The Nagasaki Adventure!
(warning: the following content is for adults/people who don't mind excessive drinking on occasion only. You've been warned! cough! *dad* cough!)
As most people know, I went to Nagasaki with a couple of friends of mine over the first weekend in November and HAD A BLAST!!! It was so nice to be in an actual city again! I try not to think about it too much when I'm home, makes living in the inaka all the more difficult. Anyway, we left on Thursday night and took the ferry from Tomioka Port (about 30 min drive for me) to Nagasaki prefecture. (It was another 15 taxi ride into the city: totally worth it!) We decided to start the party early because none of us had had anything even remotely resembling a vacation in quite some time. My friend Sara brought some umeshu and sake, I hooked us up with snacks, and all was good! We even made friends with a nice Japanese boy with a really nice car... unfortunately, I forget his name... but he was nice!
After the ferry arrived, it only takes about an hour, we took a taxi into the city, checked into our hotel, and headed out for the night. Oh, what a night! We went out for Indian food, (a luxury for me now! There are NO restaurants in my town. Nada! Nilch! Less then nothing!) and decided to indulge in a bottle of wine to go with our food. Afterwords, we wandered down to a chill karaoke bar where the owner hooked us up with all you can drink/sing for one hour at 1500 yen. (This included taking shots of some DE-lish Chinese liqour he thought we had to try!) When our hour was up, we headed down to a "reggae" bar to decide what to do next. As luck would have it, the bartender just happened to know the woman teaching Sara and me Japanese and, in my current, ahem, "happy" state that was all it took for us to become good buddies. After a drink there, the bartender lady took us to another bar/club where we finished off our evening. The place was empty when we got there, but I didn't really care because I had that much more room to dance! They were playing reggae music all night, and by midnight the place was packed! It was a blast! We didn't make it home until 4 am!
Unfortunately, this led to a very late and subdued start on Friday. I was still ready to go go go, (NOLA, you trained me well) but my partners in crime were defintely a little slower to get going. We managed to hit up Chinatown, SUCH GOOD FOOD, and do a little shopping before we had to head back to the hotel so they could nap. (I wondered over to Starbucks and looked around a little before I joined them. There was cable at the hotel! YIPPEE!) Later that evening, we met up with a college friend of Anna's who I almost immediately disliked. I felt really bad, but MAN that girl rubbed me the wrong way! We wandered around downtown Nagasaki for almost an hour looking for a place that SHE wanted to eat at, forget what the rest of us wanted! (Gah, I'll end with that. She was annonying.) We ended up eating at a yummy Italian restaurant and I took the opportunity to indulge in some good red wine, another rarity in the inaka, before heading back to the hotel with Sara for mimosas, ice cream, and sleep. Anna and friend headed out to a club with some Nagasaki JETs... I couldn't stand to be around the girl anymore so the hotel sounded good to me.
The next day was busy busy to make up for our lackluster performance on Friday. We took the street car, (only hyaku (100) yen!) to see the Peace Park, A-bomb hypocenter, and a-bomb musuem. The day got off to a rocky start because Anna's annoying friend joined us for the day. Sigh. There was an argument over the street car, it was stupid, moving on. The hypocenter was very bleak and there were pictures of what Nagasaki looked like after the bomb hit. Very very sad. The Peace Park was a nice reprieve because there were statues from cities and countries all over the world dedicated to peace. It was beautiful. Alas, we saved the A-bomb musuem for last and it was devastating. I made it through most of it but, at the very end, they had testimonials from survivors, (both on video and written) and I broke down. It was too sad. I ran out and spent some time in the giftshop and bought a keychain as a physical reminder of the emotions I went through that day.
After the musuem, we found a cute little place to eat. The owners spoke no English so there were a lot of gestures and pointing, but it all worked out. Feeling full and refreshed, we headed down to see Megane bridge, the oldest bridge in Nagasaki. Alas, on the way there was another clash between stupid girl and me, resulting in Sara and I getting off the street car early. (At the stop I wanted to get off at because the bridge was only a block and 1/2 away. Stupid girl wanted to wait another two stops because that's what her book told her to do. Gah, BAKA!) Anyhoo, the bridge was neat as were the HUGE koi swimming the river beneath it. I do mean HUGE! (see pictures for confirmation) We then took the street car to Glover Gardens, the site where most gaijin homes had been located back in the day. Mr. Glover's home was on top of this huge hill overlooking the harbor, and some other gaijin homes and been moved there to make the gardens. It was gorgeous! We ended the day there, eating many samples of DE-lish castella (like pound/cheese cake) and headed back to the hotel for a rest before our last night in Nagasaki!
