Fukuoka Trip: Day 1 - Nagasaki

Back in November, we had two 3 day weekends off from school due to a national holiday and a school holiday. This proved to be the perfect time to plan another trip out of Tokyo for a few days. I had originally planned to visit Seoul, Korea with Nick from TUJ, but after hearing a lot of good things about Hong Kong, I was interested in going there instead. In the end, I decided to keep things domestic and visit my Japanese friend from Georgetown who had shown me around Osaka during my first visit over New Years.
Masahiro Katsuragi

It wasn't easy tracking him down at first; he got a new cell phone number and I couldn't reach him by email so I called his home phone. I managed to communicate to his mother (who doesn't speak English), that I was calling for Masa and she gave me his new number and also told me that he moved to Fukuoka for his new job. After graduating from Georgetown after the Fall 07 semester, Masa got a job with the Bank of Japan (Japan's central bank, like the US Federal Reserve). As a researcher, Masa's primary task is to report on consumer behavior and trends - to do so he mentioned that he would go to different department stores to observe and interview people. Anyway, after speaking with him on the phone he said he would be happy to show me around for the weekend and visit some new places.

Flying out of Tokyo's Haneda Airport, it took about 2 hours to land in Fukuoka (the largest city in Japan's southern island - Kyushu). I met Masa quickly after arriving and we rented a car right away to begin the adventure. Not wasting any time or leaving anything to chance, Masa had planned out a 3 day itinerary of places to go and things to do - while also booking hotels for us both nights. I was really impressed and I appreciated the work he put into making the most out of our time together.

Tokyo's Haneda Airport

To start things off, we drove out to Nagasaki, the infamous city where the second atomic bomb was dropped. Our first stop was the atomic bomb memorial museum which had some really horrific photos of the aftermath. I had never really seen much of the effects before and it was hard to imagine that most of the city was completely wiped out in a matter of seconds.

atomic bomb museum

Right next to the museum, there is a small park area surrounding the hypocenter of the exact place the bomb exploded. At the entrance of the park stood a small sculpture depicting the many people who suffered from the bombing as well as the following radiation.
The closest building to the explosion was actually a Christian Church and the only thing that remains is a lone wall column still standing today.

At the hypocenter itself, there stands a giant copper sculpture pointing up to the sky where the bomb came from, while also pointing forward - warning future generations to remember what happened.

The city of Nagasaki itself has been completely rebuilt and has resumed its past role as a center for shipping as well as ship-building. Looking at downtown, if you didn't know any better you would have no idea that an atomic bomb exploded there around 70 years ago.

On the path up to Glover Garden

Staying in Nagasaki for the entire day, we then moved to visit the picturesque Glover Garden. A small community of western houses and inhabitants, Glover Garden was started by a Scottish entrepreneur in the 1860s when Thomas Glover came to Nagasaki. Glover established a successful coal and shipbuilding operation and made Nagasaki his permanent residence, eventually starting a family there. Due to his financial success, his home and the area has some of the best views of Nagasaki harbor and is a favorite tourist destination.

halfway to the top

Some other famous foreign inhabitants of the Glover community would establish Japan's first beer manufacturing company - Kirin, as well as a popular fast food noodle shop - Ringer Hut. Here are some photos at the top right next to Glover's house itself.



We finished the day at one of Nagasaki's brand new onsens (hot springs bathhouse). Once again it was really relaxing and both of us felt so refreshed afterwards. I'll never say no to an onsen but I think Masa especially enjoyed it after being stuck in the office from 8 am until 8 pm during most of the week. We got dinner afterwards ironically at Ringer Hut which is known for having dishes influenced by Nagasaki's local cuisine.

Finally we checked into our hotel and walked around downtown and near Chinatown for 40 minutes before getting some sleep after a very busy day.