Last weekend, I visited the most beautiful city in the world.
But I forgot my camera. =)
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Actually, I don't mind that I forgot my camera, because I'm sure that the memories were made stronger with the knowledge that I may never see Bungotakada City ever again. The landscape was incredible - it had a little bit of everything. In this tiny farm city on the western coast of Kyushuu, where the tectonic plates molded the mountains into a unique range of vertical pillars, the ocean salt corroded the rock beach into a dreamscape of crystal-clear water and misshapen earth, and the tropical rain coated every sunbathed surface in a lush layer of green, reality seems to border a dream world.
I wonder if the rest of Japan I haven't seen yet is all this beautiful, too.
This past weekend, our class was split into groups of 3 or 4, and we traveled to farm country to stay in real Japanese homes with real Japanese families. The university life is a little bit deluding - APU's student body is probably only about 70% native Japanese. Yes, this weekend was the real deal.
With three other friends, I arrived at a house which was everything you would expect in a traditional Japanese residence - Tatami floors, a low-sitting dinner table, a shrine area, the works. We exchanged greetings with Itai-san and his wife. They were in their mid 50s, and already grandparents. The first event of the day was a hearty lunch of homemade shitake mushroom curry. When I say homemade, I mean, Itai san and his wife grew the rice, picked the mushrooms, and made the curry sauce from scratch themselves. Impressive as it sounds, it was the best curry I've every had. And with the amount of curry I've eaten since arriving in Japan, that's a respectable title.
Curry is probably my favourite food in Japan. One would think that a residence in Japan would come with a diet of sushi for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but to be honest, I've only had sushi a handful of times so far. Curry is my gig here. It comes anywhere from sweet to spicy, it comes over rice with beef, fried pork, or baked into loaves of bread, mirroring the composition of a Paczki. It comes in soup, thickening up the broth of udon or soba noodles, or sometimes just on its own as a hot, bubbling brown bowl of goodness. It's one that will be sorely, sorely missed when I'm back in the States.
Anyway.
After lunch, we went on a tour of all the most beautiful spots in the city. The first spot was a long strip of land that barricaded a reservoir of water, which was opened little by little during the dry season to keep the crops nice and genki. The reservoir itself was very large, and the surface still. It backed up against a huge mountain, which stuck on one side vertically out of the earth. This side of the mountain was all stone grey, and was framed by the green vegetation covering the rest of the land around it. On the other side of this long bunker was a clear view of the residential area of the city. The view was wonderful in every direction.
Next stop was a campground on a peninsula, which overlooked the ocean between Kyushuu and Honshuu. The water, unsullied by factories or pollutants of any kind, was so clear, you could see through all the way to the bottom. There was nothing cloudy at all in the water, it was really amazing. We hopped down the rocky cliffs, through a series of tidal pockets crawling with tiny crabs and small hordes of little, fast-moving crustaceans, to the edge of the water, where there were several jellyfish hanging out near the rocks. The most amazing part of this area was the work the sea salt did on corroding the cliffs. There were a few huge caves on the inner side, as well as a tall island just offshore that looked a little like a mushroom atop a turtle shell. You could see the lines in the rock of where the high tide picks away at the rock. On top of the mushroom island were several fully grown trees - it was really surreal. Some of the things I've seen in Bungotakada, and Beppu, too, are works of nature that I never even considered possible.
Growing up in Michigan - flat, foresty, same from east to west Michigan - has made me appreciate nature a lot each time I leave home. Last year on the way to the International Trumpet Guild conference in Pennsylvania was the first time I ever really saw mountains. Then when I went to New York City for the Le Poisson Rouge concert, I passed through the same route of mountains, this time red and orange from the season change, and they were still as fascinating as the first time. The mountains here, however, are on a completely different level. Even though I forgot my camera, pictures couldn't do the landscape any more justice than words. All platitudes aside, you had to be there.