Oh! Our last night in Nagasaki, what a BLAST!!! The night started out at an izikaiya where we met the JETs that Anna had hung out with the night before. Apparently they go to that place a lot, because they started messing around with the owner the minute they got there and it was hilarious! The food was wonderful, the drinks were plentiful, and we must have been there for well over 3 hours. Afterwards, Sara and I (along with Erin and Paul, another Amakusa JET and her boy that we'd run into that day) split off of the big group and headed back to the chill karaoke bar we'd visited our first night in Nagasaki. My goodness, we were there the rest of the night! Erin and Paul left somewhere around 2am and Sara and I stopped paying for our drinks about that time too. The owner became our good buddy and he decided to put me behind the bar to make some of my drinks. (This is a TINY place, btw, so it's not as bad as it sounds. There were only 2-4 people there aside from Sara and myself!) Anyway, one thing led to another and by the time we headed home the sun was already rising and they were serving breakfast at our hotel! SO MUCH FUN!
The next morning, (or that same morning, as it were!) was a bit sad because I knew that I had to head back to my little piece of nowhere. We headed down to Starbucks one last time before catching a taxi to our ferry. Erin and Paul turned out to be taking the same ferry, so we chilled and chatted on the way back. It was a nice way to end the trip. Very relaxed and such. We all parted ways and headed home, (where everyone promptly went to sleep is my guess)! All in all, a GREAT trip! I highly recommend Nagasaki to one and all! There is so much to do, cheap public transportation, good restaurants, and great bars... a wonderful city! PLEASE VISIT! (oh yes, and please check out my pics!)
Ok folks, that's all for now! Ja ne!
(warning: the following content is for adults/people who don't mind excessive drinking on occasion only. You've been warned! cough! *dad* cough!)
As most people know, I went to Nagasaki with a couple of friends of mine over the first weekend in November and HAD A BLAST!!! It was so nice to be in an actual city again! I try not to think about it too much when I'm home, makes living in the inaka all the more difficult. Anyway, we left on Thursday night and took the ferry from Tomioka Port (about 30 min drive for me) to Nagasaki prefecture. (It was another 15 taxi ride into the city: totally worth it!) We decided to start the party early because none of us had had anything even remotely resembling a vacation in quite some time. My friend Sara brought some umeshu and sake, I hooked us up with snacks, and all was good! We even made friends with a nice Japanese boy with a really nice car... unfortunately, I forget his name... but he was nice!
After the ferry arrived, it only takes about an hour, we took a taxi into the city, checked into our hotel, and headed out for the night. Oh, what a night! We went out for Indian food, (a luxury for me now! There are NO restaurants in my town. Nada! Nilch! Less then nothing!) and decided to indulge in a bottle of wine to go with our food. Afterwords, we wandered down to a chill karaoke bar where the owner hooked us up with all you can drink/sing for one hour at 1500 yen. (This included taking shots of some DE-lish Chinese liqour he thought we had to try!) When our hour was up, we headed down to a "reggae" bar to decide what to do next. As luck would have it, the bartender just happened to know the woman teaching Sara and me Japanese and, in my current, ahem, "happy" state that was all it took for us to become good buddies. After a drink there, the bartender lady took us to another bar/club where we finished off our evening. The place was empty when we got there, but I didn't really care because I had that much more room to dance! They were playing reggae music all night, and by midnight the place was packed! It was a blast! We didn't make it home until 4 am!
