Trip to Nagasaki (1) - Long way to go

Last week-end, my mother and I went to see Nagasaki Lantern Festival. It was a 2-day trip. First, we took Shinkansen Kodama that left Hamamatsu at 7:49. After arriving at Nagoya at 8:39, we changed to Shinkansen Nozomi. In the train, my mother had a box lunch she bought there, and I ate some bagels I took from Hamamatsu. We arrived at Hakata in Kyushu, the island nearest to Asian mainland, at 12:07. Hakata is a district of Fukuoka. It’s a big city with a population of more than 158 million. From there, you can go to Busan in South Korea by ferry, which takes only about 3 hours! Since the next train would leave at 12:55, we walked around in the station building, seeing souvenir shops. Hakata is famous for its traditional clay dolls called Hakata ningyo.

Because Doll’s Day on March 3 was approaching, there were also dolls for the festival.

My mother already bought her first souvenir there. After that, we went to take the local train to Nagasaki. The seats in the train were comfortable. When we arrived at Nagasaki, it was 14:50. So it took 7 hours from Hamamatsu. Beside the station building, there was a big object of the lantern festival. Later, I heard that it was used as a lantern on the festival site three years ago.

At the tourist information center in the station, we bought a one-day ticket for tram, and went to the hotel we would stay. It was ANA Crowne Plaza Nagasaki Gloverhill near Oura Cathedral. After leaving our baggage there, we took the tram again to go to Dejima, one of the historical spots in the town.

In 1633, the shogunate began to close the country to foreigners. Dejima is a small artificial island made in 1636 to accommodate Portuguese who lived in Nagasaki to prevent spread of Christianity and strictly control the trade. Next year, the Shimabara Rebellion occurred, with a young Christian Amakusa Shiro as a leader. In 1939, it was prohibited for Portuguese ships to come to Japan. After that the Dutch trading house was moved to Dejima. During the national isolation period that lasted for more than 200 years, only Holland and China were permitted to have trade with Japan. Dejima was the only place for trade between Japan and Europe, and many kinds of goods including sugar, spice, and vegetables, as well as Western culture and science were introduced to Japan through this island. After the national isolation policy ended, other ports were opened in Japan, and the center of the trade in Nagasaki was also moved to foreign settlement around the present Glover Garden. In 1951, Nagasaki started a plan to restore Dejima, and sixteen buildings have been rebuilt until now.

My mother and I got on the tram at Oura Cathedral and got off at Shinchi Chinatown. It was only a few minutes to Dejima. Its area is about 1.5ha, and you can see its miniature there.

In Dejima, you can see people in old costumes.

This is a room from Chief Factor’s Residence.

I didn’t take any more pictures in Dejima because we didn’t have much time. But warehouses were also interesting to see. One of the most memorable things was a big balance scale to weigh sugar. From Dejima in Nagasaki, sugar imported from abroad was transported all over Japan.