Dinner that night was plate after plate after plate of some of the best food I've ever tasted. A bowl of udon noodles, topped with freshly picked vegetables with names I cannot recall, tenpura everything - eggplant, green peppers, more nameless vegetables, white fish caught by the cooks themselves, clusters of [whole] shrimp, America-reminiscent fried chicken, iced noodles served with iced Tsuyu... and all the tea and vegetable juice I could wash it down with. I love food, and Japan is a good place for food.
After we all finished gorging ourselves, and spacing for about 10 minutes to let the food settle, we took a trip to the onsen for some naked time. Onsen are one of my favourite things about Japan - it's a bath house filled by a natural hot spring, will several pools of varying temperatures, usually one cold and a few hot. This particular onsen also had an outdoor segment, with a small garden and a music-playing speaker, and steam room, that ran on a gradual cycle between "hot" and "the sun".
Japanese cultural lecture time!
日本の文化話時！(Takes up less space and is therefore the superior language) (just kidding)
Onsen are a particular specialty of Beppu and the surrounding areas. They are common because of the Pacific ring of fire, the rim of a large tectonic plate covering the pacific ocean, is responsible for the creation of Japan, and its volcanic activity still has a lot of say in what goes on over here.
Anyway.
Japanese people like to take baths in these hot spring waters, as they bubble up with plenty of beneficial minerals that soften the skin and leave you looking about 75% your age. My host parents said they went to this onsen literally every day. So here's a rundown of the typical onsen itinerary:
- Men and women are separated into locker rooms. Onsen are always sex-segregated because you have to get all the way naked to enter the waters. Swimsuits are not allowed (but there are co-ed onsens, usually outdoors, that allow swimsuits).
- Strip to your birthday suit, and go into the main room, which contains some shower "booths" before getting to the pools. You have to shower and clean yourself all the way, shampoo and soap and all, before you get in. They're serious about keeping the water clean. This is pretty strange for Americans I think, since in America, naked is "bad".
-When you're clean, you can enter the baths. I like to chill in a medium-hot pool for a little bit, and just relax, let my body temperature rise like I'm in a hot tub. Then, after a while, I like to hit up the hottest bath, and stay in until I can't take it. When your body temperature is up over its usual limit, the cold bath feels amazing. Apparently, the hot water and steam makes your pores open and sweat out all the obstructions. When you enter the cold water, your pores, now clean and clear, close back up. The steam bath helps this even more.
So when you leave an onsen, your entire body's skin feels like a baby's bottom. Even my big nose with its dirt-magnet pores were completely smooth. I will sincerely miss this when returning to America. The naked thing is no big deal, either. Everybody has a naked body, so once you're in, that's that. Unlike in America, there is no constant worry of appearing "gay" here. Guys can get naked and take a bath together, buy pink shirts and pink phone cases, adults can watch cartoons, it's all done with no homo strings attached, it feels like there is a whole level of unnecessary social apprehension gone because of it. I like this.
We slept soundly in traditional Japanese beds that night, and were awakened to the smell of a breakfast that was almost as huge as the previous night's dinner. Then we prepared for a pretty exciting performance, which will be covered...
In my next entry. I need to give Becky a chance to write about the past week's elementary school visit, which I regrettably missed after arriving at the bus stop at the wrong time. She has a lot to say about the kiddies, and will also cover the new Hayao Miyazaki movie that we just saw at the theatre today. Stay tuned, and LEAVE COMMENTS!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
皆さん！ごめんね！
Hey everyone, sorry I've been MIA lately, but we're just so busy! I apologize for my not updating in a while :(
So, I'm gonna give a rundown of everything that's happened in the last couple of weeks, or Adam is going to be upset with me :/
As I say, things have been really busy with school and stuff. We've got about 24 hours of Japanese class per week (saying it like that, as in a full DAY of class each week, 1/7th of our life, kind of hurts. That classroom is getting old), I have two other classes, neither of which have anything to do with my major, along with events, trips, cubs, and studying, we're working as if it's winter semester at Grand Valley! By the time we think about blogging, we sometimes laugh. Sitting in front of a computer after a long day of classes is not always the most appealing activity :P
WORLD FESTIVAL
Let's rewind, shall we, to a couple weeks ago and the World Festival. For those who are Facebook friends with me and have looked through my Japan album, this is a recap. I know Robinson-sensei gave this blog address to other Japanese language students, so if you want to see the album (and it's so cool I can't imagine you wouldn't...) then friend me! And message me if you have questions!
