7/10-13 Fukuoka and Nagasaki

A while back I decided that it might be a worthwhile trip to go visit Kyushu while I was in Japan. I had to come up with places to visit, it was either Kagoshima in the south or Nagasaki in the north. Nagasaki won because that meant I could visit my good ole' pal Taichiro. He is an alumni who studied abroad at Sac State and visits every now and then. He currently lives and works in Fukuoka, the largest city on the island of Kyushu and only a 50 minute flight from Matsuyama.

When I proposed this idea to the study abroad group, there were a few interested. One of them dropped out, unfortunately, but that meant we still had a couple going. Three of us! Kim, Ashild, and myself! I had asked Gemini AI to plan the trip for us to get the best experience in each city.

The plan was to leave Thursday afternoon, skipping class on Friday, and return on Sunday.

7/10

On Thursday the three of us met up at the Matsuyama airport and arrived into the hazy Fukuoka airport just before 4 PM. We took the subway to the massive Hakata train station, and from there we went to check into our respective hotels. After putting everything away we were recommended to head to the Nakasu island/district downtown which hosts quite many food stalls that make it a great tourist or local experience. What we did not expect to find, however, was a massive festival parade. They were carrying mikoshi throughout the district in preparation for some Summer festival. You can see below.

Kim went to go get his own dinner, so Ashild and I went to a very famous joint, the ORIGINAL Ichiran Ramen House. You see, Kyushu tonkotsu ramen is famous throughout Japan, and this chain, Ichiran, has locations throughout the country. Their largest and first location is right here in the Nakasu district of Fukuoka. We climbed some stairs up through their souvenir shop where we ordered our food through a machine and received tickets. There were a few people in line, but pretty soon we were led to some seats. It was interesting, as in we were each at our own "individual" stall on a long bar, but there were walls so you couldn't see the person next to you or the staff in front of you. You would just give them a sheet with each item you want checked, or in our case just hand the receipt to a pair of hands with no face. After a while you should get your food.

I ordered their famous tonkotsu ramen and a ramune to go with it. On the back of the chopstick wrapper there was another sheet you could fill out for more noodles. It was impressive how everything worked there.

Afterwards we decided to go meet Kim in a shopping center called "Canal City" and unfortunately had to go walk past all of the delicious smelling Nakasu food stalls, even though they were calling out for me! There were tons of fancy stores there an tourists as well. We went into a Shonen Jump! store which sold tons of manga and associated goods. But it turned out that we made it just in time for a water show. You can watch it below.

After enjoying our time there we went to Hakata station, and went all the way up to the roof to enjoy the sunset. It was awesome looking out from how high up we were. Just when it turned evening, we went down to the first floor where Ashild recommended we try a boba place called Gong Cha. I honestly don't remember what I got, but there is a photo. It was like a craft/specialty Chinese-styled drink shop. Then we all went to our hotels to sleep. We waved goodbye to Kim, because he wouldn't be going to Nagasaki, he was staying in Fukuoka.

7/11

In the morning we went to Hakata Station, where we were going to take the new Kyushu shinkansen line (bullet train) to Nagasaki. It's kind of weird, because it's not fully complete yet. So we take a fast "regular" train to a station in the middle of nowhere to hop onto the newest high speed train line in Japan. I was kind of worried, because the tickets we bought for some reason didn't match up to the train we were riding, but the ticket inspector punched our tickets and paid us no mind. In a really small town with a gorgeous hot spring hotel we traded our regular train for the high speed train. There was actually no one else inside the cars except for the two of us. Everything was really new and it felt really clean.

Likely due to the high-speed nature of the train, we arrived at Nagasaki station before we even knew it. We locked up our things and headed to the first AI recommended destination, Dejima.

Dejima is the only neighborhood where westerners were able to live in Japan from the mid-1600s until the Meiji restoration in the mid-1800s. In those times, it really was an island, but now urban sprawl had covered the water until this place connected to the mainland. It was really interesting seeing the mix of Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese items in there. Rooms would look Japanese, but have "wallpaper" on the paper walls and sliding-glass windows while wooden chairs adorned the sides of the room. They also had on display some of the items the Dutch East India Company would come to trade. Talk about fancy trinkets oh-my-gosh.

From there we walked five minutes to our next destination, Nagasaki Chinatown. It was pretty cool, but very small. It was just 2 blocks. Ashild and I went into a place to try sara-udon (plate noodles) a Nagasaki staple. It was really good and one of the top three foods I had in Japan!

Next up we were going to the Oura Cathedral, and it turned out that the paths we were taking to get there were popular. They were the "Jewish steps" and the "Dutch Slope." Those were some totally residential neighborhood areas that were really steep. But no matter where I went, it kept reminding me of San Francisco. Probably due to the steep paths and bay in the middle of it all.

