Hey there,

so here is my 2nd day in Nagasaki (Kyuushuu, Japan).

Nagasaki - Day 2 (August 11th, 2008):

On this 2nd day I tried to go to some places I couldn't the first day and there were still a lot of things on my "to-see"-list. Nagasaki is definitely a city where 2 days of sightseeing aren't enough!



I woke up very early that day, so that I could start early enough to see everything I wanted to. One of the temples was apparently open starting from 8.30am, so that's where I went first. This picture was taken on my way to the mentioned temple.



That's at the entrance of the temple (Koufuku-ji). Nobody was there yet, so I didn't even have to pay any entrance fee. Lucky :D



And the entrance itself.



Behind the entrance gate there was a really nice garden, plus the weather was great that day, so I was able to take some awesome photos ^^





And in the background you see a modern building - that's Japan for ya ;)



A small pond. It was really nice there. Did I already mention that there (not only there but all over Kyuushuu) were TONS of dragonflies?



Waah~ heart-shaped this time, so cute! <3



Hmm ... too early to take a break, but these were really nice. Pretty design. Anybody wants this in their garden? ;)



Okay, I left that temple and was on my way to the next one and ON my way there I encountered so many interesting things, small shrines, graveyards etc. - it was AMAZING!!!!





As you can see I took a lot of random photos on my way. I think you can see it on all the photos, but I still want to mention that it was DAMN hot that day (well ... it's Kyuushuu, it's August and it's Japan - so what can you expect?)



It's really amazing what you can find when you just walk along some side streets. Green, gorgeous nature, shrines etc. YAY ^^



And another one. Seriously I walked around a LOT! I didn't plan to do so as I really only wanted to go to the next temple, but .... but ... WOAH!





Last stop before I finally reached my goal: the other temple: Soufuku-ji (崇福寺)



And here I am. A funny thing happened there. I was looking at something and suddenly a Japanese guy (and his wife) started talking to me. When I turned over and they saw that I'm NOT Japanese they were kind of surprised, but as they noticed that I understood (basically) what they were telling me, they just kept blabbering about this temple and some stuff XD So cute! <3333
Do I already look so much Japanese-like that they confuse me from behind with a real Japanese? XDDD Well, I have to admit that I wore clothes that I bought in Japan that day and had a hat on my head because it was so hot, so they couldn't see my hair either XD





It was really nice there.





After that temple, shrine, graveyard walk, I went to the famous Megane bridge. (It's called like that for obvious reasons *g*)
It is said to be the oldest stone arch bridge in Japan (it's funny that it is in Nagasaki - luckily it wasn't destroyed by the bomb!)



And then I just walked around a little bit and enjoyed the nice scenery.



Then it was finally time for Nagasaki's Chinatown :)



Uh, shoes XD



It was only 11.30am, but I was soooooooo~ hungry, so I decided to stop at one of the various Chinese restaurants there to have lunch. Most of them just opened, so I was the only customer there XD
One of the guys there talked to me quite a lot in Japanese. His Japanese sounded perfect to me although he was Chinese and when he was talking to the rest of the restaurant crew, he switched to Chinese as if it were nothing!
During that they had the tv switched on and watched the Olympics of course ;)



After that I felt better and had my energy back, so I was on my way again.
Completely random shot: Tanuki love! Awww so cute!! <33



Absolutely adorable "stop" sign on the street (*___*)



4 Chinese temples / shrines (?). I went to all 4 as they were not too far away from each other.



Okay while I was running around in Chinatown all the Japanese people were going crazy because right at that time the Japanese swimmer (forgot his name again XD) won gold XD
Anyway byebye Chinatown, it's time to move on!



And hello Deshima. I already wrote a little bit about Dejima in my last entry, I think.
It's really interesting to read about the European (esp. Dutch - of course) influence in Japan back then, so if you're interested check out the wiki link :D
What you can see in the photo above is a miniature Dejima.



I loved the lightblue buildings that were all over in Dejima <3



I couldn't resist XD ..... There were not only Dutch people on Dejima, but also other Europeans. One important guy was Dr. Siebold, a German :D
I took a photo of one of his works (cover page) - almost everything was in German and so all the people around me just stood there and didn't understand anything at all (because they were either Japanese, Chinese or from an English speaking country - YAY ME! XD)
Yesterday I read a really interesting article about Siebold. Actually he was offered to be a professor of Japanology in Germany - that would have been the first Japanology in Germany, but he declined.



Inside of one of the buildings.



Thanks to Dejima I got to know that there's even a museum for Siebold, so of course I wanted to go there no matter what! I mean a museaum for a German guy in Japan? Awesome.
It was pretty far away from my planned rounte, but I didn't mind at all.



Nice, even a street is named after him.



And that's him. Looks kind of scary, no?