APU's AP House throws what they call "World Festival" every summer so that its residents can be exposed to other cultures. APU has TONS of international students, so why not use that? Starting at around 9AM when I was still sleeping, the AP system went off (as it usually does) to remind us of the event. When AP House has an announcement, the first message is always in Japanese, then the second is the message translated into English. Waking up to "Minnasan, Oyahou gozaimasu!" over the system was not my favorite way to wake up, but after falling out of my futon in a panic I gathered myself in time to hear the English half. "The World Festival is starting. Let's all have fun learning cultures together!" Yay. So I wolfed down some cereal and went to find Adam. We headed to the AP House 2 lobby to watch the opening ceremony, which was a guy and a girl, again using Japanese then English to explain the day.
If anyone has watched a Japanese TV show, you know that when the Japanese, especially girls, when introducing something, get EVEN HARDER to understand. Yeah, I didn't quite understand what all was going to be going on that day, but I understood "food" and "eat", and that was really all I needed. I headed outside to where the food stands were. I tried this rice cake thing from the Myanmar stand that was SUPER spicy and had tiny dried fish on top (I avoided the fish XD) and got a bubble tea! Bubble tea is yummy, but too many tapioca bubbles made my tummy bubbly as well...
Adam and I had signed up for the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument, demonstration. It's like a piano and guitar hybrid instrument. It was really cool. The obaachans played for us, then we got to try it. The lady who was helping me didn't speak ANY english, but we together figured out how to get me to play it correctly. I quickly got the hang of it, and she was really impressed. I explained that I was a Music Major in America and she thought that was pretty much the sweetest thing she'd ever heard.
FUN JAPANESE FACT: Something that's really funny about Japanese is that when you have a conversation, the listener constantly has to say things like "oh", "sou desuka" (is that so), "honto ni?" (really?), to show that they're engaged in what the other person is saying. We actually take class time sometimes to review our listening phrases. The American custom of course, is to listen silently to show that you are paying attention, and be polite to let them finish so as not to interrupt. It's the complete opposite here! I can't tell you how weird it is to have people talking WHILE I'm talking! And I seem rude for listening silently! I accidentally offend people sometimes! lol.
So, she was really excited and nodded vigorously and "honto ni"-ed through my telling her of my musical experience. Adam's experience with his obaachan was similar. Our tutors called over the others to have them listen to us. Adam took the oppotunity to show off even more! So embarrassing! lol.
After the koto, I went to the Nippon Buyo lesson. Traditional fan dancing. There's not a whole lot to say about his except that it's A LOT harder than it looks. We all looked really clumsy compared to the teacher. The coolest part was wearing the yukata. They brought yukata (summer kimono) fr us to wear while we danced. When the lesson was over, they said that if we wanted, we could perform for everyone. So, we headed to the main stage and performed our dance. I was right in front, which was a little anxiety-inducing, but also really fun.
NAGASAKI
The next weekend, our program went on a trip to Nagasaki. The thing that's pretty cool about how APU does this Gateway program is how they plan things that are beyond the abilities of regular students. The school recognizes that we aren't regular students, more like tourists, and want to see things. Most students are here for a long time and have more time and opportunities to travel. Our time is so short that we can only do so much, and certainly not plan let alone afford a trip to Nagasaki if planned independently. Obviously, anyone studying on Kyushu would want to go to Nagasaki, and the school brings down the price for us by making everyone go. So 40 Americans left Saturday morning for Nagasaki, stayed in a hotel Saturday evening, and returned to school Sunday afternoon.
