Big Adventures, Little World

Our first day in Nagasaki started later than usual so we could catch up on a bit of sleep that we so desperately needed. We eventually decided to pull ourselves away from the air conditioned comfort of the hostel room and went off to wander down Temple Street.

Nagasaki has trams going all over the city, and at only 100 yen per person, it was a bargain. Everything was in fairly close vicinity of each other, or a short tram ride away. Most it was even in walking distance, so we even walked a lot of places we went. Another thing I noticed about Nagasaki was the kids. They were everywhere. Little kids with their parents walking round, catching the trams, some cute, some just annoying. I think it must be the kid capital of Japan or something.

So, back to Temple Street. It was just a 2 blocks behind our hostel so off we walked, our first stop was Kofukuji Temple, which was a Chinese Temple. The grounds where amazing, so well kept and green, and there was hardly anyone around which made it very relaxing to walk around and look at it all.

After Kofukuji, we began wandering along Temple Street and made it to Sofukuji Temple, which was also Chinese. Again, there wasn’t many people around which made for a relaxing visit as we meandered through the grounds.

By now we had seen enough temples, and because of the humidity and heat we decided to grab a quick snack from the Family Mart, and back to the hostel for air con.

Skip to 2 hours later and we were back on the tram, or streetcar if you prefer, and on our way to see the Nagaski Peace Museum, a tribute and history of the second nuclear bomb dropped on Japan during World War II. There is so much to take in while walking throughout the museum, and so much of it is so difficult to comprehend, but without it, it would be unknown to so many how much damage the bombs actually caused. With objects such as glass bottles and coins that had melted together, to metal frames of building and bridges that buckled, and walls of houses and slabs of concrete that had shadows burnt in to them due to the intense heat from the blast. As well as clocks that had stopped at the exact time the bomb was dropped, and plates and bowls that had been charred so badly, not to mention the stories of people going to thee homes to find loved ones, only to find their ashes, it is a really terrifying thought imagining what it would have been like.

From the museum, we went to the Hypocenter, the exact spot where the bomb was dropped. There is a monument standing in the place, as well as small part of a wall of the cathedral that was still standing after the bomb. Off we walked again, this time to the peace park, which has beautiful gardens and many statues and monuments dedicated to peace donanted from different countries around the world. The main sttatue we wanted to see though, was unfotunateley ruined by construction work being done around it. We weren’t really sure if they were buiding a wall by the sides of it or cleaning it, but we did know that the scaffolding that was erected had ruined our photos! So off we went, back to the station to see if we could find somewhere for dinner.