April 9 - Nagasaki, Japan

 Our tour today was "Best of Nagasaki" which left at 9:15. Steve and Leona were on our bus.  We had to go through Japanese immigration again since we came from Korea.  Again, Michael had to try twice to get his fingerprints to register, but it worked in the end.  

It was sunny, but quite windy today

Our instructions as we entered the immigration area.

Our first stop was at Dejima Island. This man-made island was used in the 19th century for trade with the Dutch and the Portuguese.  Only those involved in the trade business were allowed on the island and the local Samurai would keep watch over everything to make sure there was no cheating. 

One of the scales used for measuring goods.

I assume he represents a Samurai of the time.

A model of the island made by local high schoolers who maintain it.

The buildings are reproductions since the originals were destroyed in the atomic bombing.  They used original materials whenever available.

And, of course, an interesting manhole cover, or so I thought.  Google Translate tells me it says Fire Hydrant.

All of the signs for the toilets in Japan identify the men's in blue and the women's in red. It makes it so easy to find.

So many signs in Japan use cartoon-like characters, even for notifications of AEDs on the premises like the one on the left.

Next on the agenda was the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.  This museum had basically all of the things that were in Hiroshima, but this time there were no huge crowds so we could see all of the exhibits.  I found it even more moving than Hiroshima and it didn't seem right to take too many photos.  They have a life-sized model of the bomb and it is so hard to look at and try to imagine how something so relatively small could look so menacing and cause so much destruction. In 1945 Nagasaki had a population of around 240,000 and over 74,000 were killed outright and that many more were injured.  There is no estimate on the number who suffered long-term effects from the radiation.

The origami cranes are the symbol of peace.  These were glazed and in a display case at the entrance of the museum.  There were thousands that have been donated by people from all over.

This damaged wall clock was found in a house about 800 meters from the hypocenter (as it is called here).  It is stopped at the time of the bomb: 11:02.

This pillar marks the spot of the hypocenter of the blast

Part of a wall that remained standing from the Urakami Cathedral.

Next to the museum is Peace Park, with gardens, fountains, and statues.

Many cities and countries have sent art pieces to Nagasaki.  This one is from St. Paul, MN which is a sister city of Nagasaki.

The Peace Statue

Ironically, there was a peace demonstration going on at the park which made the park a lot less peaceful than it should have been.

Back to the ship in time for a late lunch at La Veranda. Then an afternoon spent reading or catching up on world happenings before Trivia, where we finished out of the prizes again.  

We had dinner reservations with Phil and Carol at Pacific Rim.  This is an Asian specialty restaurant that is only on the 3 larger ships and we've not experienced it before.  It has an extensive menu and it was difficult to decide what to order.  Fortunately, we also have reservations there tomorrow with Jan/Tom and Steve/Leona so we have at least one more opportunity to try other tempting items.  

We had a nice sendoff from the local high school band.

This is the pretty entrance to Pacific Rim.

And this is the mostly enclosed smoking section on the pool deck.  This is a vast improvement over other ships where it's just a designated area and the smoke drifts out over the pool area.  With this, you only smell the smoke if you get right up close to the entrance.

Jerry Freschi had not been feeling well for a few days and the ship's doctor sent him to the hospital this morning.  They thought they may not be coming back, but whatever the hospital found, they said he was well enough to return to the ship.  Carol said that he and Susan have decided to leave the cruise in Tokyo and not do the next segment (like we are) that ends up in Vancouver.  There is a long stretch of sea days on that leg so it seems wise to go home to figure out what's going on rather than take the chance of something happening that far from land.