We took a tour bus, with a tour guide named Mrs. Sato. Sato-san was Japanese but spoke very good English. She said she does lots of tours for Americans, though they're usually retired rich people who don't speak any Japanese at all. She was glad that we could at least read signs. She talked for a while about cities we were passing, fun facts about Japan, etc, until everyone's travel comas were induced and people stopped responding and started snoring. It wasn't that she was boring at all- we were just tired from the week and it was early on a Saturday morning. AND it was a thre hour trip. We stopped at a hotel in Nagasaki for lunch, which was comprised of fried rice (which I couldn't eat) and a funny chow mein-looking dish (which I also couldn't eat). The meal was planned by the university, so they had called ahead to let them know that I didn't eat pork, chicken, or beef. Instead they cooked me a beautiful piece of salmon which I ravenously inhaled. I've discovered that my pescatarian diet doesn't offend any Japanese cooks as long as I let them know that what they generously prepared for me instead was absolutely delicious. They'd rather that than not eat the assigned dish. There were a few Americans who hardly touched their meal because of how it looked.
After the meal, we got back on the bus for a tour of Nagasaki. Sato-san was incredibly knowledgable, never letting us get bored. We went to Dejima Island first. Dejima Island was the first international port in Japan, trading with the Portuguese, Dutch, and some British. The island has been restored to look somewhat like the original, with the addition of creepy guys walking around in wigs and yukata. There were lots of informational, touristy signs to read, but we only had 45 minutes, so we mostly just looked around.
After Dejima Island, we headed to the Atomic Bomb Museum. There's not a ton to say about this; I think the name pretty much explains it and hopefully everyone's taken enough history to know that the US bombed Japan twice during WWII, Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people. The museum held pictures and testomonies, along with some artifacts that were recovered afterward. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the exhibits, and honestly, I think you'd have to be there to feel the full effect of the experience. Let's just say that most of us entered the exhibits smiling and a little curious, and I left the exhibits feeling as though I was going to cry. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen, but I'm glad I saw it. I believe it was really good for me.
After the Atomic Bomb Museum, Sato-san took us to the hypocentre: the place where the bomb exploded. According to her, the bomb never actually made it to the ground. It wasn't the impact that activated it, so there was no crater or anything. The site surprised me, because looking at the surrounding buildings, you'd never know that 50 years ago the area had been flattened. The buildings had vines all over them, and the cement of the sidewalks had cracks throughout. The thing that made it clear the area had been rebuilt was that there were no ancient-looking trees. Japan doesn't cut down a lot of trees for construction or landscaping, so most areas have really gnarly-looking trees. The trees in this area looked younger-they'd been planted after the bombing.
In the middle of the hypocentre was a monument, containing the names of those who have died as a result of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb. Even today, people still suffer from complications as a result of the radiation and die because of it. Every time such a person dies, their name is added to the others inside the monument, and the side of the structure bears the number of names that are inside. Really sad.
Next to the hypocentre was the Peace Park, which contained a lot of statues donated by countries from around the world. Nagasaki has quite a few sister cities arouns the world, including one in Minnesota, and they along with other cities, moved by the effort Nagasaki is putting forth to eradicate nuclear warfare and bring about peace, donate statues to the Peace Park for people from around the world to see. Here are a couple of my favorites:
The first is "Constellation Earth", donated by St. Paul, Minnisota, Nagasaki's US sister city.
The second is my favorite, 
"Maiden of Peace", donated by China.
At the end of the Peace Park was the "The Peace Statue". The right hand pointing skyward warns about the threat of the atomic bomb. The left hand stretching out horizontally symbolizes world peace. The crossed right leg represents the meditation on the past, while the left leg represents the world readiness to prevent similar events from occurring in the future. The slightly closed eyes represent the prayers made for those who have died as a result of the bomb.
