Last Friday I kick started my weekend about 2.5 hours south of Iizuka by racing to catch a JR train at shin-Iizuka station right after work. I made it to Hakata station for my highway bus to Nagasaki with just enough time to work out my reservation in Japanese, find my bus terminal and buy myself a grilled sweet potato for the road. I pulled out of the station with a happy belly and a new sense of accomplishment: "figure out travel plans in a foreign language" is now checked off my bucket list.Upon arriving in Nagasaki around 9pm I was a little over excited about climbing Mount Inasa so headed off on a bus towards the cable car entrance. Turns out it was closed due to the windy weather and I wasn't going to attempt the walk up in that darkness. So I walked my sad self back to Nagasaki station through the rain "WHY...didn't I just take the bus? I am lost." to meet two other volunteers Lucy and Chloe who were returning from Tokyo.
I spent an absolutely wonderful weekend with the girls walking all of the places in Nagasaki. We spent Saturday shopping in Cocowalk shopping center, eating delicious fast food udon, taking purikura pictures (no surprise there, I love these things!) and making our way over to China town area for more shopping and walking. I fell in love with the city that day: it had me at street cars and houses on the hills. The temperature, being an almost unbearable 35 degrees with 97% humidity, made it feel more like I was swimming through the streets as opposed to walking.
Sunday Chloe and I made the short walk to visit the atomic bomb hypocenter of the city, the exact location of where the atomic bomb exploded August 9th 1945. It was a very sobering experience to look upon the tall black monument standing in the middle of an open area in the exact location of the bomb detonation that brought so much destruction to the city of Nagasaki almost 70 years ago. Beside it stands a portion of the Urakami cathedral that wasn't destroyed in the blast. After this, we visited the Peace Park, full of statues, monuments and an incredible fountain dedicated to Peace between nations. It was a really lovely place full of folded paper cranes of all colours and sizes.
Sunday was also the day we went to the Nagasaki harbor to watch the boats while sipping on some chu hi in the summer sun. The girls them took me to an "Irish" pub/restaurant called Shanna Golden run by an American man who has lived in Japan for 25 years. He was super nice and actually ordered me Chanpon, a Chinese inspired dish famous in Nagasaki, from a different restaurant and had it delivered to his because I'd asked him for a chanpon place recommendation. How amazing! The Chanpon was delicious and I only felt slightly awkward for eating it in his restaurant. Thank so much Chris, I won`t be forgetting you any time soon!!
At dusk, we took the cable car ride up to the top of Mount Inasa for one of the most spectacular night views in the world (Top 3 apparently!). Nagasaki shone so beautifully. It couldn`t have gotten much better than the 360 degree view of the city, mountains and ocean. I was in total awe and could have sat up there forever. Up there, we also met a Canadian traveler from Alberta! It was a great time to have a chat with another Canadian. Everyone I`ve met so far (playing our ``foreigner game``, guessing where foreigners are from and then asking to see if we were right) is from the States or from Europe. It was a fun time.
Monday was spent partly at the Atomic Bomb museum and walking around Nagasaki again until my bus back to Fukuoka at 5:45. Upon (finally) getting back to Iizuka at 10pm, my sunburned forehead, peanut and rice cake stuffed stomach and exhausted body are ready for some serious sleep. Good bye Nagasaki, I`ll really miss you. I`m sure we will meet again sometime in the future. :)
So much more to say. Trying to condense my blogs. So many more pictures!....
Oh wait - FOOD!
Chanpon! om nom nommm
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