11 November 2011
Nagasaki
Posted by Roland under: JET; Uncategorized .
Looking back and thinking about it, I feel like Amakusa is probably more like Nagasaki than Kumamoto. However, when it comes to Kumamoto, the only other part of the prefecture I’ve seen is just Kumamoto City. But, as I was driving through southern Nagasaki prefecture on my way to the big city, and even in between Nagasaki and Sasebo, it was more of an Amakusa feeling to me. In fact, I get FM Nagasaki clearer than FM Kumamoto, so arguably there’s more to share with Nagasaki than the mainland Kumamoto.
After driving through about an hour worth of Amakusa like fields and small towns, I started to come into Nagasaki city proper. While I can’t say I explored the whole city, it definitely seems a lot more compact than Kumamoto City. Most people in the city get around through a convenient and cheap street car system, which I took advantage of on my first day. Unfortunately the weekend called for rain, which was the case on the Saturday I got in. I found a nearby chanpon shop to have lunch, where I went for pari soba, or fried noodles with the traditional chanpon topping. After that, it was time for me to get acquainted with the street car, which was unfortunately humid from the rain and usual crowds of people.
My first stop would be the atomic bomb museum and peace park. I’ve been to Hiroshima already a couple times so I wasn’t expecting much new information, but it would be interesting to see the Nagasaki side of things when the bombs fell on them on August 9. The museum was not as extensive as Hiroshima’s but nonetheless was quite moving. There was a good amount of English signage (I spotted an American tour group as I came i n) and it went into a lot of good detail about Nagasaki the city, before and after the bomb. I don’t think they had as many artifacts from the bomb as Hiroshima but what they did have was quite engaging. It was kind of a Hiroshima lite (although the tragedy is not any lessened).
Something that Hiroshima didn’t have (or I haven’t seen) was the peace memorial hall. Nagasaki has a basement memorial in their peace park which is constantly guarded by security (in fact the guard told me the correct way to go in and out of the memorial). You start off by going through a rotating list of all bomb victims, with their names and pictures. After that, you go into a large hall which has little decoration. In the middle of the hall are large pillars which act as “pillars of light” to the sky. All the hall contains are those pillars, inscriptions on the walls, lots of peace cranes, and a register of all bomb victims, which grows as more are found/declared to be victims.
After the memorial and peace park, I headed towards Dejima in the south part of Nagasaki. While Japan was isolating itself from foreigners, Nagasaki did remain open as a port for foreign trade, mainly with the Dutch. Thus, a Dutch settlement was created on Dejima island in Nagasaki. Back in the day, it was a guarded island with only one way in and out by land, constantly guarded to control who goes in and out. Japanese would come in and out to work and trade, but the Dutch had to live on Dejima island (which wasn’t big by any means). As Japan’s only link to the outside for a good while, it was of course a place of great importance. Nowadays Nagasaki has built around Dejima and it’s no longer an island but the houses have been faithfully recreated. I found it a worthwhile and interesting visit, mainly to see the blend of Dutch and Japanese culture within Dejima, as well as why Dejima was so important and unique to the Japanese. If anything, it was a good way to stay out of the rain.
I would wander around other parts of Nagasaki for Saturday night, Meganebashi, the mall by the JR Station (where I did get my hands on some chanpon, albeit in the udon variety), and of course just a little bit of pachinko.
Sunday I headed out to the airport to meet Yuko and her friend Ayami. The one thing I quickly noticed is that the both of them (coming from Tokyo) commented heavily on how much Kyushu has nothing. But in this case, nothing just meant nature. Green trees, mountains, the water. Yes, admittedly, it is no Tokyo but it was interesting to get that viewpoint. And they didn’t really mean nothing in a bad sense, just another way of saying “quaint”, I assume.
We had some time to kill before the Sukima Switch concert, so we headed out to Sasebo and found a recommended burger place to have the famous “Sasebo Burger”. Sasebo has a US military base so it’s said the Sasebo Burger is thanks to the American influence. What this means is in Sasebo you can get a huge burger with lots of toppings and of course, an egg in it. Definitely tasty, although it was quite a bit to eat so I saved some for later.
The Sukima Switch concert was great times. It was a live performance at a Nagasaki International University’s school festival, so the venue was actually their school gym. This lent itself to a more intimate atmosphere (although quite toasty). We got some good seats in the sixth row, although it was unfortunately right by the speakers, so my ears took quite a pounding by the end of the set. However, I’ll definitely say it was worth it. They played all their greatest hits, were quite enjoyable to watch during their interactions with the audience and best of all, played for two hours (at a relatively cheap ticket price). They even got me caught up in the Japanese tradition of group clapping, which was infectious.
While I had been expecting a relatively crazy Sunday night, the rain and the tiredness of Yuko and Ayami lead to a quiet night back at the hotel. While they went back to their rooms with some drinks they bought at the supermarket, I ended up watching Die Hard 4 on TV and calling it a night.
Monday was my last day in Nagasaki, the trip was just beginning for Yuko and Ayami. I went along with them to Glover Garden, which afforded some fantastic views of the city, now enjoyable because the rain had stopped and the sun had come in. After Glover Garden (and a halloween ice cream from Baskin Robbins, offering 31% off all scoops) I took them to Mount Unzen, where they would be spending their Monday at a ryokan, enjoying the onsens at the mountain and probably just thankful to get away from the craziness of the Tokyo life. Unzen is a place people go to when they’re tired of the city. It’s full of ryokan, onsen, and just one convenience store.
After taking a brief trip around Unzen with them, I would head back to Amakusa, my first actual trip during my JET complete.