After we had had a chance to stand around and take a bajillion pictures in front of this huge statue and eat some shaved ice from a nearby street vendor, we went to Golver Garden.
As I said before, Nagasaki is not just "The second city to suffer a nuclear bomb". It has an extensive history aside from the bomb aspect. There's a lot of trade history as Japan's first international port, and a lot of European influence. Glover Garden was once the estate of Thomas Glover, a scottish merchant, who is responsible for much of Nagasaki's trade reputation. His estate was beautiful, atop a steep hill with beautiful views of the city below. The "garden" reminded me of my trips to Disney World were the park goes above and beyond to make it look authentic by planting flowers everywhere, but this place was for real, and was absolutely gorgeous, including sculptures, fountains, and a koi pond.
By this point, we were all beat from all the walking (although Glover Garden provided outdoor escalators to take us up the hill! XD), so we headed to our hotel. Our hotel was (surprise!) Portuguese in structure, with porcelain tile and European elevators. At least it was European until you went in the bathroom and were greeted by the fancy state-of-the-art, will-squirt-you-in-a-surprising-place toilet. Yep, still in Japan. We dumped our stuff and met up again to be taken to dinner.
Dinner was traditional Japanese, on the second floor of a very traditional Japanese establishment. It was a tatami room, which meant no shoes and no chairs. We lounged on the floor in barefeet, eating a funny assortment of dishes. The food is a little hard to explain to those who have never eaten Jpanese food, but there was soup, an eggy yogurt-type thing, vegetables that I can't name, rice (of course), and the meat. Everyone else got beef, but because I don't eat land animals, I got whale. Yes, whale. That was the strangest texture I have ever ingested, and don't really wish to do it again. It was kind of like spongy chicken, a little spongy, and made me feel like I was chewing on a flipper. But, whale is a delicacy of the area, and I wasn't going to leave it on my plate untouched, I shared with some people around me with the same reaction. Cool to have tried, but let's not do it again.
A small group of us headed out to find a landmark from , known as "Spectacals Bridge" because of how the reflection on the water makes it look. We wondered around, getting lost a couple times and asking directions. Finally, after quite a while, we found the bridge in the dark. We did some exploring, watched the koi in the water below, and then found a playground and played on it. An old Japanese couple walked by and gave us a "stupid gaijin" look, but whatever, it was super fun and we've been deprived of playgrounds.
The next morning we got a Japanese breakfast, complete with rice, cold udon noodles, miso soup, and tons of fruit. super yummy. We headed out around 9AM to do some sightseeing, even though is was raining pretty bad. Adam, Evan, and I took the cable car north a little way to an art museum which had a culture museum in the basement. It was small and low-key, but interesting, then we took the cable car back to central Nagasaki. We still had some time to kill before we had to meet the rest of the group, so we trecked up a hill to see a monument in remembrance of the 26 Christian Martyrs. In 1597, while Christianity was banned in Japan, the emperor discovered a small group of Christians in Kyoto. The group, including six foreign missionaries and three children, were marched from Kyoto to Nagasaki, 800km, for two days in the snow, and crucified on a hill in Nagasaki on Feb.5. The monument, which is on that hill, is very small, but very sad, depicting each of those martyrs.
We then headed back to the central station and met up with everyone to board the bus. We were all pretty wet from the rain, and fell asleep almost instantly. Sightseeing is hard work!
