While Not Working

Akiko, the guide on our tour of Hiroshima, was passionate about her city and full of titbits of information, one of which was that Hiroshima was loudly and proudly known as 'Carp City,' and Hiroshima Castle was nicknamed 'Carp Castle'. Now all you Australians just need to take a deep breath and let go of your instinctive antagonism: that's European carp you're thinking of, wreaking havoc on Australian waterways and hoovering up everything that lives on the bottom of the river.  I'm talking about their cousins the koi carp. According to Akiko, back when Japan was closed off from the world they all got bored and bred the   Brocaded carp  which can be found in some public ponds around Horoshima and has been sold on occasion for ridiculous amounts of money. The carp was also considered a symbol of good luck, so where a live carp couldn't be found there was usually one of metal or stone. Don't be that tourist and attempt to pat a live carp. Pat this one f...

Did you know that back in the time of the Napoleonic there was a brief period where a small island in Japan was the only place in the world that the Dutch (Netherlands) flag was flown? Nope, I didnt either. As it turns out,  Dejima Island , barely 5 minutes walk from our hotel, was that place. We spent a solid couple of hours wandering around Dejima, learning all about the island and its history, and the often complicated and nuanced relationships between the Japanese and their trading partners. A model of Dejima, with some of the real thing beyond. While wanting to continue trade, Japan was serious about preventing outside contamination: Dejima was protected by a large wall with armed guards at all times. In addition to being on an island, of course. Did the Dutch get Island Fever, cooped up as they were? History is silent in that regard. An unimpressed Durchman. Late that afternoon another walk took us down to the Port where our old friend the Cunard cruise ship was still docked....

I went for a walk in the cold, still morning in Nagasaki. I met a cat,  and a fat man playing the saxophone. He had a pigeon on his head. We caught a rattling streetcar to the Nagasaki Peace Museum. The second (and so far the last) atom bomb used in warfare was dropped on Nagasaki two days after Hiroshima. Nagasaki was the second choice, condemned purely by weather. Smoke and cloud obscured the first target, the cloud over Nagasaki cleared enough to allow the bomb to be aimed and deployed, and that was that. Less people come to Nagasaki than come to Hiroshima, although progress into the Museum was still clogged up with passengers from the Cunard cruise ship that docked that morning.  The Museum was nonetheless equally confronting and again silent,  apart from the recorded voices of survivors telling their story and the susseration of people moving through the space. When the clock stopped. Nagasaki was the home of many secret Christians during Japan's 250 year ban on Chri...

"I used to pack up a whole camp in three hours!" wailed Roger. "Now I'm getting stressed about packing up a hotel room!" He wouldn't want to leave any free toothbrushes and cute little tubes of toothpaste behind now, would he? We went off to the 25th floor for our last high altitude breakfast instead. Getting my veggies for the day. That's pumpkin soup in the little glass, in case you were wondering.   We had spent ages on Google maps and Japan Travel, working out how best to get to Nagasaki whilst avoiding the ultra fast Nozomi service with its associated extra charges, and getting ourselves hopelessly confused and muddled. Yesterday we went down to the station and cast ourselves apon the mercies of the ticket vending machine which promptly spat out three tickets, two train changes of a comfortable 20 minutes each, and got us to Nagasaki an hour before we thought possible. Trust the machines people, especially in Japan. The machines even have panels in ...