Travel notes of Nagasaki: Peace Park, Urakami Cathedral and Atomic Bomb Museum

[Introduction]

I traveled to Nagasaki Prefecture for three days and two nights. The main objective was to see “Nagasaki Lantern Festival. In this article, I will write about Peace Park, Urakami Cathedral and Atomic Bomb Museum as part of day 2.

[Visit Places (series of articles)]
* Day 1 (1) Huis Ten Bosch: Flower Road and Amsterdam City etc.
* Day 1 (2) Huis Ten Bosch: Tower City and Harbor Town etc.
* Day 1 (3) Huis Ten Bosch: illumination in the evening
* Day 2 (1) Peace Park, Urakami Cathedral and Atomic Bomb Museum [This article]
* Day 2 (2) Oura Cathedral, Glover Garden, Confucian Shrine, Dutch slope and Meganebashi Bridge
* Day 2 (3) Nagasaki Lantern Festival: Shinchi Chinatown and Confucian Shrine
* Day 3 (1) Dejima and Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum and Monument
* Day 3 (2) Nagasaki Lantern Festival: Central Park
* Day 3 (3) Nagasaki Lantern Festival: Shian-bashi Bridge and Tojin Yashiki Ato

[Travel Date]
2016.02.11-13

[Main Part]

This is the 2nd day of my trip to Nagasaki. First, I rode a streetcar for 20 minutes from Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown where I stayed, and arrived at Peace Park.

By the way, the weather forecast said it would be cloudy and could sometimes rain today.

Peace Park

Peace Park was developed in 1951 to convey misery of wars and promote world peace.

The Fountain of Peace.

Peace Statue.

Origami paper cranes symbolizing hope and good luck.

Other objects donated from all over the world.

I tentatively left Peace Park and moved to a next destination.

Urakami Cathedral

The next destination was Urakami Cathedral, which was about 5 minute walk from Peace Park.

Urakami Cathedral, which was constructed in 1925, was the biggest cathedral in Asia at that time. However, it was destroyed by Atomic Bomb in 1945 and re-constructed in 1959. Visitors were allowed to enter into the church, but were prohibited from taking photos inside the building, so I just took photos of the exterior.

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum

I returned to Peace Park.

I looked at epicenter of the Nagasaki atomic-bomb blast and then,

I arrived at Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum exhibits 927 items to show tragedy of wars.

Origami paper crane.

Big panel pictures.

Fire watch-tower that was bent due to atomic bomb.

Bombed Urakami Cathedral.

I saw lots of foreign visitors as well as Japanese visitors there.

A variety of exhibits to show bombed Nagasaki city.

Exhibits about atomic bomb.

Then, I left Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum.

Nagasaki Champon for lunch

I returned to Nagasaki Shinchi Chinatown. Now it was around noon and looked for a restaurant to have a lunch.

I chose Kyokaen (京華園), which was a Chinese restaurant.

I ordered “Nagasaki Champon”, which was one of the famous local dishes in Nagasaki.

I moved outside after lunch and found it became sunny against the weather forecast.

I changed my travel plan and determined to visit South and East Yamanote area in the afternoon, which I originally planed to visit on the 3rd day, so that I can take photos there with blue sky. I will write about it in the next article.

[Closing]

That’s it for the article about Peace Park, Urakami Cathedral and Atomic Bomb Museum as part of day 2. Given our current peaceful environments, I find it difficult to imagine Japan experienced the World War II just about 70 years ago. I need to give thanks that I was brought up in an era of peace. Actually, I felt the same feeling when I visited Hiroshima last December.

In the next article, I will write about Oura Cathedral, Glover Garden, Confucian Shrine and Dutch slope as part of Day 2.