So that's Nagasaki in a nutshell. As I said, there are way more pictures on my Facebook. Go see them! Sorry again for taking forever to put this up. I'm not lazy, I promise. Feel free to send me FRIENDLY reminders to update when it's been a while... じゃあね！
So, I'm gonna give a rundown of everything that's happened in the last couple of weeks, or Adam is going to be upset with me :/
As I say, things have been really busy with school and stuff. We've got about 24 hours of Japanese class per week (saying it like that, as in a full DAY of class each week, 1/7th of our life, kind of hurts. That classroom is getting old), I have two other classes, neither of which have anything to do with my major, along with events, trips, cubs, and studying, we're working as if it's winter semester at Grand Valley! By the time we think about blogging, we sometimes laugh. Sitting in front of a computer after a long day of classes is not always the most appealing activity :P
WORLD FESTIVAL
Let's rewind, shall we, to a couple weeks ago and the World Festival. For those who are Facebook friends with me and have looked through my Japan album, this is a recap. I know Robinson-sensei gave this blog address to other Japanese language students, so if you want to see the album (and it's so cool I can't imagine you wouldn't...) then friend me! And message me if you have questions!
APU's AP House throws what they call "World Festival" every summer so that its residents can be exposed to other cultures. APU has TONS of international students, so why not use that? Starting at around 9AM when I was still sleeping, the AP system went off (as it usually does) to remind us of the event. When AP House has an announcement, the first message is always in Japanese, then the second is the message translated into English. Waking up to "Minnasan, Oyahou gozaimasu!" over the system was not my favorite way to wake up, but after falling out of my futon in a panic I gathered myself in time to hear the English half. "The World Festival is starting. Let's all have fun learning cultures together!" Yay. So I wolfed down some cereal and went to find Adam. We headed to the AP House 2 lobby to watch the opening ceremony, which was a guy and a girl, again using Japanese then English to explain the day.
If anyone has watched a Japanese TV show, you know that when the Japanese, especially girls, when introducing something, get EVEN HARDER to understand. Yeah, I didn't quite understand what all was going to be going on that day, but I understood "food" and "eat", and that was really all I needed. I headed outside to where the food stands were. I tried this rice cake thing from the Myanmar stand that was SUPER spicy and had tiny dried fish on top (I avoided the fish XD) and got a bubble tea! Bubble tea is yummy, but too many tapioca bubbles made my tummy bubbly as well...
Adam and I had signed up for the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument, demonstration. It's like a piano and guitar hybrid instrument. It was really cool. The obaachans played for us, then we got to try it. The lady who was helping me didn't speak ANY english, but we together figured out how to get me to play it correctly. I quickly got the hang of it, and she was really impressed. I explained that I was a Music Major in America and she thought that was pretty much the sweetest thing she'd ever heard.FUN JAPANESE FACT: Something that's really funny about Japanese is that when you have a conversation, the listener constantly has to say things like "oh", "sou desuka" (is that so), "honto ni?" (really?), to show that they're engaged in what the other person is saying. We actually take class time sometimes to review our listening phrases. The American custom of course, is to listen silently to show that you are paying attention, and be polite to let them finish so as not to interrupt. It's the complete opposite here! I can't tell you how weird it is to have people talking WHILE I'm talking! And I seem rude for listening silently! I accidentally offend people sometimes! lol.
So, she was really excited and nodded vigorously and "honto ni"-ed through my telling her of my musical experience. Adam's experience with his obaachan was similar. Our tutors called over the others to have them listen to us. Adam took the oppotunity to show off even more! So embarrassing! lol.
After the koto, I went to the Nippon Buyo lesson. Traditional fan dancing. There's not a whole lot to say about his except that it's A LOT harder than it looks. We all looked really clumsy compared to the teacher. The coolest part was wearing the yukata. They brought yukata (summer kimono) fr us to wear while we danced. When the lesson was over, they said that if we wanted, we could perform for everyone. So, we headed to the main stage and performed our dance. I was right in front, which was a little anxiety-inducing, but also really fun.NAGASAKI
The next weekend, our program went on a trip to Nagasaki. The thing that's pretty cool about how APU does this Gateway program is how they plan things that are beyond the abilities of regular students. The school recognizes that we aren't regular students, more like tourists, and want to see things. Most students are here for a long time and have more time and opportunities to travel. Our time is so short that we can only do so much, and certainly not plan let alone afford a trip to Nagasaki if planned independently. Obviously, anyone studying on Kyushu would want to go to Nagasaki, and the school brings down the price for us by making everyone go. So 40 Americans left Saturday morning for Nagasaki, stayed in a hotel Saturday evening, and returned to school Sunday afternoon.
