The famed 眼鏡橋 (meganebashi, spectacles bridge) in Nagasaki
I have actually been feeling under the weather the past couple of weeks. As much as I love the change of seasons, it’s not being really friendly to my health. I’ve been ridden with a bad throat for more than a week now, and I don’t see a recovery in sight, and it’s making me rather miserable. Rather than wallow in self-pity (to not go overboard anyway), I shall enter a rather boring entry about my trip to Nagasaki.
This trip was my first trip to Kyushu and it was taken during a long weekend in October. No idea what inclined us to Nagasaki, it might be some variety programme on TV or another, but we decided to see what that prefecture was all about. A long Shinkansen ride that started from Shin-Osaka on a Saturday morning later, we arrived in the heart of Nagasaki at about 4 in the afternoon.
Coincidentally, we arrived on the last day of the Kunchi Festival, a big and important festival for the Nagasaki Prefecture. This festival involves street processions and performances centering around floats shaped like ships. Robust men carry these floats (which look like they weigh quite a bit) and they dance and spin around with the floats on their shoulders. We witnessed a little bit of this in front of the train station when we arrived, but it was hell crowded so I didn’t get a picture. The pictures of floats above were taken when we visited a museum that told us the history of the whole festival.
Nagasaki has a lot of Chinese influence, I guess from a lot of Chinese settlers in the past, Nagasaki is a port town after all. As part of the Kunchi Festival, there are dragon dances not unlike the ones we see during Chinese New Year back home. My friends and I saw the dances as we ventured about the night strip to get some dinner. Like back home, the dragon was dancing through the various shops and restaurants to bless the businesses. Again, it was too crowded and too dark to get good pictures, so here’s an exhibit in the museum as a sample.
Nagasaki town is a quiet place with nothing much to see and do. Regrettably we were only in Nagasaki for 2 days, minus travel time, and we couldn’t really explore the lovely nature, both land and sea, that the Prefecture offers. However, I was happy enough to have seen the 眼鏡橋 (maganebashi, spectacles bridge). I’ve seen it countless times on TV, and the real thing is pretty lovely. The city lights up this bridge at night, and it is a pretty romantic sight. Just doesn’t make for good pictures on a crappy point and shoot camera.
We managed to walk around Glover Garden, a quaint attraction atop of hill that brings visitors through the history of foreign settlement in Nagasaki. That’s the view from atop the garden. I’m not a history buff as I said before, so I wasn’t intrigued enough to snap shots. One thing to probably say is that Nagasaki was the victim of the second atomic bomb after Hiroshima. It doesn’t get as much attention though. Nagasaki feels a lot like Hiroshima, with the main mode of public transport being street trams as well, just not as polished and shiny. I didn’t bother to go to the peace museum this time like I did when I went to Hiroshima. I figured it was going to be more or less the same. ET went though, but she’s interested, I’m not.
A friend who is a Nagasaki JET told us that Nagasaki is actually the poorest prefecture in Japan. I haven’t really verified that information, but it certainly did feel like it in some parts.
On our last night in Nagasaki, we decided the paint the town a little red. We started off with dinner at Dejima Wharf. Dejima Wharf shares a similar concept with Clarke Quay in Singapore, but on a much tinier scale. Unlike Clarke Quay, it was quiet and calm, the boardwalk looking very pretty with fairy lights at night. We had dinner at a Spanish fusion restaurant. ET was craving paella, as you see in the picture above.
Our research on the clubbing scene in Nagasaki brought us to Ayer’s Rock, a teeny tiny club in a basement of an obscure mixed-purpose building. It was a dingy place, the the crowd wasn’t what we are used to, having been to clubs in Tokyo and Osaka. But, we hung around for a bit, and as the night progressed, we were pleasantly surprised that it was an underground freestyle rap club. They were having a little rap competition/showdown the night we were there, and it was interesting. At least now I can say I’ve been to one of those.
Food-wise, Nagasaki, with its Chinese influence, is famous for chanpon (ちゃんぽん) noodles, which is kinda like ban mian in Singapore, but not really. I will just say that you’re not missing out much if you don’t try it. But try it if you’re craving Chinese food. 皿うどん (sala udon), as pictured above, is also famous. I ate this, cos I was craving 生面, what I used to eat often at home.
Horse meat sashimi. Not that it’s particular to Nagasaki. It was just that we were in an izakaya that served it, so we decided to try it. Nice, I must say.
For the western influence part of Nagasaki, there is the Castella, which is essentially a butter pound cake, in my opinion. It was nice, not phenomenal, and I think Sara Lee does it better. Whoops!
The trip ended with lunch, motsu nabe（もつ鍋; motsu is an innard part of the pig I think), at the Nagasaki train station. It was an alright trip, nothing too spectacular. Always good to spend time with E and ET though. We’ll just have to think of another place to go in Kyushu for the next time.
Yes, I do realise that I did talk about food, again. *shrugs*
