts from the bombing. I had never know that Nagasaki was the secondary, not primary, bomb target. The primary target, Kokura, was abandoned because of smoke cover and Nagasaki was hit instead. They said that the wind generated by the bomb initially travelled 170 meters/second for the first km out. The blast wave reached 3.7 km by 10 seconds after the blast. The museum does an excellent job of portraying the damage done to both people and objects. Most everyone there was very quiet and reverent while going through the exhibits.

From there we went to the Suwa Shrine, or as I referred to it, the Upstairs Shrine. We climbed multiple long staircases to get up there. Seriously, a lot of stairs. A Japanese woman showed Emily and me the method of ritual hand washing performed prior to going in to the shrine and we did see a number of Japanese bowing at the entrance of the shrine. We then went to Kofukuji Temple. This was the first Obaku Zen temple in Japan, started around 1620. It has a massive red wooden gate at its entrance and some nice gardens inside. It also appears to have a large cemetery going up the hill behind it.
Right across the street from the Kofukuji Temple we found a small cafe called the Bistrot Audrey. It’s not often that I run across my name and I certainly didn’t expect to in Japan. Unfortunately it was closed, so we didn’t get to eat there. We did walk down a little ways to see the Spectacles Bridge, which was built by the 2nd abbot of the Kofukuji Temple and is the oldest stone bridge in Japan. When the water level is up it is said to look like eyeglasses, hence the name.

After that we hit a few other tourist spots. We had lunch in a shopping area called Hammanmachi and took a quick look at the Japanese version of the $1 store. We made a brief stop at the Glover Garden, which is an open air museum and garden that originally belonged to westerners. We basically peeked in as it didn’t seem worth the over $18 it was going to cost for us to go in (at least with our time constraints). We walked down a long staircase/walkway labelled “a prayer slope” to get to the Oura Catholic Church. This was built in the 1800s, but is no longer an active church. Unfortunately it is at the top of a bunch of stairs and we were all stairs-ed out so we didn’t go in.

When our ship was getting ready to leave port a group of about 30 school kids (maybe high school aged) played music to see us off. This is apparently the usual custom when the Diamond Princess ports in Nagasaki because she was built there.

There is definitely a lot more to do and see here and it would be worthwhile to return. Interestingly, since our ship goes to Busan, South Korea tomorrow, we had to go through Japanese customs (“departure immigration inspection”) before leaving. I’m assuming that we will have to go through entry customs again in 2 days when we are back in Japan.