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nagasaki, nagasaki

november 21-23, 2020

>> nagasaki photos here <<

so i had booked a trip to nagasaki using go to travel campaign early on. by the time mid-november rolled around, i knew that i needed to make a decision about it because covid cases were really going up. i agonized over it for a while right up until the day of the trip, but in the end i did decide to go through with it. i had chosen a hotel that voluntarily followed covid safety and i had made a plan with myself that i would walk as much as possible to avoid transportation and i would only eat in places that had dividers and followed typical safety suggestion etc. even so, i was pretty nervous the entire time and resolved to cancel anything else i had planned after i got back home.

there is no shinkansen to nagasaki yet (it’s being built!), so i took the next lowest speed tier which is limited express. this train took about three hours. when i arrived at nagasaki station i moved to the tram station outside. i think if you are disabled, it would be nearly impossible to use public transportation in nagasaki because some of the tram stations are above the roads and there were no elevators or escalators.

anyway! the first thing i did was go to a temple called sofukuji. it was a trial. i knew nagasaki was built between a bunch of mountains and hills but i was not mentally prepared lol. my fitbit says i walked up 45 stairs in two days, but that’s a lie -- mostly it was just all climbing uphill lol. sofukuji was worth it though! it’s a temple built in the 1600s for the chinese residents and merchants of nagasaki. it’s built in a chinese-style of architecture, so it looks different from other temples. it’s one of the oldest buildings in the city! because it’s so far uphill, the view of the city is really nice. sofukuji does not offer goshuin stamps though, so that was kind of disappointing.

the second place i visited was meganebashi bridge. this bridge is shaped like a pair of glasses, and megane literally means glasses or spectacles. it’s a famous spot built in the 1600s. there are many stone bridges built across the nakashima river and they’re all really cool.

third, i walked to kofukuji, but i ended up getting lost and accidentally wandered into a cemetery lol. i eventually did find it and was really impressed. it’s a really nice and well-maintained temple with unique wood-working along some of its windows that makes it stand out to me. it’s the birthplace of a sect of buddhism called obaku and famous for being a place to pray for safe travels on the ocean. there’s a huge glass lantern in the main hall that’s also pretty famous. i did manage to get a goshuin here, though because of covid i had to ring a doorbell and receive an already-made goshuin to glue into my book.

i tried to visit the confucius temple next but it closed early due to covid, so i ended up going to shinchi chinatown instead! my feet had become nubs at this point because i had decided i would avoid nagasaki’s trams as much as possible to avoid potential covid exposure. nagasaki’s chinatown is the oldest chinatown in japan and used to be a reclaimed island where chinese people did business. since more land has been reclaimed, it’s no longer an island. while i was there, it was between meal times and restaurants were not open, however i was able to get some street food! i ate the most delicious pork bun snack of my life. it was so good i went back the next day and got a bunch more lol. on the way back to the hotel is dejima. it was also once a reclaimed island where the dutch did their trading.

next day i woke up early to arrive at the peace park when it opened because i figured there would be less people there (i was right! practically empty!). i first went to the atom bomb museum, which was very interesting and much different from hiroshima’s museum. even if you’ve been to hiroshima, i recommend a visit to nagasaki’s museum as well. there’s a very easy path to the hypocenter, and from there you can walk to the peace park itself. at the park i met a bomb survivor who was telling his story. he worked at the arms plant and was one of only two employees to survive the bomb. he asked if i was american and i said yes, then he asked me to water some plants together in a show of unity and peace. i definitely cried a lot when i was done and had to sit down for a while to calm down lol.

after that i went back to the confucius shrine and pretended to understand the museum because it was all in japanese lol. there were lots of cool vases from various dynasties in china. the shrine itself is beautiful and vibrant. in the grounds, there are life-size statues of confucius’ 72 disciples. after that, more chinatown lol.

that evening i had some extra time, so i took a walk along dejima wharf and the port of nagasaki. there are some restaurants in this area and some cool boats to see, plus you can check out the bridge, inasayama, and the ferry.

and that was that! overall i’m glad i went because now it is very apparent i will not be able to go anywhere again for a long time. the next month, december, cases really skyrocketed and now in january we are in a state of emergency. the decision to go to nagasaki was a hard one, and i was anxious about it, but in the end, it was the one that worked for me.