Make Love not war
Trip Start
Dec 17, 2007
1
6
30
Trip End
Feb 14, 2008
Nagasaki,
Japan
Friday, December 21, 2007
got to sleep in until 8 am after
getting about ten hours of sleep. The weather was warm and sunny, a sharp
contrast from the cold of Tottori. I settled my bill and headed to the
Kagoshima Chuo station by street car. The street cars seemed to have several
different designs, running every few minutes. The street car had a nice ride
and it ran down the main street of the city and had many shops. Kagoshima Chuo
station is the main station for the city and the terminal for the Kyushu
Shinkansen which the station was recently rebuilt for. The Kyushu Shinkansen
just started running in 2004 and currently makes a short 40 minute ride to
Shin-Yashiro station in Kumamoto prefecture.
The rest of the route to Hakata station is currently being built where it will
be connected to the main Shinkansen line.
The
Kyushu Shinkansen train is named Tsubame which means swallow. The Tsubame is
very beautiful on the outside and on the inside. I think the interior layout of
the Tsubame is the best of the Shinkansen's that I have ridden. The seat backs
are done in light wood. After 40 minutes, the Tsubame pulls into Shin-Yashiro
station where everyone changes to the Tsubame relay train which continues up to
Hakata. The change over was simple, exit the Tsubame, walk across the platform
and hop on the Tsubame relay and most people sit the same seat number as on the
Tsubame Shinkansen (mine was car 3, seat 6D).
The
Tsubame relay is also a nice train, done out in grey. Western
Kyushu is flat with some hills and mountains. Lots of farms, homes,
and factories. As the train motored north, I could see construction of the rest
of the Kyushu Shinkansen with 10 meter twin pillars of concrete every 20 meters
or so holding up the rail bed. Some sections were more complete than others and
you could see all phases of the construction from the foundation work to the
building of the pillars to the hanging of the rail bed. Lots of crews working
which is actually what the Shinkansen is about, a giant public works project
employing thousands of workers for several years along with keeping the cement
plants open. Sure, the train will make travel faster in Kyushu but it is a
lot faster to fly to Kagoshima from Osaka or Tokyo . I rode the
Tsubame rely for awhile before changing to the Kagome express at Tosa. I had
only 4 minutes to change trains and I was a bit confused and almost missed the
train. I had found the right train but the train's signboard didn't say it was Nagasaki bound. I had
found one of the rare but scary and confusing trains, the splitting train. The
train starts as one train but at some point, it splits in two and go on their separate
ways and destinations. The Nagasaki area on the
map was spaghetti of multi-routes and the train schedule was also confusing.
Anyways, I sat in my assigned seat and hoped that I would get to Nagasaki . The train
headed west through the flat land of Saga Prefecture (congratulations
to the public high school from Saga who won the national high school
championship this year). There is a small sea (or large bay), Ariake sea that
lies to the south and soon the train was running besides. Some types of
contraptions were anchored in the water that are for oysters or seaweed
farming. Soon, the long dam across the Isehaya bay appeared that after many
years, a lot of money and much controversy was recently completed. The project
was designed to create new farm land on the tidal flats and flood protection
(And of course, provide money to construction companies). The project looks
like it will cause environmental damage to the sea as the fisherman are
catching less seafood and harvesting less seaweed than before the project (The
fisherman had jobs building the project, the irony).
I
finally reached Nagasaki , the 46th
prefecture that I have visited, you are next Fukui ! I quickly
found and checked into my inn, the Tampopo minsuku and headed out so see the
sights of Nagasaki . Of course, Nagasaki is famous
for the atomic bombing of August 9th,
1945 and my inn was just a short distant away from ground
zero/hypocenter (600 meters/2000 feet as I later determined). I have been to Hiroshima twice so I
guess I was prepared for Nagasaki . I went to
the hypocenter where a black monolith pointed to the sky where the bomb burst.