Unfortunately, this led to a very late and subdued start on Friday. I was still ready to go go go, (NOLA, you trained me well) but my partners in crime were defintely a little slower to get going. We managed to hit up Chinatown, SUCH GOOD FOOD, and do a little shopping before we had to head back to the hotel so they could nap. (I wondered over to Starbucks and looked around a little before I joined them. There was cable at the hotel! YIPPEE!) Later that evening, we met up with a college friend of Anna's who I almost immediately disliked. I felt really bad, but MAN that girl rubbed me the wrong way! We wandered around downtown Nagasaki for almost an hour looking for a place that SHE wanted to eat at, forget what the rest of us wanted! (Gah, I'll end with that. She was annonying.) We ended up eating at a yummy Italian restaurant and I took the opportunity to indulge in some good red wine, another rarity in the inaka, before heading back to the hotel with Sara for mimosas, ice cream, and sleep. Anna and friend headed out to a club with some Nagasaki JETs... I couldn't stand to be around the girl anymore so the hotel sounded good to me.
The next day was busy busy to make up for our lackluster performance on Friday. We took the street car, (only hyaku (100) yen!) to see the Peace Park, A-bomb hypocenter, and a-bomb musuem. The day got off to a rocky start because Anna's annoying friend joined us for the day. Sigh. There was an argument over the street car, it was stupid, moving on. The hypocenter was very bleak and there were pictures of what Nagasaki looked like after the bomb hit. Very very sad. The Peace Park was a nice reprieve because there were statues from cities and countries all over the world dedicated to peace. It was beautiful. Alas, we saved the A-bomb musuem for last and it was devastating. I made it through most of it but, at the very end, they had testimonials from survivors, (both on video and written) and I broke down. It was too sad. I ran out and spent some time in the giftshop and bought a keychain as a physical reminder of the emotions I went through that day.
After the musuem, we found a cute little place to eat. The owners spoke no English so there were a lot of gestures and pointing, but it all worked out. Feeling full and refreshed, we headed down to see Megane bridge, the oldest bridge in Nagasaki. Alas, on the way there was another clash between stupid girl and me, resulting in Sara and I getting off the street car early. (At the stop I wanted to get off at because the bridge was only a block and 1/2 away. Stupid girl wanted to wait another two stops because that's what her book told her to do. Gah, BAKA!) Anyhoo, the bridge was neat as were the HUGE koi swimming the river beneath it. I do mean HUGE! (see pictures for confirmation) We then took the street car to Glover Gardens, the site where most gaijin homes had been located back in the day. Mr. Glover's home was on top of this huge hill overlooking the harbor, and some other gaijin homes and been moved there to make the gardens. It was gorgeous! We ended the day there, eating many samples of DE-lish castella (like pound/cheese cake) and headed back to the hotel for a rest before our last night in Nagasaki!
Oh! Our last night in Nagasaki, what a BLAST!!! The night started out at an izikaiya where we met the JETs that Anna had hung out with the night before. Apparently they go to that place a lot, because they started messing around with the owner the minute they got there and it was hilarious! The food was wonderful, the drinks were plentiful, and we must have been there for well over 3 hours. Afterwards, Sara and I (along with Erin and Paul, another Amakusa JET and her boy that we'd run into that day) split off of the big group and headed back to the chill karaoke bar we'd visited our first night in Nagasaki. My goodness, we were there the rest of the night! Erin and Paul left somewhere around 2am and Sara and I stopped paying for our drinks about that time too. The owner became our good buddy and he decided to put me behind the bar to make some of my drinks. (This is a TINY place, btw, so it's not as bad as it sounds. There were only 2-4 people there aside from Sara and myself!) Anyway, one thing led to another and by the time we headed home the sun was already rising and they were serving breakfast at our hotel! SO MUCH FUN!
The next morning, (or that same morning, as it were!) was a bit sad because I knew that I had to head back to my little piece of nowhere. We headed down to Starbucks one last time before catching a taxi to our ferry. Erin and Paul turned out to be taking the same ferry, so we chilled and chatted on the way back. It was a nice way to end the trip. Very relaxed and such. We all parted ways and headed home, (where everyone promptly went to sleep is my guess)! All in all, a GREAT trip! I highly recommend Nagasaki to one and all! There is so much to do, cheap public transportation, good restaurants, and great bars... a wonderful city! PLEASE VISIT! (oh yes, and please check out my pics!)
Ok folks, that's all for now! Ja ne!
posted by VW | 6:19 AM
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