Dicky Knee does Nagasaki

Days 5-6 - Nagasaki

Missed Days 1-2? Day 3? Day 4? Well... get onto it!

Nagasaki rocked my world. If I ever come back to Japan, Nagasaki would be top of my wish-to-live list.

Everyone in Nagasaki seemed laidback and friendly. No. I mean it. Everyone. Some guy even stood back and let me onto the train first, even though I was behind him in line. I was like, "Huh? You what?" Unheard of in Tokyo. In Tokyo he'd be deemed certifiable.

Hell, even the cats were friendly.

Poster in Chinatown

Nagasaki has an elusive Euro-Japanese character with a healthy dose of Chinese spirit thrown into the mix. Rambling streets. Stone stairs that loop and wind through old dishevelled enclaves. There is something both ethereal and down-to-earth about the place. Unpretentious. The influence of the sea is evident. Although every day sent us blue skies, there was something a little dark and waterlogged about the city streets. The ghosts of centuries old pirates lurked around many of its corners. The thing Dicky Knee rued most about Nagasaki (and yet, paradoxically, the thing Dicky Knee's owner most loved) was its endless hills and steps.

But its still a city and a lot of it is just like any other medium-sized city. Gap Stores. KFCs. Road construction. But it felt alive. Nagasaki isn?t a jaded and self-absorbed town like Tokyo.

Hard yakka along Teramachi

And Nagasaki's history! I'm not talking about the H-bomb and its aftermath, although that aspect is certainly interesting - but the background of 16th century Japan when Christianity sailed into the country and Nagasaki was the main trading port with the West and China. In 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi tried to abolish Christianity and 26 Jesuits, both Japanese and Portugese (2 of them young teenage boys) were crucified on the hill which now overlooks Nagasaki station.

You don't get that kind of Euro-christian influence anywhere else in Japan. To be honest, I was hoping to really immerse myself in the history of the late 16th Century, but nowadays, museums chronicling that era are thin on the ground.

The "26 Martyrs Museum" was quite a find, though. It houses 2 floors of Christian artefacts from that time and information on the events leading up to the crucifixion and expulsion of Christianity from Japan (which marked the beginning of Japan?s seclusion from the west).

One aspect of the post-Christianity seclusion I found really interesting was the practise of "Ebumi", meaning "pictures to step on". From the early 17th century, a person was made to stand on a sacred Christian image, such as a crucifix or religious picture, the theory being that a staunch Christian would hesitate or be unable to do it. Many of Nagasaki's citizens were subjected to Ebumi right up to the mid 19th century, just before the Meiji Restoration.

Jeez, sorry to crap on. I lost my footing. Now, where the hell was I?

For the record, both The Mister and I felt that Nagasaki's A-bomb museum was better than Hiroshima's. Firstly, it was smaller, which meant you could absorb more information without having to bang your head on the nearest wall in order to fit more in.

Secondly, it was more visual. For some reason, photos of Nagasaki's aftermath were prevalent. One of the first things you see when you go into the museum is a picture of a charred and burnt body. You didn't see that in Hiroshima and the emotional impact was... well. You can imagine.

At one point, I nearly lost it. It took just one single photo. An infant feeding from her mother's breast the day after the bomb. The mother looks like she's about to fall over, but the infant is hanging on for dear life. The caption said that the infant didn't even have the strength to feed and died 10 days later. Man, that fucks with you. 70% of the victims of Nagasaki were women, children and senior citizens. Talk about crushing the soul of innocence.

But it wasn't a "woe is poor little old Japan" testament. There was a scathingly honest series of interactive videos detailing Japan's "15 years of war", from the Manchurian incident to the end of World War II and a memorial to the Korean victims apologising for the atrocities Japan inflicted.

You may know that Japan in 2004 is reluctant to change high school history textbooks that downplay the occupation of the Korean peninsula and this has caused a lot of resentment between Korean residents and the Japanese government. This frank plaque is an optimistic reminder that change can and does happen.

Crap, there goes Kinki again. I'm back. No, I am. I'm back. Oh, shut up.

Did I mention that everyone in Nagasaki was laidback and friendly? I lost count of the number of people who passed us and said, in English, "Hello! How are you! Have a nice day!" Occasionally, Matt's demeanour made me think that perhaps he'd met a few before, but no, they were always complete strangers.

The most priceless ducky of them all, however, was "Grando-mama-san"; the proprietress of Nishiki-so. I think she may have fallen in love with us. She was forever whacking us solidly on the arm in what we assumed was an affectionate gesture (?), and stroking or pinching my cheeks and cooing, "Kawaii! kawaii!" I mean, honestly, what does one say to that?

I had a bit of a cough still and she would stand in the genkan to see us off on our day's travels, clucking, "Grando-mama-san worry about you!"

Shianbashi street at dusk

Nishiki-so is perched high up one of the winding knolls and our room, which had the feel of a cosy Japanese holiday shack, overlooked Shianbashi's "pleasure district" (with low-key establishments like "Screw", there was no doubting just how pleasurable it was). Shianbashi's vibe is top shelf. Reminded me a lot of Gion and Pontocho in Kyoto. Long narrow alleys with a canopy of electrical wires to fuel the love festas going on behind closed doors.

Matt and I spent both nights in Nagasaki boozed up on soba wine (like sake but tastes a bit more like vodka), stumbling down these ambiently lit streets and watching the endless procession of (kicking and screaming) men being lured into the hostess bars. Good fucking fun!

And we thought Fukuoka had the market on funny signs - Nagasaki surely shat all over it with this pearler:

Nagasaki Photo Gallery...

Tomorrow - The Funk of 40,000 eggs