We started the day on "temple row," an area of central Nagasaki that is positively littered with, you guessed it, temples. We wandered down the row for several hours. As usual, the architecture, painting, and carving blew our minds. Here are a whole bunch of pictures from that morning.

     This is one of the cool old-fashioned streetcars that shuttled us all over Nagasaki, by the way. Cheap, fun, and slightly faster than walking.

     Nagasaki's claim to fame as an A-bomb target covers up some interesting facts about the city. Christianity first reached Japan through Nagasaki, via Portuguese missionaries, in the mid- to late-1500s. The religion's influence grew so rapidly as to generate great fear in Japanese emperors. Contact with the Portuguese Catholics was cut off in favor of the Dutch, who were seen as more interested in trade than religion. Nagasaki prospered, but persecution of Christians became violent and rampant. In 1614, Christianity was officially banned, though many converts resisted. Frustrated, the Japanese banned all foreigners from the country and forbid all Japanese from travelling abroad in 1637, beginning over 200 years of near-total Japanese isolation from Western culture. The only exception was the closely-watched port at Nagasaki, where some Western science was allowed to filter in and some trade was conducted with the Dutch. The city was one of the first in Japan to re-open to the West in the 1850s, and the Dutch would have a great impact on Nagasaki's growth as a major cultural and economic center.
     It was a Scot, however, named Thomas Glover who is considered the strongest influence on Nagasaki's rush to industrialize. He built the first railway line in Japan, imported guns and other goods, and helped to establish Nagasaki's first modern shipyard (the seeds of the industry that made the city a nuclear target, ironically).
     Glover's contributions have been honored today by Glover Garden, a hill on which the 19th-century expatriate settlement in Nagasaki has been re-constructed as a tourist attraction, including a replica of Glover's own home (bottom right). The houses show an interesting blend of Japanese and European architecture, the grounds are beautifully kept, and the views of the city are excellent. It was really quite amusing for us to see hordes Japanese tourists gawking and gasping at the Western-style furniture and decor in these houses.












     The Nagasaki Traditional Performing Arts Museum sits at the bottom of the Glover Garden hill. Here are some of the beautiful dragons and a float used in street festivals.

     Oura Catholic Church sits just below Glover Garden. It was built in the 1860s for Nagasaki's growing foreign community and is said to be one of the most beautiful churches in Japan.

     We then boarded a late afternoon bus bound for the small town of Karatsu. The Japanese countryside on this route was incredibly beautiful, especially at sunset. Here are two pictures taken from the bus.
     We arrived in Karatsu after dark and staggered around the sleepy town for about an hour trying to find an open restaurant. When we finally did, we were rewarded with some amazing food and hospitality, in spite of a severe language barrier (the kitchen staff was actually holding up various fish, squid, and other stuff for us to approve with a smile and nod!). Then it was off to our hotel, where we were very pleasntly surprised to discover that the place was right on the beach...

continue on to day five...

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