Nagasaki Japan.
Where to start with Nagasaki. Firstly I think it would be good to try and paint a picture of just how hot it was. The Caribbean was hot but, oh my gosh, this place has heat and humidity in equal proportions. It was energy sapping to the extreme. I think that given the conditions, the five or six miles we walked today could have been worth nine or ten. The moment you ventured out of the tight, narrow and slightly shaded streets and onto the large wide main roads, the heat hit you like a sledgehammer. Thank goodness there were plenty of tight narrow roads to explore!
 
After leaving the ship we walked for around about a mile until we reached Nagasaki train station. By that time, I think we realised that we had bitten off more than we could chew with our plan to walk all the way to the peace memorial and the epicentre of the atomic bomb blast. So...we hailed a cab, which was very cheap, and we travelled the rest of the way in air conditioned comfort. The seats of the Taxi cab were all covered with some kind of white lace seat covering. It was very quaint.
 
After arriving at the outdoor Peace memorial we took some time walking around and looking at all the statues and gifts that had been donated from countries around the world. The memorial is spread over a wide park like area and the statures are dotted around all over. They each have plaques on which identify the country who has donated them and their message of peace to Nagasaki. 
  
All of this, including the epicentre where the bomb hit was very touching but, to be honest, nothing could have prepared us for where we headed next, the museum.  
I never really knew much, knew enough about the atom bomb and what it meant for the people of Japan, in this case, Nagasaki. By the time we left the museum, we were in no doubt about what it meant and the utter devastation that it caused. I am not going to get into politics of war here or who was right and who was wrong. The museum is very much geared toward looking at the future but never forgetting what went before. The exhibits were profoundly touching and the stories of those who survived will stay with me forever.
 
What you should know is that the bomb was dropped, without warning, at 11:02 hours on the 9th of August 1945. Many of the exhibits the museum are clocks from homes outside of the epicentre which stopped at the exact moment the bomb hit. Nagasaki city, at the time, had a population of around 240,000. After the bomb, 73,884 were dead and 74,909 were injured. Those at the epicentre had absolutely zero chance of survival. Nuclear winds in excess of 170 meters per second obliterated people and buildings. The temperature within these winds was around 5000 degrees C.  
 
Some of the most poignant pictures we were shown today were of the charred remains of victims who were doing every day things when the bomb hit.  A mother and baby on a platform of a train station, a boy in the play ground of his school.  
When the blast hit, the winds and the flash of light caused shadows to be formed on hard structures that were able to withstand the force. One of the photos I saw was of a large concrete wall and on the wall was the shadow of a ladder and, next to the ladder, a shadow of a person. This had once been a person, a lookout standing next to his ladder. Neither the ladder nor he survived but the imprint both of them remained etched onto the wall forever.  
For many who survived the actual blast, death came in the weeks and months which followed. Radiation sickness took many and the effects of the radiation were felt up until the 1950s. Research now has shown that there are no real spikes in birth defects of cancers in the years after the 1950's Small mercy's I suppose.  
 
I don't want there to be a nuclear arms race because I never want to be part of a world where Nagasaki or Hiroshima could happen again.
After our trip to the museum, we caught a taxi back to the main shops and spent several hours wandering around the narrow and, thankfully more shaded streets. Still, as I tried to explain earlier, the heat was intense! Japan, we discovered, has not sold out to tourism at all. This is both a blessing and a bit of a pain in the backside! There were no souvenir shops to buy our now customary flags from, no chance of a thimble I am afraid Barbara!  
 
Still, the shops were interesting if not a tad weird. Many of them appeared to look like our own pound shops but these ones sold everything from shampoo to bicycles. Nagasaki is busy, very busy...at some points it was hard to move there were so many people around. This was fine when you were in the shade but out on the open main roads whilst you were waiting to cross, it was intense to say the least. People were super friendly though....we were standing at one zebra crossing and waiting for the green man when an old lady struck up a conversation in broken English with Dave. She was keen to know where we were from and what we thought of her city. I liked that about Nagasaki very much.  
 
After exhausting our interest in the pound style shops we made our way back to the cruise terminal. On the waterfront, we found a really nice bar which sold a massive, almost two pint, mug of lager for just a few hundred yen. It was thirsty work all that walking and so we both had one!
I forgot to mention the cats..... in the Peace Memorial Park there were loads of cats! They stuck together in a group and seemed really friendly toward the locals but slightly shy of us. None of them had any tails. I am pretty sure this is a breed thing rather than they have all lost them in fights!
 
After our lager, we returned to the cruise terminal and, inside, found a couple of the souvenir type stand we had been hunting for. (Still no thimble though!) We managed to find a cool Japanese headband thing with the rising sun on. That will do fine as a flag for the front room.
As soon as we returned to our room we changed quickly and jumped into the pool. Ahhh the relief! We enjoyed a Mojhito each before deciding that our 6am breakfast and nothing since, was not enough to have sustained our epic walking treck. I think Dave is about to pass out. So...I am going to leave you all now and find something to eat before that happens.
I will attach some photographs later but, for now....just the post because I am too hungry to faff around with my camera!
Tomorrow we are going to be at the port of Bhusan in Korea. Keep an eye out for the photographs of today later. xxxxx