Day 5 - Nagasaki (4 April 2019)

The drive to Nagasaki took around two hours to arrive, and just one hour coming home via the toll roads. The drive was beautiful, and we were able to see a lot of the pretty countryside. 

I did not have any idea of what to anticipate as we arrived in Nagasaki. But I did appreciate the visit.  We learned that you could purchase an all-day, unlimited use street car pass for 500 Yen (less than $5) at the Information Center in the main train station in Nagasaki. 

We also learned that the cheapest place to park your car for the day was at the Atomic Bomb Museum. So, we purchased our street car tickets and were on our way. They even have a pretty handy street car map, including pictures at the appropriate stops, printed on your ticket. 

We ate our lunch just outside the museum before we went in. I knew it was going to be hard to learn more about Nagasaki and the impact of the atomic bomb, but I didn’t realize how much I’d be able to feel the information I learned. 

Where we were eating our lunch, they had a beautiful statue and a few stories on plaques. One of them included a mother who lost her child dealt with her grief by creating paper cranes. In a few areas of the museum, you’ll see rows of paper cranes that people have made and donated to the museum. It was really touching. 

When you first walk into the museum, you can hear a clock ticking, and then you see a destroyed clock that stopped at 11:02 a.m. on August 9, 1945. I shed a lot of tears as I learned about this horrible catastrophe. 

As I walked through the museum, I felt like they did a good job humanizing the destruction and devastation that happened from the moment of impact and the far reaching effect of the atomic bomb.  

I also didn’t know there were 17 cities that were considered as potential places to drop the bomb. How devastating it is that war happens at all! It is equally horrific the impact it can have on completely innocent people. 

There are so many things that I just don’t understand. 

After the museum, we walked over to the Peace Park. It was an interesting contrast to the museum. There were a lot of cherry blossoms on the trees, and they had a powerful statue on the site of Ground Zero. 

We walked over to the moving escalators to take us up to the area where the Peace Statue resides. The escalators were much appreciated. Also, the flower beds in the middle of the stairs seemed to provide the perfect touch. 

At the top of the escalators is the Fountain of Peace. The fountain is supposed to mimic the wings of a dove of peace. 

We then walked towards the Peace Statue, passing some additional beautiful statues on our way.  To me, the Peace Statue is a powerful balance between being wise, calm, and prepared. 

After the Peace Park, we made our way down to the street car stop. The crosswalk had a countdown system for those waiting to cross the street:

When we arrived at the train stop, my mom shared with us that you need to enter the train at the back of the bus and exit from the front. You also need to pay/show your day pass at the front of the bus before you get off of it. 

We exited the street car at a stop where we could walk to the next place on our list. It was the Torii Gate to mark the entrance to the Sanno Shinto Shrine. Torii Gates designate a place moving from the average to religious. Except, one of the sides of the gate was destroyed in the atomic bomb. So, only half of it is still  standing. 

After walking back to the street car, we took it to the next place on our list of locations to visit in Nagasaki, which was the Site of the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints in Japan. It was a fun walk with good things to see!

We made it up to the Site of the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan.  There were 26 Christians who were crucified on the site in 1597.  They were eventually canonized as saints in 1862. 

It was fairly hilly, so there were several flights of stairs or inclines to climb. However, getting to the top also felt rewarding and the view was beautiful. We didn’t go in the museum, just looked around the outside of the church and museum. From the designs, it seems like Gaudi had a hand in designing some of the structures.

We walked down the hill towards the tram stop, and found a better shot of the statue we could see from the top of the hill. 

Then it was back down the hill to the street car stop. We transferred at Nagasaki Train Station to take the street car over to Suwa Shrine. It was a great book end to our experience in Nagasaki today!

When you first got off the train, they had several Torii Gates leading up a long flight of stairs towards the shrine. You knew immediately that the Suwa Shrine was an important religious place. 

It was a beautiful area!  The shrine was not open when we arrived, but the grounds were tranquil. 

We decided it would be our last stop, as it was nearing 6:00 p.m.  So, after we had seen all we could at the Suwa Shrine, we headed over to the street car stop, and had it take us all the way back to the area where our car was parked (after hiking up another large hill). 

We were able to see a beautiful sunset on our way home. It kind of looked like a meteor lit the sky on fire over the ocean.

We finished off the day with some Korean beauty face masks. My sister tried to get my dad to participate, but he just wasn’t having it today. 

There were all sorts of swirling emotions today. Although it was a good day, sometimes the hardest things to witness are the heaviest to carry. It is often helpful for me to remember we aren’t in this life alone, even dealing with difficult emotions. It was a great day to share with loved ones. 💕