We took a tour bus, with a tour guide named Mrs. Sato. Sato-san was Japanese but spoke very good English. She said she does lots of tours for Americans, though they're usually retired rich people who don't speak any Japanese at all. She was glad that we could at least read signs. She talked for a while about cities we were passing, fun facts about Japan, etc, until everyone's travel comas were induced and people stopped responding and started snoring. It wasn't that she was boring at all- we were just tired from the week and it was early on a Saturday morning. AND it was a thre hour trip. We stopped at a hotel in Nagasaki for lunch, which was comprised of fried rice (which I couldn't eat) and a funny chow mein-looking dish (which I also couldn't eat). The meal was planned by the university, so they had called ahead to let them know that I didn't eat pork, chicken, or beef. Instead they cooked me a beautiful piece of salmon which I ravenously inhaled. I've discovered that my pescatarian diet doesn't offend any Japanese cooks as long as I let them know that what they generously prepared for me instead was absolutely delicious. They'd rather that than not eat the assigned dish. There were a few Americans who hardly touched their meal because of how it looked.
After the meal, we got back on the bus for a tour of Nagasaki. Sato-san was incredibly knowledgable, never letting us get bored. We went to Dejima Island first. Dejima Island was the first international port in Japan, trading with the Portuguese, Dutch, and some British. The island has been restored to look somewhat like the original, with the addition of creepy guys walking around in wigs and yukata. There were lots of informational, touristy signs to read, but we only had 45 minutes, so we mostly just looked around.After Dejima Island, we headed to the Atomic Bomb Museum. There's not a ton to say about this; I think the name pretty much explains it and hopefully everyone's taken enough history to know that the US bombed Japan twice during WWII, Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people. The museum held pictures and testomonies, along with some artifacts that were recovered afterward. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the exhibits, and honestly, I think you'd have to be there to feel the full effect of the experience. Let's just say that most of us entered the exhibits smiling and a little curious, and I left the exhibits feeling as though I was going to cry. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen, but I'm glad I saw it. I believe it was really good for me.
After the Atomic Bomb Museum, Sato-san took us to the hypocentre: the place where the bomb exploded. According to her, the bomb never actually made it to the ground. It wasn't the impact that activated it, so there was no crater or anything. The site surprised me, because looking at the surrounding buildings, you'd never know that 50 years ago the area had been flattened. The buildings had vines all over them, and the cement of the sidewalks had cracks throughout. The thing that made it clear the area had been rebuilt was that there were no ancient-looking trees. Japan doesn't cut down a lot of trees for construction or landscaping, so most areas have really gnarly-looking trees. The trees in this area looked younger-they'd been planted after the bombing.
In the middle of the hypocentre was a monument, containing the names of those who have died as a result of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb. Even today, people still suffer from complications as a result of the radiation and die because of it. Every time such a person dies, their name is added to the others inside the monument, and the side of the structure bears the number of names that are inside. Really sad.
Next to the hypocentre was the Peace Park, which contained a lot of statues donated by countries from around the world. Nagasaki has quite a few sister cities arouns the world, including one in Minnesota, and they along with other cities, moved by the effort Nagasaki is putting forth to eradicate nuclear warfare and bring about peace, donate statues to the Peace Park for people from around the world to see. Here are a couple of my favorites:The first is "Constellation Earth", donated by St. Paul, Minnisota, Nagasaki's US sister city.
The second is my favorite, 
"Maiden of Peace", donated by China.
