Thursday 23rd July 2009 – to Nagasaki

We awoke this morning to an almost clear sky and a beautiful sunrise. This was always going to be a long day of travelling and we started with a 6pm bus journey to the Toppy Ferry at Miyanoura for a 7am ferry. Then after a 2 ½ hr ferry trip back to Kagoshima we were taken by taxi to the stations where we boarded the 10:50 Kyushu Shinkansen. What an absolutely beautiful train.  The seats had wooden back and arm rests and were upholstered in gold and blue. The window blinds were bamboo and the floors looked like polished tiles. It reminded me of an art deco style. 

Kyushu Sakura Shinkansen

In typical Japanese efficiency style we had 1 minute to get off the train and 3 minutes to cross the platform and join the connecting train to continue our journey. We changed trains at I think Tomi. We then travelled for another 1 ½ hrs before changing trains again one last time at >>>>> before disembarking at Urakami Station, Nagasaki where we were taken by taxi to our hotel, The Victoria Inn, in Chinatown.

This was recently renamed from the Holiday Inn. The hotel was luxury. A typical Holiday Inn affair. After dumping my bags I headed off to the Sofukuji Temple. This seemed a lot more run down and less well looked after than the other temples we’ve seen. Dusty was the work that springs to mind. I t felt very Chinese rather than Japanese. too. 

Sofukuji Temple

Sofukuji Temple

I then joined Iris, Gary and Keith and we wandered to the spectacle Bridge and took lots of photos.#

Spectacle Bridge

Wandering upstream slightly to the next briedge we came across a whole “shoal” of huge koi carp. They were all different colours and absolutely fascinating. 

From there we wandered up to Kofukuji Temple. This was the sort of temple I’d thought all Buddhist temples would be; quiet, peaceful, a wonderful water garden – absolutely beautiful. 

Kofukuji Temple

Walking back to the hotel through the shopping streets of Nagasaki I noticed just how cosmopolitan the city is. A huge mix of shops all sitting next to each other. Ma Mara across the way from MacDonalds and the 100yen shop.

This evening we went to a teppanyaki restaurant where we cooked our own meal. A really good night which we finished off in a small local bar. The bar definitely had an underground feel about it both metaphorically and physically. It was a single dark room with the walls covered in old music posters and LP covers. You chose an album, made a request and the DJ played it whilst using a webcam to project the album cover onto a TV Screen. It was a really good end to a lovely (but long) day.