The Beginning of Nagasaki

[After a relatively uneventful bus ride (complete with a toilet for use en-route) we made it to Nagasaki.  Here is a quick little play by play of the first two days of the Japan experience]

Sunday
After a 2 hour bus ride we finally made it to Nagasaki.  After finding our hostel (which included a few wrong turns and LOTS of stairs) we quickly unpacked and then made our way to the tall boats festival.   Think Pirates of the Caribbean only bigger and with better flags.  Boats everywhere from all different countries including Korea and Russia.  We found a booklet for stamps from each ship and began attempting to get stamps from them all.  We got 7 out of 8 (not bad) and were able to get on a Russian boat and take a tour.  Not only were we able to take a tour but we were able to take a tour on a boat where all of the sailors were shirtless, attractive and spoke with an accent.  Triple threat. After the Russians stole my heart we ate dinner at a restaurant called Lekker.  By far the best food I have eaten since leaving the good old US of A.  Rounding out our first night in Nagasaki was a ridiculous show fireworks.  All in all not a bad start to my Japanese vacation. 

One of the tall boats in the festival

Group shot of me and the girls

Sunset shot of the Russian boat

A beautiful sunset

The boats at night

Monday
This is the day of doing all things cultural and tourist-like.  We bought an all-day tram pass and began our tour of the city.  Our first stop was the Nagasaki ropeway that gave us a 360 degree view of the city.  I took plenty of pictures but I have a feeling that even those won't be able to do it justice.  We then went to Chinatown for the afternoon for souveniers and chinese food.  I know, chinese food in Japan, we get the irony. 

Frances and Raechel in the ropeway car

Just one of the spectacular views from the ropeway car

Our view from the top of the ropeway.

With the girls in front of the night skyline backdrop

Oura church, Japans oldest catholic church, was our next stop on our cultural tour of the city.  I try and go to at least one Catholic church in each country I visit so that I can see the differences that each country brings to the religion.  I also like to get a rosary for my mom in each country as well.  Sort of a little tradition I have started since I began my love affair with traveling back in '09.

Japan's oldest Catholic church "Oura"

Mother Mary

The atomic bomb epicenter was one of our last stops for the day.  To actual see the destruction that your own country did to another is unreal and impossible to explain.  Hundreds of thousands of people were instantaneously killed with the majority being women, children and senior citizens.  The epicenter and the Peace Park both pay tribute to the many that lost their lives and give hope to the country that something like this will never again happen to Japan, or any other country.  It was a sobering experience that I will not soon forget.

A remnant of a wall after the blast.  It was brought
to the peace park years later.

Hundreds and hundreds of peace cranes

The date and time off the attack on Nagasaki

The sculpture of a woman attempting to shield her dying
child from the atomic blast

To round out our night I was finally able to ride my ferris wheel.  Ever since we began our planning for this trip one of my must-dos was to ride one of Asias largest ferris wheels.  I can now check that off my list.  We ended up at an American bar that was ran by a man named Kendall.  We felt right at home with his easy-going attitude and familiar American bantering.  After missing the last tram back to our hostel, we spent the majority of the night at Kendalls and made friends with a geisha, a Japanese man named Matsumoto and got the rest of the crowd involved in singing Kareoke.  Let's just say that the YMCA holds new meaning for me today.

As you can see Japan is quickly becoming a place I love.  With 5 more days I can only imagine what kind of shenanigans we can get ourselves into before we inevitably make our way back to South Korea.