Thursday March 17th, 2016 Nagasaki, Japan

Nagasaki – I’ve been looking forward to this stop ever since we booked the cruise. After the debacle of yesterday we are thankful to be officially finding our own way today and our rough plan is to visit the Atomic Bomb Museum, take the cable car up the big mountain and finally visit the Glover Gardens – we’ll see how it goes.

The first thing we had to do was figure out the lay of the land and how we were going to get about. The people in the cruise terminal could not have been more helpful – once again reaffirming our belief in the kindness of the Japanese people. We purchased all day passes for the streetcars (trams) for 500Y each – about $4.50, what a deal, and following the instructions of the helpful staff walked about 5 minutes to the closest tram stop. 

I always find it a bit more nerve racking to be touring a country that does not use western style alphabet – but in Japan many of the signs are also in English, and if you really get stuck you can almost always find a local who is only too happy to practice their English language skills and help you along. I knew we had to board one tram, go a few stops and then change for the final ride up to the museum. The tram was absolutely packed with people, and it being a warm day and the tram not being equipped with air-conditioning I soon found myself overheating. There were several of us from the ship making the same trip, all of us nervously looking at the tram map and trying to figure out where to get off. Soon a group of Japanese schoolgirls took an interest and offered helpful advice; in fact they got off at the same stop as us and made sure we walked over to the correct spot to board the next tram – this is typical Japanese.

The next tram wound its way up the valley towards the hypocenter where the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. There are three separate things to see in this area; we started with the Peace Park and Memorial. The park includes several statues, a fountain and beautiful gardens. The centerpiece is the so-called Peace Statue with one hand raised to warn of the potential of atomic bombs and the other outstretched to signify eternal peace. 

We moved on to the site of the actual hypocenter – I found this an incredibly moving experience. Walking down a path above a small stream we rounded a corner to see a wide-open space with a single stone pillar at one end, erected at the spot of the hypocenter. Also in this area is a large statue depicting a mother holding a dead infant and representing the 40,000 people who were instantly killed at 11:02AM on August 9, 1945. 

The final stop in this area was at the Atomic Bomb Museum; built in 1996 the museum captures a good cross-section of events and artifact from the time leading up to the bombing through to the peace movement it spawned in the years after the war ended. I found the museum to be extremely well organized and laid out – it was hard not to draw comparisons to the 911 museum in New York. Nothing appears to have been glossed over or politicized, the exhibits are purely factual. We also saw several high school aged children’s groups in the museum. Along with pieces of twisted metal, the exhibits include a life size reproduction of the “Fat Man” plutonium bomb with a cut away section to help explain how it worked.

To hit our 2nd stop on the overall itinerary we took the same tram back down the valley a few stops and then walked about 15 minutes to the Fuchi Jinja cable car station for the ride up Mt. Inasa. The Japanese call the cable car the Ropeway and the 5 minute journey up the mountain afforded us great views from the ships in the port on our right, up the valley to the atomic bomb site on our left. A short hike after exiting the cable car and we were at the lookout structure on the top of Mt. Inasa. This circular structure consists of an interior spiral walkway leading to a restaurant at the top and a viewing platform above.

The highlight of the lunch in Hikari No Restaurant was the view, absolutely amazing – looking over the port and down on the Queen Elizabeth. The views from the rooftop platform were spectacular, made even better by the brilliant weather – we really got lucky. 

In order to have time to fit in our 3rd and final stop, we took a taxi from the cable car station through town to the Glover Gardens. Quite close to the ship the Glover Gardens area is a tourist spot that encompasses some quaint shopping streets, the old Oura catholic church, several houses from the time of the first European settlements in Japan and of course the Glover house and gardens. 

Thomas Blake Glover was a Scottish entrepreneur who moved to Nagasaki in 1859 when the Japanese ports were opened to trade. Through shipbuilding, coal mining and the tea trade Glover contributed greatly to the modernization of Japan. He is known as the father of Japanese Beer and the Kirin beer logo still shares his famous moustache. 

Note that if you visit this area there is a separate entry charge for the church and the gardens. Entry to is via a series of outdoor escalators - the area being on a steep hillside. The old Oura church is quaint but not overly impressive – no pictures allowed inside (I confess to take-ing one before I realized the no photos rule). The gardens are, well, not really gardens as we would define them – more a series of walk ways back down the hill interspersed with the occasional old house. I think the actual Glover house was under restoration because we never did find it – though there was a large fenced off structure with lots of scaffolding that I assume may have been the main house. We stumbled upon a nice coffee shop in the upstairs of one of the old buildings and enjoyed a relaxing break before heading back to the ship, a short 10-minute walk.