Nagasaki

Well, if all days were like today, I could be hooked on this traveling solo thing. This morning I booked an overnight bus ticket north for tomorrow to the 16th, then rented a bike and accepted the boshi (hat) the hostel owner offered, & took off with maps, money, and my camera to explore this historical port city.

I went to the hypocenter of the atomic bomb that was dropped almost to the day 63 years ago, to the Peace Park, (I am protecting my scalp & face from the intense sun, but lesson learned: put sunscreen on my arms - tonight they're red & hurt!)

This is the fountain in Peace park & you can kinda see the blue statue through the middle of the fountain.A gift from Japan's oldest sister-city relationship: St Paul, Minnesota! I had no idea Nagasaki & St Paul were sisters!the Urakami Cathedral, ate a picnic lunch (including this funny "Manhattan" chocolate-like dessert with a USA flag on the package!), and meandered through the a-bomb museum (and I'll never forget how this picture & story by Joe O'Donnell impacted me).

Then I biked to the train station to get a ticket for part-way tomorrow and as expected, had to settle for unreserved, because it's one of Japan's busiest travel weeks due to the 3 day holiday, O-bon.

I stopped at a torii arch (leading to Sanno Shinto shrine) that somehow 1/2 survived the bomb -

I biked south a little further to see the site of the former Dutch Factory on Dejima. I'm learning so much history on this trip! When Christianity was banned in Japan, all the foreign Christians were ordered to live on this man-made island. Very interesting! And it's fun cause there's a handful of guys from the Netherlands staying at the same hostel as me.

From Dejima, I got directions to Chinatown (that's only about 2 blocks wide) to sample the local dish, "Champo noodles." The small friendly restaurant I chose seemed family-run & offered a bowl of Champo for the exact amount of money I had in my wallet (the train ticket drained me of all but 10 bucks I carried with me!).

Anyway, my dinner was delicious & I got to watch some Olympics as I ate! :) When I paid, the male cashier asked if I lived in Japan & was curious about the foreigner who chatted in basic Japanese with the staff. I asked his age & he said in Japanese, "How old do I look?" I'd asked because I thought he seemed way too young to be working so I told him the truth, "Ah, junior high school?!" He laughed and said, "No, no! I'm MUCH older than that! I'm 20!!"

I embarrassingly apologized, paid, thanked everyone for a tasty dinner, and got out of there! I felt bad for awhile, and even wished I'd thought faster to pretend I'd mixed up my Japanese junior high for senior high, but then realised, "Well, he asked me to guess...and I answered honestly!" :)

The sun was setting across the ocean as I biked along the Nakashima river toward my hostel. I stopped at the "Spectacles Bridge" - which confused me because I had only considered this definition of spectacle: "a public show or display, esp. on a large scale: The coronation was a lavish spectacle." Not until I read the sign in Japanese did I understand the name referred to this definition: "eyeglasses." teehee ;)

Now I'm cozy in the commons area of the hostel, catching up with a hot cup of tea and a televised Olympic baseball game in the background.