At the end of the Peace Park was the "The Peace Statue". The right hand pointing skyward warns about the threat of the atomic bomb. The left hand stretching out horizontally symbolizes world peace. The crossed right leg represents the meditation on the past, while the left leg represents the world readiness to prevent similar events from occurring in the future. The slightly closed eyes represent the prayers made for those who have died as a result of the bomb.
After we had had a chance to stand around and take a bajillion pictures in front of this huge statue and eat some shaved ice from a nearby street vendor, we went to Golver Garden.
As I said before, Nagasaki is not just "The second city to suffer a nuclear bomb". It has an extensive history aside from the bomb aspect. There's a lot of trade history as Japan's first international port, and a lot of European influence. Glover Garden was once the estate of Thomas Glover, a scottish merchant, who is responsible for much of Nagasaki's trade reputation. His estate was beautiful, atop a steep hill with beautiful views of the city below. The "garden" reminded me of my trips to Disney World were the park goes above and beyond to make it look authentic by planting flowers everywhere, but this place was for real, and was absolutely gorgeous, including sculptures, fountains, and a koi pond.
By this point, we were all beat from all the walking (although Glover Garden provided outdoor escalators to take us up the hill! XD), so we headed to our hotel. Our hotel was (surprise!) Portuguese in structure, with porcelain tile and European elevators. At least it was European until you went in the bathroom and were greeted by the fancy state-of-the-art, will-squirt-you-in-a-surprising-place toilet. Yep, still in Japan. We dumped our stuff and met up again to be taken to dinner.
Dinner was traditional Japanese, on the second floor of a very traditional Japanese establishment. It was a tatami room, which meant no shoes and no chairs. We lounged on the floor in barefeet, eating a funny assortment of dishes. The food is a little hard to explain to those who have never eaten Jpanese food, but there was soup, an eggy yogurt-type thing, vegetables that I can't name, rice (of course), and the meat. Everyone else got beef, but because I don't eat land animals, I got whale. Yes, whale. That was the strangest texture I have ever ingested, and don't really wish to do it again. It was kind of like spongy chicken, a little spongy, and made me feel like I was chewing on a flipper. But, whale is a delicacy of the area, and I wasn't going to leave it on my plate untouched, I shared with some people around me with the same reaction. Cool to have tried, but let's not do it again.
A small group of us headed out to find a landmark from , known as "Spectacals Bridge" because of how the reflection on the water makes it look. We wondered around, getting lost a couple times and asking directions. Finally, after quite a while, we found the bridge in the dark. We did some exploring, watched the koi in the water below, and then found a playground and played on it. An old Japanese couple walked by and gave us a "stupid gaijin" look, but whatever, it was super fun and we've been deprived of playgrounds.
The next morning we got a Japanese breakfast, complete with rice, cold udon noodles, miso soup, and tons of fruit. super yummy. We headed out around 9AM to do some sightseeing, even though is was raining pretty bad. Adam, Evan, and I took the cable car north a little way to an art museum which had a culture museum in the basement. It was small and low-key, but interesting, then we took the cable car back to central Nagasaki. We still had some time to kill before we had to meet the rest of the group, so we trecked up a hill to see a monument in remembrance of the 26 Christian Martyrs. In 1597, while Christianity was banned in Japan, the emperor discovered a small group of Christians in Kyoto. The group, including six foreign missionaries and three children, were marched from Kyoto to Nagasaki, 800km, for two days in the snow, and crucified on a hill in Nagasaki on Feb.5. The monument, which is on that hill, is very small, but very sad, depicting each of those martyrs.We then headed back to the central station and met up with everyone to board the bus. We were all pretty wet from the rain, and fell asleep almost instantly. Sightseeing is hard work!
So that's Nagasaki in a nutshell. As I said, there are way more pictures on my Facebook. Go see them! Sorry again for taking forever to put this up. I'm not lazy, I promise. Feel free to send me FRIENDLY reminders to update when it's been a while... じゃあね！
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