Nagasaki - The Birthplace of Champon

After arriving in Fukuoka from the trip to Okinawa on March 17, 2011, we stayed in Fukuoka for one night before taking a bus from Fukuoka to Nagasaki on March 18, 2011.

This was the second time I had been to Nagasaki. I first visited Nagasaki while I was an undergraduate short term exchange student back in 2006. I posted about that visit here and here in 2006. (Note: it is interesting to see what I wrote back then as a someone who was new to Japan compared to now where I feel like an old Japan hand)

Nagasaki, in recent history, is infamous for being the second place ever to be bombed with an atomic bomb. The first place was Hiroshima, also in western Japan. However, long before the atomic bombing, in the pre-modernization era feudal era, Nagasaki was one of the first and only places where foreign influences entered Japan. Especially Chinese and other European influences.

One of the modern symbols of Nagasaki. At the Peace Park. I personally think it looks really weird.

Kagoshima Airport, Kyushu Japan

Happy (Belated) New Year!

It seems that after launching this blog way back in Dec. 2005 back as a student exchange student, I finally get page loads each day. Thank goodness for that post on fixing the Compaq V2030US laptop!

Here are some more new "old" pictures of provincial domestic Japanese airports.

I used this airport from my trip to Kagoshima

Kagoshima in April: Rainy and Muggy

Continuing with the posting of photos that are more than 1 year old.

This post continues from my post on Kumamoto on April 4, 2006

I visited Kagoshima on April 5, 2006.

When I arrived it was raining all day (just like in Vancouver) so I did not take a lot of pictures. A lot of the places that I walked by, I didn't take any pictures of...

Starting with the arrival by Kyushu Shinkansen "Tsubame" at Kagoshima-Chuo Station on the night of April 4, 2006.

Kumamoto: A Town with a Castle and a Garden

I visited Kumamoto on April 4, 2006. It was one of the stops on my Kyushu trip. I arrived via the train from Fukuoka.

Some facts about the city courtesy of japan-guide.com and jnto.go.jp:

Kumamoto, situated roughly at the center of Kumamoto Prefecture, is the administrative and economic center of the prefecture. From the early 17th century to the end of the 19th century, it was prosperous as a castle town. Shira-kawa River and its branches run through the downtown area around the Kumamoto Castle. Therefore the city is called "City of Woods and Fresh Water".

Kumamoto is also a major city on Kyushu's west coast with a population of 650,000. The city is most famous for its castle, which is one of Japan's largest.

Kumamoto Castle:

Kumamoto Castle was constructed by the Kato Clan in 1607. Half a century later, it was handed over to the Hosokawa Clan, which ruled the surrounding fief from there for over 200 years until the end of the feudal age.

In 1877, Kumamoto Castle became the site of Japan's last civil war, when an army of former samurai under Saigo Takamori unsuccessfully rose against the new Meiji government. Large parts of the castle were destroyed in that civil war.

Most of the present castle buildings, including the large and small castle towers, are reconstructions, dating from the 1960s. The interior of the castle towers is a modern museum.

(from japan-guide.com)

Sakura in full bloom at the castle grounds:

Fukuoka

I visited Fukuoka, Japan on April 3, 2006:

Spring, in Japan the season of new beginnings, this is probably a new hire orientation.

Nagasaki Part 2: A-Bomb Site and Others: April. 2, 2006

(Updated: May 24, 2013 with high resolution photos)

From the Glover Garden:

(All descriptions courtesty of japan-guide.com, because I am **too lazy** to type the descriptions)

"Glover Garden is an open air museum, exhibiting mansions of former Western residents of Nagasaki. It is located on the hill where Western merchants settled down after the end of Japan's era of seclusion in the second half of the 19th century.

The exhibited buildings include the mansions of British merchants Frederick Ringer and William Alt and the former residence of Thomas Glover, a Scottish merchant. A nice panorama of the city can be enjoyed from the garden. "

Interesting animal shaped shrubs in horrible morning weather, it was already humid in April in Nagasaki.

Nagasaki Part 1: April 1, 2006

(Updated: May 24, 2013 with high resolution photos)

Introduction (courtesy of www.japan-guide.com)

Nagasaki Chinatown, also known as Shinchimachi, is Japan's oldest chinatown, established as early as the 17th century, due to the fact that Nagasaki's port remained the country's only major port opened to Chinese trade during the era of isolation.

Over the centuries, Shinchimachi's residents have given the city of Nagasaki a Chinese touch not seen in any other of Japan's major cities.

Today, Nagasaki's chinatown is well known for its many restaurants, specialized in champon, the famous local noodle dish and other Chinese or Chinese influenced dishes.

Nagasaki's Chinatown, the 3rd and last one in Japan. I can't believe that I have visited every Chinatown in Japan. They are all so clean and full of restaurants but very few "real Chinatown" shops like dirty vegetable shops and medicine shops.

Going to Chubu, Kansai and Kyushu

I am going to the above places by a combination of local/rapid train (Seishun 18 Kippu), plane, and highway bus for the next 10 days so if your wondering why there is no updates, thats why.