Wednesday, 3 April 2019
Home in Tucson
I am home in Tucson, almost unpacked and almost fully recuperated from a very long day of travel on Sunday—and the cold I started a few days prior.  Even when things go well, long-distance travel, especially 23 hours including waiting times, is rough on the body and the psyche.  But before I get to that travel day, LFLatSea will take us all back to Nagasaki and Kagoshima, Japan.  I also intend adding one or two entries about the ship and its personnel, and some photo comparisons of China then (1994) and now.  

Thursday, 28 March 2019
Nagasaki, Japan

This morning we are sailing toward Nagasaki for our scheduled arrival at noon.  Hard to believe I will be rounding the curve and heading home in just a few more days.  After a long day on my own in Tianjin, I decide I really don’t need to visit another shopping mall, even though there is a free 45-minute shuttle from the ship.  So I stay on board during our second day in Tianjin, blogging, relaxing, and even starting some pre-packing sorting (it’s amazing how much extraneous stuff one picks up along the way).

The entrance into Nagasaki harbor is quite beautiful even though the sky is still somewhat overcast (it will clear up later).  

Because the city is quite hilly and places of interest quite far apart, I decide early on to join a shore excursion.  Our tour guide knows quite a lot about the history of Nagasaki.  She is a little eccentric in her presentation, but her English is good and her jokes are funny.

Tour Guide Demonstrates the Importance of
Fishing to the Development of Nagasaki

Our first stop is at the Atom Bomb Museum and Hypocenter Park (the precise spot over which the bomb exploded).  The museum exhibits, starting at the bottom of a circular ramp, demonstrate all the circumstances--scientific, strategic and political--leading to the selection of Nagasaki as the second atomic target.  It also presents, in vivid displays and photographs, the immediate and long-range effects of this second bomb, which was incrementally larger and stronger than the first that was exploded over Hiroshima, just a few days earlier.  The exhibits are explained in both Japanese and English. 

[Side note:  I visited Hiroshima in May 1985 on my first visit to Japan.  I do not recall seeing a museum, but the outdoor relics and eternal flame were impressive and moving.  Since that time, I believe that Hiroshima has added a museum.]

Exterior of Atom Bomb Museum

Statue Outside Museum Entrance

Interior Entrance Ramp

Museum Exhibit Hall

Remains of Cathedral Exterior at Explosion Site

Outside the museum a passageway and flight of stairs (elevators also available) lead to the Hypocenter Park, where a black obelisk marks the exact spot over which the bomb exploded.

One remnant of the church's brick structure also stands in the park.

From the museum it is a short uphill drive to the Peace Park, often used as a place for memorial ceremonies and political protests.  At the top of the park stands the immense Peace Statue, whose outstretched muscular limbs are meant to spread peace throughout the world.  The statue has been under wraps for repair and restoration and has only recently been uncovered for public viewing.

At the bottom of the park, the Peace Fountain shoots its watery extensions in the forms of the wings of a dove.

Between the statue and fountain stand a series of sculptures dedicated to peace, donated by various nations of the world.

For almost two hundred years prior to its re-opening in the late 19th century, Japan isolated itself from the rest of the world.  During that period Nagasaki provided the only place that sort-of welcomed foreigners.  An island colony was set up to house Dutch traders and their wives and concubines (and to keep them separated from the local population).  No longer an isolated island, this section of Nagasaki is located very close to the cruise port and is easy for tourists to visit.  Unfortunately, because of the lack of time, the only views I had were from the tour bus window.

The third and last stop of the shore excursion is the Nagasaki Historical Museum, which focuses on larger cultural aspects of life in Japan's southernmost metropolis.  Unfortunately, there are few English explanations in the museum to help the foreign visitor put the exhibits in context.  The most interesting part of the museum was a series of tatami-mat rooms (for which we had to remove our shoes), demonstrating aspects of the lifestyle of a well-to-do local family.

Museum Gateway and Courtyard

It is a short ride back to the cruise port, during which we pass the ship's-bow adorned entrance to a shopping arcade.

So I close this blog with a final view of the grass-covered roof of the cruise port terminal (from my veranda) and mid-rise buildings of the city beyond.

The next blog will take us to Kagoshima, still in Kyushu, the last port before disembarkation in Yokohama and flying home from Tokyo's Narita Airport.