It was an early start as we docked early so breakfast was at 05.30. We then had a bit of time before we had to meet for our tour. The ship docked right in the middle of Nagasaki which is nice as it meant we could see everything. Unfortunately it was raining quite heavily so we had to take our macs. After passing immigration (finger print scan, ID photo and check of passport & immigration card) we go on our bus. Our guide was Yuki, She was really nice, very easy to understand and great at explaining things. She taught us a story to teach us the numbers 1 – 10 – ‘
We drove through the main street of Nagasaki which runs through alongside the dock. Nagasaki is very mountainous – there’s a very small amount of flat land around the water. That’s the reason the atomic bomb was more contained than the one dropped at Hiroshima. Our first stop was at the Peace Memorial Park where we saw the huge Peace Statue and the fountain that’s shaped the lie wings of a dove representing peace. There are lots of peace cranes. There’s also a lot of water included in the memorial (other than the rain!) because the bomb evaporated most of the water in the area so the people suffering from horrendous burns couldn’t get anything to drink. There are 17 statues in the memorial garden – each donated by a different country (not the UK tho).
The next stop was the Atomic Bomb Museum. Yuki took us to Ground Zero to see the statues and the remains of the catholic cathedral – one tower was relocated here. We also saw the original ground level which was buried far beneath the rubble. The Atomic Bomb Museum was interesting – lots of information and well laid out displays of artefacts. It was interesting to see the plan of dropping an atomic bomb was agreed nearly a year before August 9th. They had a replica of the ‘Fatman’ bomb – it was huge!
We got back to the ship at about noon and decided to go for a walk around the surrounding area. It felt really nice and safe and such a relaxing place to walk around. We walked up to the Oura catholic Church and Glover Gardens and then walked along to China Town and Dejima – the enclave that the Dutch were allowed to live in.
We came back to the ship and had some lunch then a snooze. There was a farewell performance of Madam Butterfly by some local performers, and then a local high school brass band played us out as we left. There were loads of onlookers all waving and dancing.
We really enjoyed Nagasaki and would happily visit Japan again to explore more.
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