Nagasaki - Mar 17

Thank goodness I'm finally up to date with the blog. Today we had a Japanese breakfast in the ryokan again. Fish, miso soup, rice, pickles, tofu for breakfast is getting old. I want yogurt and blueberries. After breakfast we went to the Nagasaki Peace Park and Museum. The museum was excellent, including a mock-up of the bomb that was HUGE! The peace park included a black monolith marking the hypocenter of the blast, and a huge statue meditating on peace, and the bomb, and the victims of it (photos). We went to Nagasaki's Chinatown for lunch, and had a couple of Nagasaki Chinese / Japanese fusion dishes. After lunch we went to Dejima, which was a man-made island in the port of Nagasaki where the only remaining Westerners lived and traded during Japan's two centuries of isolation. The island has now been joined to the mainland, and has residences and warehouses, etc. with displays in them. Today it included a number of young women in their rent-a-kimono outfits. Finally we went up the hill to Glover Gardens. There was a great view from the top, including The Queen Elizabeth in the harbour. We had been running into English tourists and tour groups all day (which is a change, we have seen few other white foreigners in our travels around these Southern islands.) Glover Gardens is on the hill where Western residents settled down after Japan's period of isolation ended, and includes a variety of residences of the early Westerners in Nagasaki. We were tired after the park and took a cab back to the ryokan. Then we searched out Western food for supper (a McDonald's hamburger has never tasted so good,)