Wednesday, March 29, 2023
We have a television in our stateroom to view movies as well as U.S. and European TV channels. Not much time for such a mundane activity, but we have occasionally tuned in to listen to the U.S. morning news while preparing for bed. Via the television, we can also learn about daily scheduled activities as well as view our cruise account charges and balances. There is also a handy bridge cam and interactive map showing the ship’s location. As we approached Nagasaki early this morning, we viewed the pretty harbor through our starboard deck door while watching the Nautica docking on the port side via the Bridge Cam.
 |
| Bridge Cam View of Nagasaki |
After docking, we quickly proceeded through Japanese Immigration then boarded Bus 12 with our new guide, May. Our first stop was Dejima (de=exit, jima=island), an artificial island built as an isolated Portuguese, and later, Dutch, trading post. For 220 years, during the isolationist Edo period (1600-1869), Dejima was the main route for foreign trade and cultural exchange with Japan. Otherwise, Japan only traded with China and Korea during this period. We were able to walk around the tiny island and visit buildings with displays of period articles. It was interesting to learn how Western technology was adopted and infused with Japanese aesthetics.
 |
| Walking to Dejima Island |
 |
| Meiji Period Edifice on Dejima |
 |
| Mini-Dejima on Dejima |
From Dejima. we were bused to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. In the museum, we walked down a spiral ramp marked with years as we descended in time to 1945. The museum was similar to the one in Hiroshima but smaller and, because there were fewer visitors, we could study and absorb more of the information. Displays presented the town before and after bombing, the short and long-term impacts on its people, the status of nuclear weapons today, and movements toward peace and a nuclear-weapon-free world. There was also a model of “Fat Man”, the plutonium-239 bomb detonated over Nagasaki. (Enriched uranium-235 had been used three days earlier in the Hiroshima bomb.)
As in Hiroshima, there were numerous displays about, and vendors selling, origami peace cranes. This peace symbol originated from a Hiroshiman school-girl, Sadako, who developed leukemia then called the “A-bomb disease”. Following a legend, she folded 1,000 paper cranes in order to get well. Although Sadako did not survive the leukemia, she started an international children’s peace movement symbolized by origami cranes.
 |
| Descending in Time to 1945 |
 |
| Wall of Urakami Cathedral after Atomic Bombing (reconstruction) |
 |
| Nuclear Devastation |
 |
| Model of “Fat Man” |
 |
| Origami Peace Cranes |
After the Atomic Bomb Museum, May led us to Peace Park. Along the way, we viewed an obelisk marking the hypocenter. The Park has a Fountain of Peace at one end with many peace monuments donated from countries around the world lining its sides. The end opposite from the fountain has a large Peace Statue designed by Seibo Kitamura. The statue is of a seated man who has one hand raised to represent the threat of nuclear war, one hand horizontal to symbolize peace, and his eyes closed in prayer for Nagasaki’s victims. On the route back to the Nautica, May narrated as the bus drove past 1) the modest house of a physician noted for helping bomb victims, 2) the rebuilt Urakami Cathedral, and 3) a one-legged Shinto shrine gateway that had survived the bombing.
 |
| The Hypocenter – “Fat Man” was detonated 600 m above this Obelisk |
 |
| Actual Remains of Urakami Cathedral after Atomic Bombing (relocated) |
 |
| Nagasaki Peace Statue |
Back on board after our land excursion, I grabbed my computer and headed to Horizons on Deck 10 for coffee and to try to catch up with my blogging which has seriously started to lag. However, my private office was crowded and noisy, so I and my coffee sought refuge in the ship’s library on Deck 9. The onboard library consists of three interconnected rooms with luxurious leather furniture and dark wooden-paneled walls. The design was reminiscent of an 18th century English library inducing a strong urge in me to don a leather-elbowed jacket, smoke a pipe, and sip fine cognac. Instead, I blogged onward for a brief spell before movement from the 5 pm departure lured me outside to enjoy final views of Nagasaki.
 |
| One Room of Nautica’s Library |
Tonight, all the NCSU-affiliated cruisers (n=22) ate supper together in the Grand Dining Room. Because it was the birthday of one of our table-mates, Jan, the wait-staff led us singing “Happy Birthday” and Jan blew out a candle on her cake. Later, all of Jan’s table-mates were served a slice of birthday cake with ice cream. Apparently, the correct order to eat this course is immediately before the desserts we ordered. After dinner, Jane and I retired to our stateroom fully satiated after another wonderful day.