Today our cruise takes us to Nagasaki. It’s a place none of us have to before, so we are all looking forward to the visit. After our now-routine breakfast on board we disembark the boat and make our way through the pretty port of Nagasaki. As Nagasaki is the other nuclear bombing site, our family is curious to see how the event is memorialized here. We hop onboard one of the city trams and make our way to the Peace Park.
Nagasaki Peace Park
The Nagasaki Peace Park sits atop a hill and there is a series of escalators that you need to reach the top. Once at the top you arrive at an area called the Zone of Wishes. It houses a number of monuments from around the world with a theme of a wish for peace. The monuments include the Fountain of Peace, the Bells of Nagasaki and the Site of the Nagasaki Prison Urakami Branch Office.
Peace Memorial Statue
One of the most striking monuments is the Peace Memorial Statue and the Tower of Paper Cranes. The statue is very unique and sits prominently at the centre of the park. The statue has the right hand pointing to the bomb and the left hand towards peace. Right beside the statue is the Tower of paper cranes. It’s a sheltered tower with colourful hanging paper cranes inside it. The entire monument and park is very different from the Hiroshima Peace Park and offers a bit of a different perspective to that one. We spend an hour or two walking around the park to take it all in before heading back down the escalators.
Hypocenter Monument
Across the street from the peace park is the Hypocenter Monument. This is “ground zero” of the atomic bomb blast. The bomb detonated in the air above this point and there are circular rings that emanate outwards from the monument. Seeing and being at this point brings about a heavier feeling and we spend some time to explore the area. There are other monuments along with an area that allows for you to get to the actual ground level of the blast. From there you can kind of see the debris that has formed an elevated ground level.
Ringer Hut
After visiting the atomic bomb sites, we decide to get some lunch. One of the signature dishes of Nagasaki is Nagasaki Champon. Champon is a version of ramen where the pork and vegetables are stir fried, then soup is added and finally the noodles are added. It’s unique as everything is cooked in a single pan/pot. A popular chain that serves this is Ringer Hut and we visit a nearby mall to try it. We all order Champon along with gyozas. Ringer hut also has a non-soup version and for variety I decide to try it. I really like Champon in both forms! It feels like a lovely comfort food and I would very much like to have this again. Hopefully I can find something like this at home in the near future!
Back to the Boat
After lunch, we did a little shopping in the mall before slowly making our way back to our cruise ship. As Nagasaki is our last port in Japan all the cruise ship passengers are required to go through exit immigration. This leads to a bit of a line when reboarding the ship. But after about 20 minutes we’re able to reboard our boat and settle down for the trip over to South Korea!
Evening aboard the Westerdam
With everyone relaxed and settled down, we head back up to the games room and play some Mahjong together for a few hours. Eventually it’s time to set sail, but not without giving us some lovely views of the port of Nagasaki before we leave.
We will be sailing overnight towards Busan in South Korea. So we are all excited to be visiting a new country and a new city to most of us!