The monolith stood in a park which was nearly deserted which is a contrast to Hiroshima which was
crowded when I visited. I then walked a short distance to the peace park but as
I was leaving the hypocenter, I saw a Love hotel across the river and maybe 50
meters from the hypocenter. I was trying to imagine a guy trying to convince
his girlfriend to go in after touring the sites where 73,000 people died. But
as I thought about it, maybe it's a good sign, people have moved on with their
lives, rebuilt their homes and businesses and churches, had sex and children
and grandchildren. Life goes on.
I
made it to the Peace Park which is on
a hill where a prison stood at the time of the bombing. The park was laid out
in a large plaza and at the head of the plaza, stood a large statue of a man
(?) with one man pointed to the heavens and the other hand out. I saw a few
more people in the Peace Park including
some gaijin who were the only ones I saw at the atomic sites. From the hill,
the rebuilt Catholic Church can be seen where only a few walls were left after
the bombing but was rebuilt after the war.
Nagasaki has had a
long history with Christians dating back over 400 years and has the largest
concentration of Christians in Japan . I next
walked to the church and saw the remains of one of the bell towers. Next, I
went to the museum which is of a modern design and built into a hill. After descending
a long circular ramp, pictures of Nagasaki before the
bombing are on displayed including pictures of departing soldiers. I like the
fact that they didn't white was the facts that Nagasaki had many
military factories and its shipyards built many warships including the super
battleship, Musashi. In the next room, there were the large remnants of the
bombing including a metal water tower that was bent out of shape. Then they had
a history of the development of the bomb and the museum displayed a life-size
model of the bomb, the Fatman. I had seen pictures of the bombs before but to
stand before the bomb and see how large it was, it brings history to life. Then
there were many remnants of the bombing including melted rosaries and bottles.
Then there were testimonies of the survivors. All in all, I thought the museum
was well done. There does seem to be a slight difference between Hiroshima and Nagasaki as I think Nagasaki has a more
get on with life attitude. There were a lot less visitors in Nagasaki too. Of
course, being second is not as historical as being first. But let's hope that Nagasaki is the last
city bombed by atomic weapons.
Then
I caught a streetcar downtown. Nagasaki has had a
long history of being the door to the world for Japan with Nagasaki port being
open in 1570 with trade with China , Portugal and Spain . With the
closing of Japan from 1600 by
the Tokugawa shogunate, Nagasaki became the
sole port for trade and only with China and the
Dutch. A special island was built to house the Dutch and their warehouses,
Dejima. The Dutch were restricted to the island and once every four years, they
made a journey to Tokyo to pay their
respects to the Shogun. The island over the years has stopped being an island
as land has been reclaimed around it. There is a long term plan to make it an
island once again. The city of Nagasaki has bought
the land of the original island and have been recreating Dejima by building
replica warehouses and other building of the Dutch from 200 hundred years ago.
It was interesting to walk abound the "island" and seeing the building and
imagining what it would have been like there living there over 200 years ago
and being the only Gaijin in Japan. They had a nice large model of the island.
I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be a nice museum.
Then
for dinner, I went to Chinatown which was close to
Dejima. I found a Chinese restaurant opened in 1946 and ordered Champon, gyoza
and shrimp in chili sauce. Champon is the famous food of Nagasaki and it is a
kind of soup with noodles, vegetables with some meat and shrimp. The champon
was ok but it is not something I would order usually.
Then
I walked around awhile and got lost. Nagasaki was a bigger
city than I thought and had a big long arcade with many shops and restaurants.
The arcade was bustling with shoppers and high schoolers after school. I found
my way out of the maze and found the street car line and proceeded to get on
the street care going the wrong way. Finally, I looked at my map and figured
out which street car line would take me back to my inn. When I got back to the
inn, I washed my laundry as it was right out my door and had a dryer. The only
problem was that I washed a large load and the clothes would not dry in an
hour. The hours for the washing machine were from 7
am
to 10 pm and it was 10
pm
and I wanted to be a good guest so I had to wait until the next day.
