My Nagasaki Quest

In August I'm planning on returning to Canada for about 3 weeks, and like the last time I went home, I had to get a re-entry permit on my passport. In Japan, if you're living here on a temporary visa, leaving the country requires you to have a permit that allows you not to LEAVE, but to come BACK. So if you don't know about this and you leave, when you come back you just get turned away. Not only that, but to re-enter the country at that point you have to get a brand new visa. Ouch indeed. So I had to go and get myself one of these in Nagasaki city, which is only about an hour and a half away by bus, and lucky for me, I had a day off of work last Friday! With school happenings taking place on the Saturday, we were given a 'daikyu' - or suplementary weekend day, essentially, which was a real blessing because the office where I could get the permit is only open on weekdays, and they close at four. So I was either going to go on that Friday, or take a paid holiday later before my trip. Nnnnnnnnno thanks.

Nagasaki is not what I would call my favourite big city among those that I've seen so far, but its still very nice. There is a 100 yen tram service that runs along the major roads, and of course a lot of historical sites to see. All of the other ALTs I had spoken to made it sound like the office was hidden and incredibly hard to find - and admittedly if I hadn't had directions and a map I would have been in trouble - but I was able to find it pretty readily. 6000 yen and a little paper work later, and I am ready to travel out of the country! So with the rest of the day open, I decided to do some sight-seeing around the city, something I hadn't had a lot of opportunity to do before. I'd seen the Atomic Bomb Museum, but the Peace Park and Epicentre were still on my list.

Ironically, while the unmarked, hidden immigration office was a quick trip for me, I kept getting lost on my way to two of the biggest landmarks in the city!! I just kept getting on the wrong trams, irritating one operator after another, until finally I made my way to the Peace Park. The massive peace statue is the most well known, with his out-stretched arms. I tried to find the significance of the arms online but found differing explanations. A general opinion seems to be though that the right hand pointing up is to warn against the threat of atomic weapons, with the left hand outstretched in a wish for peace (or as a reminder of the devestation).
When I arrived there were flowers and long crane-chains set out in front of the statue, I assume after a recent ceremony or something similar.

I was surprised to find that within the park were a large number of other statues inspired by a message for peace, and though I didn't take pictures of all of them, I grabbed snapshots of a few. The other statues were donated by other nations in memorium of the bombing, and the thousands of lives lost and immeasurable effect that it had on Japan.

Towards the edge of the park there was a large fountain, with a group of Japanese tourists taking pictures and listening to a chipper tour guide. A large black stone was engraved with what I guessed was words of memorium, and all the Japanese were splashing water from a small pool fed by the fountain in front of the stone onto the monument. I wanted to get a picture of this without being too obvious, but it resulted in a slightly crummy shot.

On my way down the steps that led away from the park and towards the epicentre, I saw this grey-suited businessman just standing and staring at these two lounging cats. These cats were just hangin' out, doing some grooming, and this man was just watching them with a small smile on his face (not seen here ;p).

The epicentre is marked with a huge black monument that is apparently planted in the exact spot where the bomb fell on Nagasaki back in 1945. Close to it was a piece of a church that was destroyed in the blast (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was, from what I remember reading in my friend Ben's blog), since Nagasaki actually had the highest density of Christians in Japan when it was bombed. So up top were a few small statues of saints (I'm guessing), with a down-home Japanese flavour at the base.

If you turned around from the epicentre you could see another large statue, this one having been erected in '95 for the 50th anniversary. Its a mother holding a rather limp looking child, her skirt dotted with flowers. On a nearby plaque there was an English description that spoke about it, saying that the statue was to commemorate how the majority of those killed in the blast were women, children and the elderly (which is pretty obvious I would think, because why would Nagasaki have been full of strapping young men?).

On my way out of the park I stopped to take a picture on a pretty little bridge, and this older Japanese woman who was walking with her husband asked me if I would like her to take my picture. I agreed, but was a little nervous again so I look pretty stiff. *laughs* This is not the first time a Japanese has asked me if I would like my picture taken on my camera, but it still makes me a little uncomfortable! So silly. I snapped a shot of them on the way, and a final picture of of one more statue.

Going home I decided to take the train, and mentally kicked myself for it the whole way back. It was crowed, uncomfortable, and half an hour longer than the bus had been - along with being 200 yen more expensive!! I did get to enjoy some beautiful scenery though. Like I said before, Nagasaki might be poor and a bit out in the sticks, but I love how rich the countryside is.

Anywhoo, that's all for now! Nothing big is happening for a little while, but on the last weekend of this month I'm heading up to Kobe for a recontracting conference and will go picture-crazy then.

Remember to check out my few vids on Youtube! ...I really need to get a camera with better video-taking abilities. Oi. http://www.youtube.com/wyvkate