Saturday 9th March
Today we have come to our second Japanese port, Nagasaki. The weather here is really beautiful. After expecting it to be cold this early in the year, today it has been sunny and very warm. We started this morning by buying a day pass for the tram as it is a very easy and cheap way to get about the city.
We went first to the Peace Park in the north of the city. It contains the hypocentre of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on 9th August 1945 killing over 40,000 people outright and many more thousands in the months and years after. The hypocentre is marked by a black monolith and a black casket that contains all the names of those who died. In the upper part of the park there are lots of different memorials that have been donated by different cities worldwide to promote world peace. The main statue is the one in the photo. The Peace Statue was completed in 1955 . The man's raised arm points to the threat of nuclear weapons and the outstretched arm symbolises peace. There is also a lovely peace fountain. We saw the Flame of Peace - special permission was given for the flame lit on Mt Olympus to be sent to Nagasaki and the pledge is that the flame is kept burning until all nuclear weapons are abolished. The Peace Park is a very moving place and as well as remembering the victims of the atomic bomb it is also devoted to promoting world peace.
After leaving the park we travelled to Dejima which was a small island created in the1600's to isolate westerners from the Japanese. Only a few Japanese were allowed to go onto Dejima island to trade with the Dutch merchants in those days. We then went to 'Spectacle Bridge' built in 1634 by a Chinese Buddhist monk. It's called this because the two arches and their reflections look like a pair of glasses. In the water here were some enormous koi carp.
We had a lovely day in Nagasaki and just before we sailed out we had a Japanese youth drumming group performing on the quayside. They were really good and very energetic.