Nagasaki, Unzen, Obama

We had a three-day weekend so Lori and I took a two-hour bus to Nagasaki. Since we'd both seen the Peace Park and Museum at Hiroshima we decided to forego the bomb epicenter in Nagasaki. The city is famous for other reasons, namely it's long history of being the gateway to Japan, which is reflected in the international influences in the food, religion, and architecture in the city.

This bridge is the oldest Chinese-style stone bridge in Japan and it was just down the river from our hostel.

We visited several Buddhist temples (with Shinto shrines nearby, of course) including a few that were built in the early 1600s by Chinese Buddhist missionaries. The temples were spared destruction in 1945 because Nagasaki's hills gave them protection from the bomb blast.

We splurged on a fancy shipoku lunch, a big spread of Japanese, Chinese, and Portueguese-influenced delicacies.

In Chinatown we snacked on steamed pork buns. Nagasaki is also famous for a Portuguese pound cake known as castella. The Portuguese were allowed to trade at the port of Nagasaki for only a few years before they were expelled for being too Catholic. The Japanese government did allow Dutch traders to take their place but only within the confines a small artificial island in the harbor.

These sage statues grace the courtyard of the Confucian Temple in Nagasaki. At the museum behind the shrine were several items on loan from the National Museum in Beijing, including a couple of the life-sized soldier statues from Xian.

After two nights in Nagasaki we headed east to the Shimabara Peninsula, dominated by the volcano of Mt. Unzen. Hot springs lovers have been travelling to the resort town of Unzen for centuries. Lori and I enjoyed hard-boiled eggs from the bubbling "hell pools" and relaxed in a public bath. After trying champon for lunch (Nagasaki's famous Chinese-style noodle soup) we took a bus down the mountain to the coastal hot springs resort town, Obama!
We were excited to pay homage to Obama in Obama. The town didn't seem to be cashing in on its name, except for one shop sign advertising Obama as the "champion we can believe in" (or was that "champon" soup?). Lori and I splurged and stayed in a hot springs ryokan (traditional inn) where we had a fantastic spread for dinner served in our room. After dinner we relaxed in the hot tub on the pool (overlooking the bay) then returned to our room to find our dinner cleared and our futons rolled out for bed!

We joined several naked Japanese ladies in the public bath on the bay. Actually, they joined us, after I took this photo of the empty pool!

I can't believe the election is less than a month away! I took my ballot to the consulate the other day where it was Fed-Exed for free to Oregon. If you want to know what I'm thinking and reading about regarding the election and the economy, check out my political blog, http://alispoliticalblog.blogspot.com/


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Nagasaki, Unzen, and Obama 10/12/08