Oura Cathedral is the oldest Christian church in Japan, and between that and the Urakami cathedral, there is a larger-than-average Christian community in Nagasaki. This was due to the Portuguese who came by hundreds of years ago. But in the 19th century, missionaries came back to revive the town's churches. There was a long staircase in front of the church doors, and it had a really impressive design. One thing that surprised me was the little mascot of the Holy See for the World Expo: Luce. There was a little cutout at the front steps. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll just have to go there for yourself! The size of the church was like a medium-sized church here in the US, but man that is still really big for Japan.

We went around to the church museum, which detailed its history but also of the 26 Martyrs of Japan. It was really interesting, but because we weren't allowed to take pictures, I unfortunately don't have anything to go off of.

We went to the little gift shop and then were off on our way to the next stop. We were going to the Glover Garden. Another one of the AI recommended spots. In summary, it was a garden filled with Instagram photo opportunities on the former grounds of a rich Scottish merchant. He operated a hotel for foreigners at the turn of the 20th century, and took a liking to the play Madame Butterfly to where he had statues molded of the actors and placed them in the garden. They had repurposed some of the buildings to show off local parade floats and festival equipment. There was another exhibit on Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) that lay south of the city. It's kind of like Alcatraz in that it's a small island that housed tons of people and is now just decaying concrete.

We went back to our respective hotels, taking the marvelous Nagasaki streetcar, and rested for a bit. I looked around for places for dinner, and we decided to go try "stamina chicken bowls." Man, this place was such a "man's place." It was all like Route 66 themed with tons of tv's playing comedy shows and almost everyone there was a dude. We bought our order tickets on a machine outside for the "stamina bowl." I was absolutely starving. We went and sat down at the bar, and were given a cup of water with a refill jug. When I went to ask the staff for more water, he just ignored me. But eventually he got us some more. We got our food, and man was that good. There was so much, that I was worried I wouldn't be able to eat all of it. It was a grill chicken and onion stir-fry with karaage on top of rice with a poached egg in the middle. Apparently it's called "stamina" because it's so full of nutrients that you get your stamina back.

It was night, but since it was a short walk, we decided to go check out the Spectacles Bridge. It was several hundred years old but because of the shape of the arches underneath, people thought it looked like glasses and thus refer to it as the "spectacles" bridge. There were many other bridges on that river, all being hundreds of years old. But the coolest part was that we were allowed to go down and walk across steps in the water. Between the steps I found a world of nightcrawlers. Mainly shrimp with super long front arms that looked like crabs.

On our way back to the hotel I grabbed a "Coolish" ice cream pouch that some kids told me to try. Pretty soon after that I was off to bed.

7/12

Our main stop today was to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. I knew that we were gonna have another long day. We went over to the street car stop, and waited, and waited, and waited (cause we were super early). Eventually we got on, but it was packed with people and especially schoolkids. We waited until we got to the closest stop for the museum, and then had to trek up this massive hill. When we got inside, it seemed really quiet and the two desk clerks were gossiping. 

We each bought tickets and headed into the actual exhibit. The first room was large, we found ourselves surrounded by brick and mangled steel. At the end of the room was a replica of the walls of the Urakami cathedral. There were melted rosaries and crumbled statues of Christian saints. The next room explained the bomb, what happened, and had various small artifacts.

I don't remember too much after that, mainly because we weren't allowed to take photos. But there were more artifacts and information on the wartime Japanese military, some on the post-war nuclear arms race, and the subsequent nuclear de-arming. There was a little gift shop, so I bought a little peace pin. 

From there we headed to the Bomb Hypocenter Memorial, which was a brick plaza that dipped in the middle where a large obelisk stood. It was surrounded by trees and was very peaceful.

Next up  was the Peace Memorial park. A large blue statue stood at the end and I don't think I can describe it any better than the Wikipedia description:

"At the park's north end is the 10-meter-tall Peace Statue created by sculptor Seibo Kitamura of Nagasaki Prefecture. The statue's right hand points to the threat of nuclear weapons while the extended left hand symbolizes eternal peace. The mild face symbolizes divine grace and the gently closed eyes offer a prayer for the repose of the bomb victims' souls. The folded right leg and extended left leg signify both meditation and the initiative to stand up and rescue the people of the world. The statue represents a mixture of western and eastern art, religion, and ideology. "

Around the rest of the park stood statues made by various artists from other countries in solidarity. Many were from countries that no-longer exist, such as the former Soviet bloc.

From there we walked over to the other large cathedral, the Urakami Cathedral. At that point in the day, man it was hot. Some of the ruins from the original building were still remaining out front, and the current building is a complete replica of the original. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but man it was huge. The inside was larger than any Spanish Mission I've been to in California. We went into their little museum and folded some cranes, then left. There wasn't much to see there.

