3 days in and around Nagasaki
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2016.03.08
Tuesday We woke up
with the sun shining from a clear blue sky. The marina office was supposed to
open at 09 and Kalle and Lars went there to fill in all of the paperwork. It
hadn´t yet opened and they decided to do some repair job while waiting,
meanwhile I spent a few hours reading in the sun. A couple of hours later we
were told that the office was closed on Tuesdays. Nothing else to do than try
to get in to town for some sightseeing. We managed to catch a bus that took us
all the way to Nagasaki Station. After eating some great Indian lunch we walked
towards the harbour. We arrived in Dejima Wharf, a row of Dutch-like buildings
next to the harbour. We decided to go see the reconstructed Dejima. Between
1641-1850s this 15,000 m2 island was the only place foreigners and foreign
trading was allowed in all of Japan. Here, some of the buildings have been
reconstructed and work as a museum were we spent an hour or so. After some
walking around in the surroundings, we took the bus back to the boat and had
dinner there. 2016.03.09
Wednesday We were
prepared for some bad weather today, but the wind (40 knots) and rain we woke
up to today were worse… after filling out the paperwork in the office we got
dressed in all of our rain gear and took the bus in to town. Thankfully the
weather got a bit better on the way in to town. We got to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb
Museum after lunch. The museum was a great mix of objects, pictures, movies and
technical information about the bomb as well as information of circumstances
leading up to the bombing. It felt like a couple of well spent hours that
created a lot of thoughts and I believe we all felt a bit uncomfortable and
filled with different feelings after the visit. We took the tram to a
Zen-Buddhist temple where we could have some change in thoughts. Kofukiji
Temple is the oldest in Nagasaki, opened in 1620. On our way back to the city
harbour we walked through China Town and ended up in the Dejima Wharf once
again. We had some early dinner to be able to rent a car before the car rental
closed at 20. We managed to get our third rental car of the trip (all depending
on Kalles international driving licence). This time a real Japanese ridiculous “box
car” = seems like the most common car in japan, looking just like a box. 2016.03.10
Thursday The
destination for today was Unzen. A small village on the side of the mountain
with the same name, famous for its volcanic activity showed in onsens (Japanese
natural hot springs). Mount Unzen had its latest eruption 1990 which lasted for
five years. It took about 1,5 hours to drive there and we drove through some
small towns seeming to exist only of fast food restaurants and tire shops.
After leaving the highway and heading up for the mountain the view changed and
we saw some beautiful nature. Once in Unzen we parked the car and walked around
past the hot springs which were bubbling, egg fart smelling and leaking lots of
screaming steam in big clouds (the screaming was back in the day thought to be
the sound of devils in the underground). We found a public spa were we could
take a bath in an inside-onsen. It was separated for women and men so we had to
split up. The water was so warm it took a few minutes to get the entire body
into the bath, but once there it was an amazing feeling. I was alone in mine,
while Lars and Kalle shared their bath with a Japanese man who showed them the correct
way of using an onsen. Because of the temperature we had enough after a while.
Our soft and relaxed bodies took their seats in the car and we continued our
drive up the mountain. The clouds were low and covered the entire top of the
mountain completely. Not much of a view from there. We changed our destination
to a small castle town at the bottom of the mountain; Shimabara. We entered the
Shimabara Castle, used from the 1660s. This was rebuilt in its former shape in
1964, today serving as a museum of the Christian uprising showing samurai
armour, arms and other items. After successfully returning our little box car
in Nagasaki, we took the bus back to the marina. The restaurant at the marina
seemed to be opened so we popped in and asked. There were four girls in the
lobby looking a bit confused by our question. They called someone and then we
were accepted to take the elevator to the second floor. There was only one
couple sitting in the restaurant and it looked like the room was prepared for a
wedding. We were recommended different menus from four to six courses. We told
the cook, who interpreted for the rest of the staff, that we only wished to eat
a main course. They all seemed confused by this and asked a couple of times
what we wanted to do after the main course. We tried to make ourselves as clear
as we could. After a while the staff came with three plates with starters and
tried to explain something that we didn’t understand. After this they came with
new plates, this time soup. Now we were the ones who were confused! This was
followed by our actual main courses that we had ordered. Everything tasted
fantastic and the restaurant was beautiful. When the bill came we were all
curious how much it had cost us. Imagine our surprise when they only charged us
the main courses! Anna |