Day Nine - Nagasaki and Shimabara (sort of)

Sooo hi from Shimabara! ^_^; I'm moving pretty quickly, I guess.

FIRST OF ALL. I just wanted it to be known that I have finally figured out how to check my voice mail on my phone, so leave as many messages as you'd like now. ^___^

I have no idea what these cute bunnythings are... they're the resident spokesperson of something-or-other in Nagasaki... but they are everywhere, including souvenirs. ._.

I spent the day in Nagasaki until attractions began to close and darkness loomed. I woke up early and dropped by bags off at Nagasaki Station in a coin locker (best things ever, and they're everywhere here). Then I took the tram to the Peace Park, which houses the Peace Statue, among a fountain and many other statues and memorials of the atomic bomb. The statue is waaaaay bigger than I realized, which made it very much worth the effort of climbing the many stairs and hills to get to the park.

Nagasaki is essentially built on a river that cuts through the mountains. They didn't cut down all the mountains or anything (obviously) so everything is built onto and into the mountains. This results in both (1) an awesome looking city that goes up rather than out, and (2) lots of climbing. EVERYTHING is at the top of hills, stairs, etc. Some places like the Atomic Bomb Museum and Glover Garden, which are trying to be very accessible to the elderly and handicapped, have an elevator, escalator, or the like. But most don't, and just walking around town, you usually end up going up and down some pretty intense hills, or you turn a corner and are faced with a steep set of stairs. It makes Nagasaki very unique and interesting, but I'm feeling all the not-so-good-for-me food I've been eating ._. and my lack of exercise for the past two months ._____.;

After the park I went to the bomb hypocentre, which is represented with a black monolith. There are a few other things in the park, such as the "actual ground level" at the time of the bombing (the current ground level is now raised in that area), a pretty statue, and a section of a church that was almost totally destroyed. Right when I got there there was a group of Japanese kids singing, which was rather cute... I took a video. They didn't seem to know the songs very well though :< ...then they left.

Then I moved on to the museum, which was actually a really good museum. It was smaller and, I think, more concise than the Hiroshima museum was. The introduction was dramatic, but I don't think they overdid it. By contrast, Hiroshima a little bit of the drama/cheese factor going on in their peace messages, and they were delivered often. Nagasaki had much more information on nuclear weapons and how they are being used today, as well as how they have been used in history. I had a simple omuraisu (omelette rice) lunch at the museum cafe, because I was very hungry from climbing everything. It didn't seem homemade or anything but it tasted pretty good anyway.

I made my way back onto the tram and took it to Glover Garden, which was perhaps the first western settlement in Japan, and so is full of more western and western/japanese style buildings. After taking a brief "detour" (ahem >_>) I was walking up the stairs(! no way) to the entrance. The whole thing was really nice from start to finish. Some Japanese girls took my photo after I took theirs for them, so I have a nice memento (though not my most flattering angle... brings out my hip chubb ._. hee). There was a lot of upupupup action, but fortunately, there were some escalators, moving walkways, and ramps to get up. The houses were pretty and interesting, and the route through the garden was very scenic in many ways. The garden itself was really pretty, with a lot of nice trees and flowers, many of which were identified on plaques. There was also a small Japanese garden and a few koi ponds with the largest fish I've seen yet. HUGE. HUGE KOI. There was one of the first (perhaps the first) western restaurant, which is now a tea and cake place... I avoided going inside. The houses were nice and had displays inside, including one house with displays on the woman who was most famous for being "Madame Butterfly." There was also a statue of her.

Also, there were amazing views of Nagasaki and the surrounding areas, including the bay and river, complete with GIGANTIC BOATS. REALLY REALLY BIG. The city just looks really awesome because not only are there cool mountains everywhere, but there are lots of buildings on the mountains. I liked it a lot ^_^

At the end of everything was the Museum of Performing Arts, or some similar name, which really surprised me. I was a little annoyed when I looked on the map and saw that you had to walk through it to leave, as forced museums are often terrible, which is why they're free and forced, heh. But this one was just one big room full of festival floats, which were colourful and interesting and huge. They also had a video going but I just stopped in the shop and left.

