Nagasaki, Japan
I chose Nagasaki as my other destination in my travels because I've never been here. Never been in this part of Japan, never been to Kyushu. I also wanted to visit a city where there was a definite reason aside from usual touristy stuff, and I thought Nagasaki could be a pilgrimage of human suffering because of the Atomic Bombing. I've already been to Hiroshima in August 1995.

Wow, I love Nagasaki! Kyoto was a bit of a drag in comparison. I wish I knew more about the nooks and crannies of the city and if there are more bohemian quarters, but Nagasaki is already distinguished because of the strong foreign influence on the culture here. There's a heavy Korean and Chinese population due to the proximity to the Asian mainland, and there's also a strong Western influence because for centuries of national isolation, Nagasaki was the only port where foreigners were allowed.

It also feels a little bit like San Francisco, but maybe that's because it rained all day today. But also because there are a lot of hills, they use street cars like the Muni light rail, there is a harbor with waterfront access like the bay, and they're even a building a bridge over the mouth of the harbor like the Golden Gate.

Climbing hills gives panoramic views like San Francisco. You can just make out the bridge building in progress on this foggy, rainy day:


But my main reason for coming to Nagasaki was to visit the Ground Zero memorial and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. The convenient circular form around the Ground Zero monument made for good walking, and I ended up walking around and around, albeit slowly, for over 45 minutes.


The museum left a lot to be desired, though. The raw material they had for the museum was good, as was the information, but the multi-media presentation was confusing and distracting and always required multiple viewings for it to sink in. I also thought the layout of the exhibition could have been better, but maybe I'm just griping because I was hungry.

As a pilgrimage, it was really good to come here. It wasn't as intense as when I was in Hiroshima, on the 50th anniversary of that bombing, but the magnitude of what happened here still demanded deep reflection and sadness (and anger, but that's another story).

In the afternoon, I went to a section of town called Teramachi (tera=temple, machi=town). It was fantastic, one street lined with Buddhist temples. Apparently the Shogunate at one point issued an order that each sect of Buddhism build a temple on Teramachi in Nagasaki. For Buddhism, Nagasaki clearly outshines poseur Kyoto. Kyoto is just about that pompous Zen aesthetic. The truth about Buddhism in Chinese and Japanese spirituality is that it was most looked upon for funerals. Many times monks bemoaned their duties focusing on performing funerals instead of practicing. In Teramachi, the cemeteries associated with the temples line the mountainside against which Teramachi lies, and they go all the way up the mountain. You see nothing like that in Kyoto.

Like the temples in Kyoto, you don't see a lot happening. You wander in, you wander around, then you wander out. There were two famous temples that are on the tourist maps, and those temples charged admission, and I didn't go to them. All the other temples didn't charge admission, and were basically the same thing.

Temple cemetery lining the mountain side:


I came here knowing nothing about the city except that the second Atomic Bomb was dropped here. Knowing nothing about where to go, what there is to do, or what it's like, and my knowledge only marginally better now, I must say I really do like this city. If I had a choice of all the cities I've visited in Japan, I'd choose to live here.