Nagasaki 11th,
Japan 2017-2018

Very early in the morning, I am ready to take the train to Nagasaki. Quite often Shinkansen spends much of the ride time going thru a number of tunnels. But the railway to Nagasaki is a landscape treasure. The train speeds past towns and mountains and it gets to the coast offering great views of them all.

Once in the city, I notice how ubiquitous are trams here. Different lines serviced by colorfully painted vehicles can be found all along the city.

Slowly everything comes back to live. With a population of half a million people is no small town but it feels small and cozy compared with the megaurbanizations of Osaka and Tokyo.

My first stop in the city is the Sōfuku-ji temple. The temple is a Zen temple build by the Chinese monk Chaonian in 1629.

Afterwards, I go to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. It is a must see in the city as much for the historical importance of the vents that it presents, as a place to reflect about human nature. The city itself has healed to the point that it is difficult to find any scars.

One of the places were can be seen the effects of the atomic bomb is the one-legged arch, a torii gate that lacks one of its legs as it was blown away by the blast.

"The well-known one-legged torii or one-legged arch (一本柱鳥居) was one of the unanticipated results of the atomic bomb blast on August 9, 1945. The epicenter of the bomb's destructive force was located approximately 800 meters from the shrine (in the right background of the image on the left). One support column was knocked down; but the other somehow remained standing, keeping the gate upright. The force of the shockwave rotated the torii about 30 degrees on its pedestal base." Sannō Shrine. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Today has been a quite intensive day of traveling and sightseeing. I finish it with a quick visit to the supermarket.