I went back to the station, stopping across the street to get the information centre to help me make a hotel reservation (I wasn't in the mood to tough it out over the phone again), then I picked up some takoyaki (little pieces of octopus covered in large amounts of a pancakey-like stuff, then cooked into perfectly round little balls); by the time I got around to eating it, it was mushy and not good ._. Still ridiculously hot though.

I took the shortest and most luxurious shinkansen ride yet. It was only 18 min. to the station where I had to transfer to a regular train to come to Shimabara, but it was fancyfancypants. I wished the ride was longer so I could've enjoyed it more. I don't enjoy tunnels at all though... on the fast trains, the change in pressure makes my ears close up right away, and it's very uncomfortable, sometimes even a bit painful I'd say. I only have that trouble a very little bit in airplanes and such, but in an in-and-out tunnel situation on the train, it's really bad. ._.

Shimabara is much more suburban feeling than anywhere else I've been. I think it's not really a city, but more of a town. It's not like a Connecticut suburb, with houses spread out and open space... it's more urban, but with far fewer people, shorter buildings, and more houses than businesses, or so it seems. I only saw about two streets' worth but you can sort of get a feel of a place.

I got a single room at another business hotel, which isn't as nice as my other rooms were but, like all my other rooms, is spotlessly clean. And I can see the lit-up Shimabara Castle from my window! ^_^ I went to the only place open to eat, which was a ramen shop about half a block away, which had good gyoza, okay curry, and no more orange juice ._. but it was open! This isn't a 24-hour kind of town.

Sleepy time now... tomorrow I'm going to walk around for a couple hours before hopping a ferry to Kumamoto. I'm determined to find one of the (public!) (free!) natural spring foot baths that are apparently in a few places around Shimabara. My feet will like me better then, I'm sure... :3

Day Eight - Fukuoka and Nagasaki

Hello from Nagasaki ^_^ I just got in last night around 8pm. I took the Kyushu train line, which I don't think is a Shinkansen, but it had an actual green car so I got a seat in that. It was really nice! I would say it's nicer than first class on an airplane (not that I would know) just because there are fewer people in each car, so fewer people to deal with overall.

I spent yesterday wandering about Fukuoka. My ryokan was in the perfect place between a bunch of shrines and a museum. First I went to a folk museum right after it opened. It had some english signs and brochure, so it was pretty nice. It described the history of Fukuoka and the surrounding prefecture, and had some interesting exhibits about the history and creation of crafts that are native to the region, such as Hakata dolls, which are carefully created from clay and painted by hand. It also talked about the biggest festival they have every year, where men carry very heavy floats through the town, each group trying to get the fastest time.

They also had some looms set up on which they weave Hakata cloth, which is used for obi, etc. These were in a house that was moved there for the purposes of preservation, since apparently it's a good example of architecture. It was really nice. There was also a gift shop where some Indian men were confusing both me and the shop owners... he kept asking if they put his desired purchases into the bag. It was really strange >_>

Afterwards I went to the Fukuoka Asian Art museum, which was pretty small, but I think it might be the only one (or one of few) of its kind. There was modern art from many Asian countries, like Thailand, China, and Malaysia. They had a special exhibit of Chinese propaganda posters which was very interesting. I ate at their cafe, where the food was okay but the people watching was good because there were cute children. :<

I meandered through the rest of the city, visiting various shrines and temples. What I like the most about Fukuoka besides the nice water are all the shrines and temples peppered throughout. I visited the Kushida shrine, which has many shrines and such on the grounds. They also have a gigantic ginkgo tree, which was awesome.

I'm cutting this entry a bit short because I have to get ready to check out of this hotel. Standard check-out time in Japan is 10am >_> but I want to get going to see the sights anyway.

Bye for now ^^