Ian had been tossing around the notion of taking Margaret to Nagasaki all week. We never made firm plans, though. I wasn’t too keen on the idea since Nagasaki is a five hour drive from us, and that’s quite a way to go for just a two day weekend. Anyway, we woke up on Saturday morning, and I asked Ian where he wanted to take Margaret. He said, “Nagasaki.” After trying to convince him otherwise and to go to Kagoshima or some place closer to us, I finally gave in. We packed up and left pretty quickly so that we could make our 1PM ferry to Nagasaki Prefecture.
Nagasaki Prefecture is kind of the dingle berry for the island of Kyushu. It’s the far most western prefecture and is basically a jagged peninsula and collection of islands jutting into the sea. It’s a beautiful prefecture, but it’s pretty far away from us. Once our ferry landed on the Shimabara Peninsula of Nagasaki Prefecture, we had a great view of Mt. Unzen, an active volcano. While there was fun stuff in Shimabara that we wanted to take Margaret to, (ie, the buried houses that were destroyed by the last volcanic eruption in the 90s, the model samurai houses, the streams in which you can pick up koi from the water, the “hells” of Unzen [steaming pits of sulfur in which they threw the Christians into way back when…], the town of Obama [complete with its own statue of President Obama!]) we drove straight to Nagasaki to maximize our time there. The drive was gorgeous! The first part was straight uphill as we crossed over Mt. Unzen, and then a mix of hills as we made our way around the peninsula, following the bay (below, right).
And now…..time for a stupid story from the Reeds. We grabbed sandwiches for lunch at the port. Mine had American cheese on it, (which I HATE) so I asked Ian if he wanted the cheese slices. When he said no, I smacked the triangle of cheese onto his windshield. He scraped it off the windshield and tried to throw it at me, but I rolled up my window just in time. I didn’t want to scrape it off, so I called it my pet (above, left). It stayed on until we got to Shimabara and stopped for gas. The gas station attendants were washing our windows and laughing as they scraped yellow cheese from the window. Lol. 
We’re both idiots, but that’s why we work so well together.
We arrived in Nagasaki around 4 PM. Our first order of business was acquiring housing for the night. Ian had looked online for a hotel that morning, found one, but when we got there, they were completely full. He was able to find a nice hostel close by…..which just so happened to be rated Japan’s best hostel in 2008 and 2009. Even though Margaret wasn’t too keen on the idea of staying in a hostel, it was REALLY nice. She got her own room, and we had a room to ourselves. The rooms were just so-so, but the staff was really what made the place. They were EXTREMELY NICE and gave us maps, discount passes for touristy stuff, and all kinds of information about what to do in Nagasaki. In addition, there was all kinds of information and brochures hanging on the walls of the hostel about the specialties and fun off-the-beaten-track places to go to in Nagasaki.
Our first touristy stop that night was to the ropeway leading to the view. The nighttime view of Nagasaki is supposed to be the 3rd best in all of Japan. The last time we were in Nagasaki, we went there, but it was completely overcrowded, and we could barely even get a decent picture. (Actually, the last time we went to Nagasaki was a holiday weekend, and EVERYTHING was crowded. The trip last weekend was MUCH more enjoyable because each place we went was MUCH less crowded!) We were even able to get a great group shot (after several bad attempts due to people walking in the shot and not realizing what we were doing….) I’m not sure how long we stayed up on the mountain, but as we took the ropeway down, there were fireworks going off in the bay. It was gorgeous! As we walked back, we could see the fireworks reflecting off the glass buildings. We stopped along a bridge to watch them, and I noticed some movement in the water. It was flying fish! It was too dark (or maybe they were too quick!) to see the actual fish jumping, but we heard the gentle splashes and could see the entire schools of fish beneath the water. It was almost like looking at a brain teaser because we could see the movement, but it took our eyes a minute to focus and realize that it was indeed schools of fish! 
That night we went to Dejima Wharf for dinner. That area of Nagasaki is a very touristy part, so we thought that we could find great seafood there. We stopped at one restaurant, and despite the forty-five minute wait that the menu said it would take, Ian was excited about paella being on the menu and ordered that. I had a delicious eggplant pasta, but for whatever reason, poor Margaret’s order never came. 
We told her that that was the first time anything that like had happened to us at a restaurant! She was fine with it and shared some of Ian’s giant paella dish. By the time we had finished dinner, the tram line had stopped working, so we had to catch a taxi back to our hostel.
After a good night’s sleep, we woke up for another day’s adventure. Our first stop was the Spectacles Bridge. This bridge is named so due to the fact that it’s made from two arches. The arches reflect on the water below, making it look like a pair of glasses (aka spectacles). The legend is that if you are searching for your love, you will find him/her there. If you already have a significant other, if you find the heart shaped stone in the bridge and touch it together, you will have eternal love. You better believe that Ian and I were looking high and low for that heart shaped stone!! 
I think we got to the point where we were just looking at heart-ish shaped stones. Ian “found” the heart stone, and we both touched it together, but who really knows if it was THE STONE. lol. We just wanted to make sure to have the eternal love that some random bridge in Japan was willing to grant us.
After a brief visit to a Starbucks for Ian and Margaret’s coffee fix, we went to the monument for the twenty-six martyred saints. Way back when, the Buddhist and Shinto officials weren’t too fond of the Christians coming in a converting everyone, so they crucified twenty-six of them on a hill in Nagasaki, and upon that hill today is the monument. There was also a museum behind the monument which we went to. It was weird to see so much Catholicism in one place!! I jokingly asked Ian if this counted as going to church for the day. After all….the museum was in an old church. The museum was actually pretty cool and had a ton of history. However, one thing that really weirds me out about the reverence of saints is relics. I understand the meaning behind them and why they are sacred, but to see bones of the saints on display is just…..weird. 
Our final Nagasaki stop was the Peace Park and Atomic Museum. This is the one place that Margaret absolutely, positively wanted to go in Nagasaki. It took us about three hours to cover everything. I can safely once again say that I enjoyed the park and museum MUCH more this time due to the lack of crowds. Last time, the museum was wall-to-wall people, so it was difficult to take your time and read/see everything. One interesting thing is that I didn’t have the American guilt that I had the last time we were there. In case you don’t remember my blog from our last visit to Nagasaki, I was overcome with guilt. I felt like I shouldn’t be there and how could my great nation have done this…?? I felt like people were staring and KNEW that I was American and judging me for it. (I know that all of these things are irrational. I had as much right to be there as the next person, so I’m no more guilty of bombing Nagasaki than any of my co-workers are guilty of destroying Pearl Harbor.) Anyway, this trip to the Atomic Museum was MUCH more enjoyable.
(Above right: It is Japanese tradition to make 1,000 paper cranes for a wish to come true. Around the monuments at Peace Park, there are literally hundreds of thousands of beautiful multi-colored chains of origami cranes in remembrance of the bomb victims.
Above left: This is the hypocenter—the exact spot where the Nagasaki A-bomb blew up. In 1945 when the bomb dropped, there were absolutely no survivors in this immediate area. Today there are thriving neighborhoods literally within 500 meters of this spot.)
Once we finished there, we grabbed lunch, headed back to our car, and got on the road. Since Ian drove the whole way to Nagasaki, I drove the whole way back. I was getting very sleepy about an hour and a half into the drive, so we pulled over for a sugar fix. Nothing like a 500 mL Coke to wake you up!! We finally arrived back at our house around 8PM. After unpacking and washing a load of clothes, it was time for bed!
Another wonderful weekend…..ENJOYED!
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