Day 8 --- Nagasaki

We started the day with painful immigration at 7:30 am. Since we arrived from Korea we had to endure Japanese immigration a second time (first was arrival from LAX). After breakfast, we left the ship and walked to the nearest tram stop and after an easy transfer to a second tram, we arrived at the Peace Park. Lovely. The central point is a massive “Peace Statue”. There are also many other sculptures – gifts from other countries to commemorate those who died and suffered and to urge for world peace. The Polish gift is a statue of a flower growing out of rubble and stone. We stood at ground zero marked .by a column from a building that survived the blast. We then went to the atomic bomb museum. It was very interesting and very well presented, but the amount of detailed information was overwhelming. From the tram window on the way to the park we saw a store that was recommended to us by our table mate Kathy – Uniqlo. So on the way back to the city center we took a tram to the Cocowalk shopping mall and went to Uniqlo. It was a great store and we bought a bunch of things. Then we took a tram again to the center and walked along the river to see the landmark spectacle bridge and then Glover Park with mansions of western residents of Nagasaki from the Meiji era. Unfortunately it was terribly hot with 100% humidity and we opted out of this outdoor museum. On our departure from the ship we saw a brass plaque that we thought was funny but we forgot to take a picture of it. On our way back to the ship we spent 15 minutes looking for it to no avail. But we found a sign that said exactly the same thing: “CATHORIC CHURCH”. Overall, Nagasaki is our favorite city so far. It has a spectacular setting on many hills and it looks a bit like San Francisco. It is also very easy to navigate with well marked trams and many signes in English, unlike other Japanese cities. People are also exceptionally friendly here.