One more wonderful day down. But sadly it's my last full day with Rei. Tomorrow she's off to Tokyo, and I'm headed back to Hiroshima to fly out on Thursday morning. But we made it a good one.
Approaching Battleship Island
I want to go climbing around in those buildings
We started out the day with what may have been the thing I was most excited for: a trip to Hashima, also known as Gunkanjima (or Battleship Island) because of it's silhouette. Dejima is a very small island about 18km from Nagaski harbor that had a huge coal mine on it. Mining began back in the early 19th century and continued on until the mid 1970s, at which point there was less demand for coal and Mitsubishi, who owned it,decided to shut down the mine. Within 3 months, everyone had moved off the island, often leaving behind belongings, and allowing nature to have it's way with what remained. Now you can visit the island by tour, which allows you to step onto the island in very specific places and view some of the buildings close up, and then loops you around the island to take it in from all sides. Back in its heyday, there were only about 5000 people living on the island, but the population density was even higher than Tokyo because the place was so small. They had to bring almost everything in from the mainland, included fresh water. It's one of the eeriest, most unique places I've been, and I only wish I could have actually gone out onto the island proper and poked around inside some of the buildings. Next time I need to see if there's any sort of private tours that let you do that. But in the meantime, you can see the island on Google street view, or in the film Skyfall.
The main (read: only) road in Dejima
A clock frozen at 11:02, the exact
time the bomb exploded
Up next, it was back to the mainland for some sushi and a visit to Dejima, which turned out to be one of the more interesting things I think we've done on the trip. Dejima is a tiny island that was reclaimed in the 17th century in what was then Nagasaki harbour, in order to isolate the Portuguese traders when Japan decided to close its borders to the outside world. Then they decided to kick out the Portuguese, too, but they let the Dutch stay, so they were moved onto Dejima. There are only about 10 buildings there, but it housed all the Portuguese traders in mostly Japanese style buildings, which they added their own European style to, with things like wallpaper, western furniture and paint. They also built a couple of European style buildings to serve as a church and school, and as an international school. I didn't realize before coming that this was the only place in Japan that was open during the isolation period, a period which lasted about 200 years, and that all the Western education, science, influence and everything else only came through Dejima. Pretty impressive stuff. I actually wanted to buy a book on it, but the only English one they had was probably all the same information I can find on Wikipedia. So I'll read that instead.
The epicenter
And last stop for the day was WWII stuff. We started at Peace Park, which had some nice statues, then on to see the largest church in Nagasaki. There's a lot of churches here, it's kind of surprising. This one is famous because it was almost completely destroyed during the bombing, and at the time it was the largest cathedral in all of Asia. Then we visited the memorial hall, which is really nicely done, and made some cranes. We also went to the atomic bomb museum, which is mostly full of items from the bombing. Pretty heavy stuff. And I learned that the bombs were dropped after Germany had already surrendered and the war was over in Europe. Nagasaki was also the secondary target, apparently the bomb was supposed to have been dropped further north in Kokura. Just outside the museum is the epicenter of where the bomb exploded, which now has a memorial pillar marking the spot. Then the last stop was to see a torii that was half destroyed, but has remained standing on one leg ever since.
After a bit of relaxation at the hotel this evening, Rei and I went out for our last meal together, which was tonkatsu. Well, that was the meal. There were other snacks afterwards. We went for a walk to see the Spectacles Bridge again, which is one of Nagasaki's famous sites. It's basically just a double arched bridge, but it reflects in the water underneath forming two circles like glasses. And it's also the oldest, stone, double-arched bridge in Japan. Although when you add that many adjectives it's not so hard to be the best at something. Anyway it's quite nice, and they have it all lit up with lanterns also because of the festival I mentioned yesterday (which I found out is actually one of the two major festivals that happens in Nagasaki, so that's fun), so we went to see it again, all lit up. Then Rei and I meandered back to the big temple to see some more lanterns and eat some more snacks. And now here we are. Just a couple more things on the list together tomorrow, and then it's time for our farewells.
Megani-bashi, or spectacles bridge
As for the music, we're sticking to Japanese but moving into some more indie stuff. While I was living here back in 2007-2008, I found out Audio Safari, who make pretty chill electronic music. The singer's got a bit of a weird voice, but I really like it. And I got to see (and meet) them in Tokyo once, which was great. I think they only had the one album, Uru no Sora, which is unfortunate because it's a great one. I think my favorite song off the album is 十数えて (pronounced Tou Kazoete, meaning Count to Ten).
about this band
I'd recommend others, but there's only one album, so if you like this then just go listen to it all. It's on youtube. And the singer, Sakurai Mami, also put out at least one solo album, so you can try to find that too if you like.
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