Nagasaki, Japan

We had such a lovely day in Japan! When we awakened Monday morning the sun was just rising and it was so big and red - just beautiful. The sky was clear and it was a crisp 7 degrees. It stayed sunny and clear all day, and the temperature only rose to 14 degrees, so mum and I were right at home! When we got to the pier in Nagasaki an ambulance came roaring up, and about 30 minutes later they removed one of the passengers and took him to the hospital – poor guy. Anyway, that put us all behind as they wouldn't let anybody else off the ship until the ambulance had departed. We were on one of the early tours so we got to disembark relatively quickly which was great because the lineup for immigration stretched the length of the ship by the time we got inside to be fingerprinted and photographed. All in all, it was fairly painless. After one false start where we had to return to the pier to pick up one passenger who had been left behind, we hit the road and headed for Shimabara Peninsula. We had to drive through a series of tunnels to get out of Nagasaki, and then we just sat back and enjoyed the beautiful architecture and scenery. The cherry blossoms had just bloomed, and they were so gorgeous! Almost two hours later we arrived at Shimabara and headed for a samurai village located near the castle. It was such a beautiful walk to the village. The street was gravel and cobblestone with a trench full of clear water running down the centre, like a step back in time – just lovely! After we toured around, we headed to Shimabara Castle which was surrounded by cherry trees in full bloom – very romantic looking. The castle was full of artifacts from the days of the samurai, and mum and I climbed to the top for a magnificent view. The grounds were also covered in many interesting statues, some of them very creepy looking. We then traveled to a nearby hotel where we were given a Japanese boxed lunch which consisted of a large container divided into many small compartments, each containing a different delicacy – rice, seafood, vegetables, and some unknown substances! As we were leaving after lunch, the hotel staff came out into the parking lot to wave goodbye. Our final stop was at the small village of Mizunashihonjin which was buried during the 1991 eruption of Mt. Fugen. Some of the houses were only partially buried or had been partially excavated but others you could only see the very tops of the roofs. It was kind of eerie! After we had been given some time to look around it was time to return to the ship. We were a little bit late returning so they hustled us back on board pretty quickly. As we were crossing the pier there was a brass band from one of the local high schools playing music, and they continued to play until we sailed away – such a nice send off!