After a good night’s sleep in the love hotel, we were off for a full day’s adventure in the city! We made our way to the hostel we were staying in that night and checked in. They were extremely nice and accommodating by allowing us to drop off our luggage and telling us where a cheap parking lot was. (It was EXTREMELY cheap for city parking. We only paid 500 yen for twenty-four hours!!)
Our first stop of the day was Dejima, which once was a fan shaped island where the Dutch traders lived way back when. Since they were the only foreigners allowed to trade with the city, the Japanese kept them there. Even though it was an island when the Dutch were there, it’s now part of the city. Nagasaki has reclaimed land from the ocean, and in order to get to the edge of the current wharf, you have to walk another quarter mile. While there were some cool displays and reconstructed rooms, I wasn’t too big of a fan of Dejima. It was a little boring for me. 
Luckily for us everything that we wanted to see in Nagasaki was located relatively close to each other in one area, so we were able to walk everywhere. Our next stop was Chinatown. I’ve never been to a Chinatown before, so the thought of cheap souvenirs really appeased me! 
We even got to eat Chinese food in Chinatown (note: It’s not even close to being the same as American Chinese food.) After lunch, we split up into groups of two: Ian and I, Melissa and Justine, and Mary and Hiro to do some shopping so that we weren’t a big group of tourists trying to wedge our way into these tiny shops. I bought a new change purse. In the cash based society of Japan, I always have a TON of coins floating around, and I have been carrying around a little peanut butter jar with a hole drilled through the top.
Next up was Glover Garden. Mr. Glover was a very, very, VERY rich trader way back when, and he built a magnificent garden and houses in the foothills of the mountains. On our way there, we stopped by a street artist who was drawing anime and could even draw people into anime characters. Therefore….Ian and I got anime’d! He really made Ian look like a chiseled GQ model, but I was just whatever. All-in-all, I was very pleased with the picture and thought it was ridiculously cute! Justine also got herself anime’d, and with her long, blonde hair, the artist basically made her look like Barbie! 
At Glover Garden, we kept seeing Japanese tourists dressed up in old-fashioned clothes and wondered what the heck was going on. As it turns out, you could rent those clothes and have your pictures made in the garden. We talked about doing it until we realized it was rather pricey for a short amount of time. On to the next stop…our hostel!
We were only at the hostel for a little while to get rested up and place our things in our rooms before heading out again. Nagasaki boasts its nighttime view as the third best in Japan. We had to take a bus to the station on the mountain and then a cable car up the rest of the way. I was surprised at how much cooler it was on the top of the mountain, but Nagasaki was very, very right to brag about its view. I don’t want to be biased, but you decide what you think! (picture below) It was GORGEOUS! Although there were people EVERYWHERE, we (being the loud foreigners) managed to clear out a section so that Ian could set up his tripod and take a picture on the nice camera. We were saying how that would be a great place for someone to propose, and since Justine and Melissa are basically married as is, Melissa got down on one knee and “proposed” to Justine on the top of the mountain. 
It was hilarious! All of the Japanese tourists were staring at us, and to make matters worse Ian had to take several shots because the camera was acting up. HAHAHA!
We rounded off our night with dinner. Ugh! Dinner that night pissed ALL of us off. Since we were in the city, we thought that we should get food that we don’t have the opportunity do at home. Hiro had an app that finds restaurants in the area, and we decided on Spanish cuisine. All of us were starving because it had been a while since lunch. Prices at the restaurant were typical of other restaurants, so we didn’t think anything about it. After we ordered, the waitress brought each of us this bread thing with sauce on it, which we gobbled up. Unlike in the States, dishes in Japan come out one at a time. It is customary to wait until everyone gets their meal before eating. Mary’s came first, and it was the tiniest plate I’ve ever seen. We all laughed and said that it sucked her plate was so small, and we’d share some of our portion with her. However, as plate after plate after plate came out, they were ALL TINY. By this time, we were still hungry and upset, but it wasn’t until we got the bill that we were really pushed over the edge. That bread thing that the waitress brought us actually cost 300 yen A PIECE, and not one staff member warned us of that. Ian and I spent about 3,000 that night on dinner and walked away starving. I was soooooooooooooooo angry!! 
We still had to stop at a 7/11 and get an actual meal. All told, we paid about 4,000 that night for dinner. THAT’S GROCERY MONEY FOR A WEEK!!! UGH! After spending 10,000 yen on a room the night before and that much on dinner, I didn’t want to talk to Ian. Even though it wasn’t his fault, I was mad at the world!
The next day was much, much better. One downside was that our hostel was divided into a guy’s and girl’s room, so Ian and I didn’t even get to sleep in the same room. I woke up early and text Ian to ask for the cell phone charger. He was already awake and had been out on a morning photography walk. Since it was still early, we walked down to the wharf together to take pictures and just enjoy the morning. We usually travel with friends, so rarely do we get to enjoy little moments like that to ourselves. When we got back, everyone was up and ready to go.
Our last thing to do in Nagasaki was visit the Peace Park and Museum. I cannot express to you how weird it was to be there. Even though I had NOTHING to do with the attacks, I felt guilty as an American for being there. Today Nagasaki is a beautiful, bustling city with all of the amenities, but on the morning of August 9th, 1945, it was reduced to nearly nothing. Literally. The pictures showed nothing as far as the eye could see. Reading the placards about how many people died, were disfigured or injured, and suffered gave me cold chills. In the museum, there were all kinds of haunting items that survived the blast—a wall clock that stopped at the exact time of 11:02AM, bloodied clothes, a helmet with bone fragments in it, charred rubble, and much, much more. One of the brighter things to come out of that tragedy are the paper cranes (below, middle). It is Japanese tradition that if you make 1,000 origami paper cranes, a wish of yours will come true. Across the park and in the museum, hundreds of strings of 1,000 brightly colored paper cranes are hung that people from all over the world have made for the survivors.
After grabbing a quick lunch, we were on the road again. We stopped at Unzen to see the boiling pits of water known as “Hell.” The air there smells like sulfur, so of course fart jokes had to be made! Once you visit Hell (below, left), you can climb to the top of a nearby hill and go to “Heaven” (a Buddhist temple with a rather large statue of Buddha) (below, right) to cleanse yourself.
Ta-da! That’s it! I’m FINALLY finished catching up from Golden Week! Now on to the rest of the month….. *sigh*
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