Defamation of National Treasures for Breakfast in Nagasaki

I remember waking up that morning with the heavy smell of synthetic fabric filling my nostrils. When my eyes opened I saw that I was within kissing distance of the walls of our tent.

In our haste to find a place to set up tent the night before and realizing that the entire down town of Nagasaki was a sprawling concrete jungle (or jungle floor since there were really no skyscrapers in Nagasaki), we ended up building our tent on the only piece of soil we could find. The Nagasaki Peace Park.

Ok, so we didn’t really build a tent in the middle of the park (which is on the top of a little hill), it was more of to the side of the park where the edge slopes down into a wall that separates the elevated park from the sidewalk below. It was really a bit dangerous since we could have slid down into the sidewalk during the night, and the height of the fall would have left us with a spattering of bruises. Luckily, a couple of pine trees were planted on the ground and kept us anchored on that slope. But we still had to suffer through a night sleeping at an angle, it felt like the world was without gravity and everything was slanted to the right. It was no wonder that I woke up with my face almost plastered on the tent wall. I should actually count myself lucky that I wasn’t crushed by Ninon and Asen in their sleep, although, they were both dangerously close to me as we huddled to the lower side of the tent.

Now, I’ve never actually slept in a park before, but something tells me that stands on the fine fine line between the Legal and Illegal columns in the “homeless activities” category and I’m not all that sure if my “don’t blame me, I’m a stupid foreigner” looks will get us out of trouble this time (It’s the bloody Nagasaki Peace Park! It’s almost like a National Treasure for the Japanese!). So as soon as I got my bearings, I woke Ninon and Asen up and demanded that we clean up the tent, erase all evidence of our slumber and act like we just got there.

In about 15 minutes, we had the tent rolled up and we had a lot of our stuff sprawled on the park bench while the three of us took turns washing our faces and brushing our teeth in the female public restroom (the male restroom was locked). Suddenly, to my horror, a team of park cleaners arrived. They were terrifying to me at that moment. Old Japanese men and women, each one at least 60 years old, holding onto long-handled brooms, dust pans, rags and pails of water, were walking side-by-side like contestants in Fear Factor. I watched them coming closer and I could just imagine what would have happened if they arrived 5-10 minutes earlier when we were just tearing down the tent.

From The Silken Backpack

The infamous restroom

Images of a 70 year-old Obaasan after me with a broom flashed through my mind, followed by another of the three of us posing for a Japanese Mug Shot, followed yet again by a news article in the local papers with the caption “French, Bulgarian and Philippine National Caught Defaming Japanese Monument to History” in bold letters above my battered and raccoon-eyed mug shot. I will be deported back to the Philippines, but out of shame, my country and my family will disown me and I will be left to wander the streets of Manila. The despair will lead me to contemplate suicide and right before I jump off the Guadalupe Bridge into the Pasig river, my last thought would be “I should have just spent 2,000 pesos on a blasted hostel.”

Pathetic.

Ok, back to reality. I eyed the cleaning team warily but smiled sweetly and innocently when they looked at us, curiosity evident in their glances. I thanked my God silently for the impeccable timing as we nonchalantly went on fixing our things at an amazing speed.

Finally, with our backpacks still on a bench well within our line of sight, we went around the Nagasaki Peace Park. It was our first time to see it in broad daylight, and just like any other normal park, it had clean landscaping and a fair number of benches. But what sets this museum apart from all others is nothing short of astounding.

At 11:02 am on August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb in world history exploded 500 meters above this seemingly insignificant park. This bomb, dubbed “Fat Boy” after England’s Winston Churchill, contained plutonium, a radioactive material stronger than the uranium inside the atomic bomb of Hiroshima. In an instant, most of Nagasaki was flattened, the damage of which lasted through days, months, years and generations.

From The Silken Backpack

Sculptures and remains of the bombing in the Nagasaki Peace Park

Around the park, reminders of the world’s desire to prevent such devastation from happening again could be seen. Statues and monuments given by different nations, from Bulgaria to China, dotted the landscape of the park. Each work of art depicted peace and how important it is for the world’s present and future.

From The Silken Backpack

Fountain of Peace and Paper Cranes in Nagasaki Peace Park

At one end of the park stood the bluish 10-meter Peace Statue created by sculptor Seibou Kitamura. The statue was of a man sitting with one leg folded inwards and the other leg folded down with the foot on the ground. The folded-in leg represented meditation (Buddhist monks sit cross-legged when meditating) while the other signified man’s initiative to stand up in defense of peace and the people of the world. The statue’s arms formed a right angle with the left arm stretched parallel to the ground and the other arm raised up with a finger pointing into the sky. The left arm signified eternal peace while the right arm pointing to the sky symbolized atomic bombs.

From The Silken Backpack

At the other end of the park was another statue, this time of a woman holding a child, with the numbers 1945 8.9 11:02 written on the base, commemorating the date and time when the atomic bomb went off in Nagasaki. The park offered an outstanding combination of sadness and hope as it featured remains of the tragedy of Nagasaki while gracefully reminding everyone that the lesson behind this unfortunate event is to ensure that it never happens again.