Ashild wanted to check out the One-Legged torii gate which is still there as a bomb memorial. But although it was not in the vicinity, we had to walk south. It was probably 15-20 minutes. Well it was still there, and was impressive. The bomb blast had blown half of the massive stone gate away. We went past it to the office and a tree. It was very pleasant.

While we were walking back I totally needed water, so I got a fruit-flavored one from a vending machine and chugged it immediately. It was hot and my legs were tired. But we had to press on! No quitting!

We decided to get some champon, which is another Nagasaki dish that is similar to the previous sara-udon. However this was in a mall. We went and explored the mall, taking a peek through a kids toy store, a gachapon store, and then going to order. Man it was crowded in there, but that food was just what I needed. Champon and gyoza, "stamina" food so I could get my stamina back. That was our 2pm late lunch. From there we were done, so Ashild headed back but I went to the 26 Martyrs Museum and Monument.

Wikipedia described the event as:

"The 26 Martyrs of Japan were a group of Catholics (Japanese and foreign missionaries) who were executed by crucifixion on 5 February 1597, in Nagasaki, Japan." 

It was by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruling shogun of Japan during the Sengoku period. Supposedly there was a Spanish ship that arrived, and the drunk sailors shared that they use their religion to take over and conquer foreign nations. The museum was fairly large, and part of a different local Catholic church. Again, I wasn't really allowed to take many pictures so I unfortunately don't have very many. There were many articles there that described the events that happened. There was a large memorial on the second floor, but I couldn't quite understand what it was there for.

When I was done Ashild and I met back up at the train station for dinner. I had found a place that has another Nagasaki specialty, "Turkish Rice." Now, nothing about the dish was western in any way. There was some kind of yellow rice, but on top of it was an egg omelette making it Japanese omurice. There were fried karaage chicken, some ketchup spaghetti, and a small salad with egg salad on top of it. It was good! But definitely not Turkish lol.

We were able to get another Nagasaki specialty at the train station, this was the Nagasaki Mirukuzeki (milkshake). It's a really old fashioned way of making a milkshake, but man that was AMAZING. It had a really good vanilla flavor and was more like a thicker slushy. I bought some souvenirs and we went back to end the day.

7/13

I woke up, threw on some clothes, put my stuff in my bag, and checked out from the hotel. From there I bought the usual convenience store breakfast: a boss coffee, a chocolate danish, and a small protein drink. I met up with Ashild, we bought our shinkansen tickets, and were on our way.

We arrived at Hakata station in Fukuoka at around 10:30 and waited for the other half of our group: Kim and Taichiro. I think it was that Taichiro arrived first, and after some back on forth on Instagram, he found us. I was ecstatic to see him, as it had been a long time since I first met him at Sac State. Since he was already graduated and working, that would mean he is my senpai. We took a picture and were excitedly talking about tons of things. I was so glad to see that he was wearing a San Francisco Giants hat instead of an LA Dodgers one. Pretty soon Kim found us, and we were on our way. 

Taichiro was taking us to a very famous shrine called Dazaifu Tenmangu. It is a massive shrine in Fukuoka that is focused on education. So students from all over go there to get good luck charms (omamori) for success in school. 

When we arrived at the station, it was already shrine themed with red wooden fencing everywhere. Much nicer than bland concrete. As soon as we turned the corner to get onto the main shrine street, Taichiro told us that we needed to try "umegae mochi" which was a local specialty plum mochi with a crispy crust. From there we walked straight, through the shrine torii gate, and appeared in front of a brass bull. Apparently it was good luck to touch it, so we took pictures of ourselves doing so. We hung around the shrine and took tons of pictures. Right outside of the shrine building entrance there was a pergola with tons of fuurin wind chimes hanging. This was what I was trying to build for Japan Club!

Inside the shrine there was the "honden" main building with what looked like a circular roof, and there were tons of plants growing on top of it too! They had a huge omamori selection and when we were done we headed back out. Kim convinced us to head to the fancy Starbucks en route and there we had some seasonal grape soda. It was like a lightly flavored "refresher" so it was pretty nice. 

Pretty soon it actually started pouring rain, so we tried to take shelter at the station, but we needed to decide on a place to grab lunch. So, we just decided to head to the udon shop right next to us. The shop owner actually was trying to entice people to come inside. I ordered some meat udon, which turned out to be pretty decent.I didn't get too much, so I was surprised when Kim ordered a lot.

When we were done, the rain had let up a little bit but it was still coming down. Yet we still waited at the station for a train, and that was for what felt like forever. But eventually one did come, and we took it to Hakata station. From there we had to say goodbye to Taichiro, and the rest of us headed to the airport where we flew back home. We arrived at a reasonable time of around 7pm and I hitched the train back. I had Domino's for dinner.