Nagasaki - We had a beautiful day to explore Nagasaki, both it’s beauty and it’s tragedy. We were very lucky to have another Goodwill Guide to show us around. Our guide was a child of 4 when the bomb was dropped, and luckily his family was living a few miles away from the Hypocenter and were spared. He was in remarkable shape for a man of 76 and his first-hand knowledge of the town was invaluable. We had a full day ahead, first a walk up the hill for a visit to Glover Garden with it’s historic houses and views of the city. Next a tram ride to the Nagasaki Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter and a visit to the Atomic Bomb Museum. A very sobering afternoon. Our day ended on a note of nature and beauty with us taking a ropeway gondola up to the top of Mt. Inasa to enjoy a spectacular sunset, and a view of the city as the sky darkened and the lights of the city came on. A memorable day for many reasons.
Our first glimpse of Nagasaki as we walked up the hill to Glover Gardens.
A view from the gardens, with our ship in the foreground, and a couple of huge LNG tankers being built in the background. And in the far background is the observation platform on Mt. Inasa, where we would end our day.
A statue of “Thomas Blake Glover, a Scottish merchant who contributed to the modernization of Japan in shipbuilding, coal mining, and other fields”. It would be these shipbuilding yards that would make Nagasaki a target during the war.
Modern Nagasaki surrounding the inlet.
The Peace Fountain at the Nagasaki Peace Park. There seemed to be a rainbow from every angle.
The centerpiece of the park is the Peace Statue “The statue's right hand points to the threat of nuclear weapons while the extended left hand symbolizes eternal peace. The mild face symbolizes divine grace and the gently closed eyes offer a prayer for the repose of the bomb victims' souls. The folded right leg and extended left leg signify both meditation and the initiative to stand up and rescue the people of the world.”
We were told that this man is in the park almost every day. He was working at a Mitsubishi plant that was vaporized, but that day he had been asked by his boss to visit another location, so he escaped the fate of his co-workers. He is there to tell his story.
A short distance from the Peace Park is the monument demarking the hypocenter of the blast. The black monolith is the spot. “After the bombing, which destroyed all plant life around the hypocenter, people said that no plants would grow there for the next 70 years. However, one month after the atomic bombing, about 30 kinds of plants started to grow again. Today, there are bout 500 cherry blossom trees in the hypocenter park. It truly captures the power of revival.”
On our way to Mt. Inasa, we found that, yes indeed, Nagasaki also has a Ferris Wheel. This one was built on top of a department store.
A mountainside neighbourhood as we glided over in our ropeway gondola. They would have excellent views of the city below.
On the other side of the city, we could see our ship in the distance.
A beautiful sunset, and an awesome end to our day in Nagasaki. Our guide said that he felt it was the nicest sunset he had seen up top. We were very lucky to have had good weather all day.
Our last vista view of Nagasaki as we headed back to our ship. (A little bit later than planned, so we had to bid a quick farewell to our guide, as we took taxis back to the dock through rush hour traffic. We made it, and the ship left WITH us.)
NEXT: (Day 7) Busan, South Korea
Prev: (Day 5) Kochi, Japan
Japan Explorer