Sightseeing comes after lunch, as the saying goes, so now that I’ve eaten, I wander around the streets of Nagasaki. I was a little moved when I saw Christmas on July 24th Avenue, the film starring Miki Nakatani that’s set in this town, but that feeling all evaporated as I walked around…
A canal… maybe?
There are a lot of Western-style buildings here.
Probably a hospital… Nagasaki is practically the history of Japan’s opening to the world. It’s also where Sakamoto Ryoma dreamed of revolution.
Oranda-zaka (Dutch Slope)
“Oranda” means the Netherlands. People in old Nagasaki apparently called every foreigner an “Oranda” person, and this neighborhood is where those foreigners lived together. Honestly… it was a hilltop shantytown kind of place… I’ve been to Kobe and to Onomichi, but Nagasaki is the first place I’ve seen slopes this steep. I’d call it Japan’s number one.
Nagasaki seen from the top of the hill
The weather is pretty bad. On a day like this, maybe one shot in ten is worth keeping… but I don’t know if I’ll ever come back in my life, so I keep pressing the shutter.
Another view of Nagasaki from the top of the hill
We climbed a long way, didn’t we… Felt like crossing a whole mountain…
This is Nagasaki’s Chinatown.
It’s pretty modest compared to Kobe or Yokohama, but with Golden Week it was packed. The places serving Nagasaki champon had lines at least 10 meters long. I was a little glad we’d already eaten at Shikairo. At Shikairo we could eat in comfort, while the Chinese restaurants around here have cramped seats and are noisy. If you want proper champon in Nagasaki, I’d say avoid Chinatown at all costs.
Back to hiking
I heard a rumor that there’s a statue of Sakamoto Ryoma somewhere in Nagasaki, so I set off to find it, and then the rain started coming down for real.
Finally found Kazagashira Park
I misread the little map and ended up crossing a mountain in the pouring rain. I thought it was flat, but it turned out to be a straight line all the way to the summit… The scariest thing when traveling is bad information, and the worst bad information is a wrong map. I felt that in my bones that day.
This is what it’s like.
If it had been clear, the view would have been really great…
This is what Nagasaki Port looks like
You can see farther than from Onomichi.
This is the Ryoma statue
He was looking down over the city of Nagasaki. Seems a bit idealized…
Ryoma’s boots statue
I’m not really sure what this is supposed to mean.
A bridge in Nagasaki
A historic structure. It has an old-world charm.
The most famous one, Meganebashi (Spectacles Bridge)
A structure where you can feel the romance of the Showa era.
Apart from the mountain paths, Nagasaki is definitely a great town for walking. It’s a lovely place, but this trip was so exhausting and I couldn’t find any good places to eat, so I didn’t really feel like going back. Plus it’s quite far away… After seeing all this, we set off right away for Kumamoto for dinner. The highway scenery on the way was unforgettably beautiful. Elevated roads ran through the middle of the plains, and we moved from the side of one mountain to the side of the next as if we were flying. Out the window, green plains stretched all the way to the distant coast, and the tunnels felt like entrances to a giants’ garden or a fairy-tale world. Driving in Shikoku before was just as great (the stretch from Ehime to Onomichi), and Kyushu is a really nice place for a drive. But it’s so far that going back would take quite a bit of courage…