And when I finally arrived at the museum all I got to see was THIS ;_____; ......
We're on holiday today ..... fuck off!
GAH! ;o; ..... Nooooo~
Before I went all that way I made sure that they were open today, so I was really surprised to see that ;o; ... uh, well.



At least I took the chance and took a photo from the outside.



Next I went to a temple that was really HIGH above the city, so a loong way to walk and my feet were already tired (^^')



Must really be nice to be a cat. I wonder why it is that whenever I have to climb up somewhere I meet cats on the way XD ....



Wah! Still not quite up there! *sigh*



Yeah! Finally up there and the great view was worth it *nods*



I was wondering what that horse statue is doing there o__O?



It was really a nice and clean temple. (Or was it a shrine? I really can't remember the name ... I should have taken notes as my brain hates me XD)


*'lol* Is that for foreigners? But then again it wouldn't be in Japanese?! XD ... do Japanese people really need instructions like that?



GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! THEY'RE HERE AGAIN NOOOO!!! .... or was I teleported to Kyoto again? NOOOOO!!!!
I told you they're everywhere ;__; ... XDDDD



Oh well, .... I'm already used to them anyway, so let's just walk along and see where the end is XD



One of the various wells there.



Guardians of the well?? KYAAAAH~ soooo cute <33



Okay, ... see I'm stupid! It's a shrine, not a temple and here you can see the name of it XDDDD *headdesk*: Suwa Shrine
Anyway ... they actually had these fortune telling paper thingies (how do you actually call them?) in English!!!!! That's the first time I saw they offered them in English, too.
I'm pretty sure that this is offered in Tokyo and big cities, but I've just never seen it so far, so of course I took the chance and bought one :D
As it was my first time and I was alone, there was nobody to explain to me how to "use" them properly.



So I just read it and then put it there. Do you only do that if you want it to become true? Actually it was not all THAT good, so ... I wasn't sure what to do with it. Please enlighten me, f-list! XD



Another pic of part of the whole thing. See how big it actually is? And way above the city, too! Great, seriously ^^



There was a little petting zoo for kids, but I had better things to do, so I moved on.



Around 4pm-ish I arrived at the Confucius Shrine.



It was really colorful (as always when going to Chinese stuff) and gorgeous (and a lot of red XD).



Hey dudes, how ya doin'? There were tons of these stone statues and you could mess around with them. I saw a lot of Japanese families taking weird photos with them XDDD
There was also a small museum. You didn't have to pay any extra entrance fee, so I went in there, too. No photos allowed, so ... no photos :D



Anyway after that I went to the church next to Glover Garden again, because the day before it already was closed and I wanted to see the inside. On my way up there (lots of stairs) I found these cute benches.



Which one is cuter? I want one of these for my non-existent garden ;o; ...



Yes, yes, I'm in Japan! I swear! XD



It wasn't allowed to take photos of the inside, but as I saw other JAPANESE (!) people taking photos while standing at the entrance, I just did the same thing XD



Sorry for the bad quality, but I couldn't use flash of course (T_T) ...



After that I took a break at a huge department store and went to Starbucks XD (Hey, I love Starbucks and neither where I used to live in Germany, nor where I live now are any, so I enjoyed going to Starbucks almost EVERY DAY during my vacation! XD).
It was right beside the port of Nagasaki, so I took the chance to take some photos there, too.
It was already getting dark, so I was in a hurry, because I wanted to take the ropeway up to Mt. Inasa to take some photos with a great view over Nagasaki while it's still daylight.



On my way to the ropeway: time check.
Uh, why is it always getting dark so early in Japan, even in summer? (-___-') That's soooo~ depressing.
How about your country? When does the sun usually set in summer and is there even a difference between summer and winter?



Before I could use the ropeway I had to buy a ticket at the station and get from the station by bus to the ropeway station.



Finally at the ropeway station. Time was my enemy back then, it was sooo close to getting completely dark already ;__; ... noooooo!!!!!



So my race against time or rather darkness began ... but ... as you can see I lost (T_____T) ....



But honestly .. I can't even describe how AWESOME the nightview from up there was! I think I stayed over one hour up there, just staring at .... almost whole Nagasaki, the ocean etc. XD
Sooooooo damn breathtaking!



Unfortunately my stuuu~pid battery died plus my camera isn't really good for nightshots anyway, but .... just a few photos nevertheless. It's NOTHING compared to the real thing though.



If you ever go to Nagasaki, THIS is my recommendation #1!
Absolutely do that if the weather is okay!!!!!!



When I was back at the station I found this poster of Catholic churches in Nagasaki. Quite a lot, huh?




Anyway, that was my time in Nagasaki. I just went to bed pretty soon after that, and the next morning I already was on my way to Kumamoto (which will be featured XD in the next entry).
Hope you enjoyed it.

Bye-chuu~