| In the morning, we explored the neighborhood around the youth hostel. Below you'll see one shot of a Japanese urban graveyard (left) and three pictures taken at a small temple we happened upon. |
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Our walk led us to Fukusai-ji Zen temple, where we found a giant 18-meter Buddha statue, strangely reminiscent of the one found at Korea's Songnisan. A slightly crazed woman led us through the temple, showing us the Foucault Pendulum that hangs suspended from the inside of the Buddha's head. |
| Nagasaki is, of course, well-known as the second city on which the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb (9 August 1945). All that we had seen of the city so far was, though much less modern than Fukuoka, very vibrant and energetic. At Fukusai-ji, we began to think about the painful history of the city, as we viewed the temple's sad and shocking collection of photos and relics of the city after its destruction. As we were leaving, the temple bells rang at exactly 11:02am--the time of the A-bomb explosion--and we knew it was time to see some of the city's war-related sites. |
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We then made our way to the "Peace Park," a place where dozens of countries have contributed trees and statues dedicated to the formation of lasting worldwide peace and freedom from the nuclear threat. To the right are shots of the park's centerpiece, the Nagasaki Peace Statue, and another of Cheris with another sculpture. |
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A short walk from the Peace Park is Hypocentre Park, where an ominous black column (far left) marks the spot over which the A-bomb exploded. Just a few minutes from there was the A-Bomb Museum, where we spent a few devastating hours absorbing the accounts, photos, and displays that tell the whole grim story. |
| After all of this harrowing atomic memorabilia, we really needed to relax and unwind, so we went out for a big meal, which sparked Rob's love affair with sashimi. We were especially glad that we'd made arrangments to spend the night in a ryokan--a traditional Japanese inn with soft tatami straw mats covering the floor. We thoroughly enjoyed soaking in the o-furo (Japanese bath) and lounging around in our yukata--the robes pictured on the right. |
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The bath refreshed us so much that we decided to go out again. We went to a mountain, called Inasa-yama, on the west side of the city. A quick cable-car ride brought us to the top just before sunset. From there we were treated to beautiful views of the city and the harbor--but we'd stupidly left our cameras behind. We bought a ridiculously expensive disposable camera from a vending machine and took these crappy pictures to the left. |
continue on to day four...
take me back to the Japan index, please
take me back to Tales from Taejon, please