Japan [Day 6 - Nagasaki]

Nagasaki, a historical city with atomic bomb tragedy

Another day had come. We're gotta move to the next city.

It's time for Nagasaki. Nagasaki is quite far from here. Approximately 5 hours of journey via shinkansen and JR train. We took a morning train (shinkansen) from Kyoto to Hakata (Fukuoka). The journey took 2 hours. Then, we took the next train to Nagasaki which consumed another 2 hours. 

Nagasaki Station

We arrived in Nagasaki at noon. As usual, we dropped our backpacks in a locker and continued with our plan. We bought tram day pass (one day pass 500 yen) to commute around the city. Our first destination was Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

We alighted from the tram at Matsuyamamachi station and then walked uphill towards the Atomic Bomb Museum. The entrance fee is 200 yen. The museum is a remembrance to the atomic bombing of the Nagasaki by the USA which occurred in 1945. We did learnt it in History class in Malaysia but of course we had forgotten it. Well, memory does fade. Many items which belong to that year were preserved such as clocks, clothing, building remnants and households.

The bomb was dropped at 11:02

The bomb

Hiroshima Dome

Hypocenter

After finishing our tour in the museum, we walked towards the hypocenter. It's place where the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. They had built some sort of monument to mark the place.

Nagasaki Peace Park

Next, we continued our walk to the Peace Park which is located right next to the hypocenter, wasn't that far. There is a big statue here. We spent a few minutes here taking some photos and then visited the souvenir shops nearby.

Glover Garden

Our next agenda was Glover Garden. We took the tram to Ishibashi station. Then, we walked to the garden which is located uphill. We took the elevator up and continued walking towards the entrance. Along the way, we saw a bunch of cats lying around so we stopped for a while and disturbed the cats. Some cats were okay, but some of them were afraid with humans. The entrance fee for Glover Garden is 600 yen for adult. We spent an hour in the garden before it closes at 6.00 pm. 

The garden was built by Thomas Blake Glover who travelled from Scotland and built his home here. The garden was very nice, located overlooking the sea. We could see Nagasaki from above. The landscape and the buildings were well-maintained. I love the garden so much, might do some photoshoot here in the future. Hehehe..

At closing time, we left the garden and dropped by the souvenir shops downhill. I bought some magnets as memento. 

We walked further towards the pier. We could saw a few cruises sailed out from Nagasaki. The view was nice and the weather was so windy and cold. We observed a few kids playing skateboard around the dock.

Spectacle Bridge

We took the tram to Nigiwaibashi to see the Spectacle Bridge. This bridge has become one of the significant landmarks in Nagasaki. It looks like a spectacle when we saw it with the reflection of the water. Quite a nice view here. Since it's dinner time, we walked towards the Malaya restaurant which is located just a few minutes walk from the bridge.

Spectacle resemblance

Malaya Restaurant

This is a Malaysian restaurant owned by a Chinese guy from Johor, from Skudai to be exact. The food was okay, we ordered chicken fried rice. Other menu includes satay, spring rolls, noodles and many others. Since we're so hungry thus we had rice. Before leaving, we had a little chat with the owner. He's such a great guy and we conversed in Malay. Lol

Nagasaki Orion Hotel

After satisfying our hunger, we walked to the main station which is located not very far (around 11 minutes) from the restaurant. We picked our bags from the locker and found a way to the hotel. The hotel room was okay, but the bed was kinda small for two of us. After placing our bags in the room, we went back outside looking for mart to buy food for breakfast. We saw a post office (yeah, still opened at night) and purchased some stamps. The hotel provided us with matcha teabags (green tea) so we made hot drinks from it. We had our supper with cherries and edamame which we bought from a supermarket at the station. We wrote postcards as well. 

Then we called it a night.