The thing I am not liking about writing this in retrospect is that I feel I am missing out on a core feeling I get when I am in Japan, the looking at small things and just kind of being IN IT.
Because I am 7 days behind (and yes still feeling not great), I’m having to conjure up that thing. That certain thing.
We walked to the Nakashima-gawa river and went to Dejima Island, the restoration of which seems to always be in progress. and across the river, close enough for me to take a video of:
New and very old taking up the same space, not really competing - just kind of accepting the inevitable peacefully.
The gallery had many preserved Japanese historical items and tools that the Dutch used and kept. This Mt. Sumeru Model of the Universe illustrates the Buddhist view of the universe. It has a clock, a calendar and a planetarium showing the movement of the moon and sun.
We walked around the park a bit and decided to go back to the museum (yay!) - we decided to just see the permanent collection and new acquisitions. It’s starting to feel essential do this in any city I visit. It was amazing - I learned so much. There was very little photo taking so I just put my phone away. I did take one note though: The Shade of the Trees by Ineko Sata. This is only a very small hint of the larger artistic community and their works. I look forward to untangling my web of memory with this little note I took!
It became known to us that we were not following our tried and true method from previous trips of scouting our dinner venue earlier in the day, like before meeting Davy and Akiyo for dinner! Haha! Bless. And there was a lot of standing around looking at our phones (i.e. relying on Akiyo’s Japanese) to find a suitable spot. We did end up finding a spot that night after much debate and it worked out just fine! There was a lack of craft beer for moi but I made do with Asashi Super Dry.
Our last full day in Nagasaki was a delight. Bruce had found a very cute garden in the hills called Mihara Garden and so we found a bus that could take us there. It was magical! And we definitely had one of our top 3 meals so far there for lunch. We were amazed at this restaurant! We thought we might be able to get coffee was this was deluxe. They gave us 8 types of tea as part of our “set” with lunch. EIGHT! Who does that!?
Love the part where the selfie just has the top of my forehead. ADORABLE.
Wow guys, there is more, but this newsletter is so long and I want to get out of Nagasaki so to speak!1
On our last day, we checked out of the lovely Candeo and brought our baggage to the train station to store and went to Glover Garden which was very nice and very colonial but before all that we walked to the park again and watched these hilarious goofy skateboarders strip down and pretend they were going to jump in after their skateboard. The coolest guy making no effort was apparently the one whose trick sent it over the edge.
Here’s a last little compilation!
Another lost in translation moment and thus a reason for a footnote! We went to the open shopping street because there was a 4 floor stationary shop that was calling to us and so we bought some pens and Morgan bought some notebooks for January. (I showed so much restraint). When we finished in the store, I was standing outside gathering my things and a thirty something is man with bleached blond hair casually (but with determination) comes up to me and says “hello” so I’m like “konnichiwa” and he tries to ask me where I am from and I say Canada and then the woman he is with comes up as I am saying Vancouver and she gets excited “ah! Bancouber, Canada!” and then he says to me: “Are you Bagua?” which I don’t at all catch and make him repeat and then I basically say “Wakarimasen” and say “ok - bye bye!” and find Morgan and Bruce. Morgan immediately says that he thinks the guy meant this, Bruce says: “it’s a cult” and I think they actually are both a little right but I can’t help but wonder, wtf?!
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