From The Silken Backpack

After we were done going around the park, we headed to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, which was pretty decent but had nothing on the museum in Hiroshima, so we just went through it quickly (We only paid 200 yen so it wasn’t a big loss)

We were pretty much running out of time and Asen was still without his “Lazing on the Beach like a Bum Moment”. So after doing a bit of research, we found out that there were a couple of islands close to Nagasaki where we can just wind down, hang around and enjoy the sea. We ended up choosing Takashima, boasted in a couple of brochures from the Tourism Office, as THE tourist-y place to go to (plus, it says that there was a “camping ground” in the island, which would be a refreshing change from our usual practice of just setting camp wherever).

From The Silken Backpack

I decided to give up on my initial plans to go around Nagasaki more to see the Dutch Colonial buildings and gardens (my tall friends weren’t so interested in it coz well, why would they want to see european-inspired architecture, they’re already from Europe!), and trooped with Ninon and Asen to the port, bought tickets to Takashima, and we were on our way!

The Green Green Grass of Aso

Dawn was barely breaking when we woke up under the protection of the lone electric light post that served as our bedroom chandelier for that night. As has become characteristic of our mornings since the great kyushu trip began, we started the day off with a mad dash to roll up the tent, erase all evidence of our presence and look for the nearest restroom where we can freshen up and greet the new day with a semi-presentable face.

That refuge came in the form of the ferry terminal restroom. We washed our faces, brushed our teeth and got out just as the sun has broken through the evening clouds. We bought our ferry tickets and in minutes we were in the ferry, waving our good byes at the majestic silhouette of Mt. Sakurajima in the distance. After about 15 minutes, we arrived in Kagoshima port and we decided to set our plans for that day in motion.

We jumped on a train bound for the green, green grass of the mountains of Aso. Unbeknownst to me at that point, Mount Aso is actually the largest active volcano in Japan and is one of the largest in the world. It has a caldera with a circumference of around 120 kms give or take.

We arrived in Aso Ekimae station and from there, we took a bus going to Asosan Nishi Eki. I had my nose pressed against the window the whole way as I watched the landscape outside change into one of bright, endless green. It was as if we were devoured by a green monster, the inside of which was made of swaying stalks of brilliant green dancing in the invisible wind. It's either that or we were in New Zealand.

From The Silken Backpack

A view of Mt. Nakadake from Kusasenri, bugs and mushrooms in Aso

We walked out towards Kusa Senri (One thousand grass), a vast expanse of green grassy plains with 2 small pools of water side by side, divided by an elevated piece of land. Here, more than a couple of creamy suede-colored cows lazed around. In the distance we could see the smoking peak of Mt. Aso.

The smoking volcano is the crater of Mt. Nakadake, one of the five mountains that comprise the central cone group of Aso. This includes Mt. Neko, Mt. Eboshi, Mt. Kishima and the tallest one, standing at 1,592 m above sea level, Mt. Taka.

From The Silken Backpack

The Kyushu Backpackers, scenes from Aso

We didn't do much here except walk around. We literally walked like pilgrims, or even more. We walked around Kusasenri, then we walked out to the road, walked further until we took a narrow pathway that went up the mountains. We climbed high enough until we got a beautiful view of the caldera. We could see Kusa senri and marveled at how it looked like a face from way up, with the two pools as eyes and the elevated land as the nose.

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Climbing up the mountains of Mt. Aso

From this point, we also saw the hill called Komezuka, named because of its uncanny resemblance to a cup of rice. The view from here was magnificent, swaying green grass as far as the eyes could see. It was incredibly relaxing to stay there on that cloudy day and feel the wind on our face, in my opinion, it was the closest thing to freedom translated to an emotion that I have ever felt in my life. We had a clear view of the smoke-spewing Mt. Nakadake and we decided to head towards it.

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Ninon climbing up, the face-like layout of Kusasenri and Komezuka hill

We walked down the mountain and walked along the side of the main road on the way to Mt Nakadake, stopping every now and then since the distance was farther than we thought. We kept on walking until the scenery changed from the savannah-looking emerald green to the black-streaked, other-worldly landscape of the sulphuric peak of Mt. Nakadake.

From The Silken Backpack

The changing scenery as we came closer to Mt. Nakadake

There was a path winding it's way around the huge crater and several viewing points. We stopped by occassionally to take pictures. There were signs that said the sulphur in the smoke may be dangerous and if the volcano spews out too much then all visitors must vacate the area immediately. It was really exciting. We saw the bottom of the crater where the smoke was coming from and of course, pictures were duly taken.

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The space rocks in Mt. Nakadake, the smoking crater, the pathway around the crater

After practically walking the entire length of the path, we started our way back to the train station. We walked such a long distance that we were completely tired out. Finally we reached the quaint train station of Aso that looked like it came straight out of a european countryside just in time to see the black steam locomotive, Aso Boy train pull out. We waited for our next train and got on, surprised to find that even though the sky was cloudy, we were incredibly sunburned.

From The Silken Backpack

The charming Aso station, Lazy cows, the smoking volcano, shrines by the road side

We slept through most of the train trip going to Kumamoto port. It was from here that we were gonna get on the ferry headed towards Shimabara Port in Nagasaki for yet another day in the Kyushu adventure.