Kyushu

I just returned from Kyushu, the southern-most of the 4 main islands. My friends William, Ted (aka Shimizu) and Megan joined me and on this trip, which started Sunday morning. We had originally planned to race from Fukuoka to Kagoshima (cities on opposite ends of the island) without using trains, but we soon decided against this for many different reasons. Instead we headed down the west coast to Nagasaki.

We spent 2 days touring the landmarks and musuems, including the several that cover the atomic bombing of the city. So much death and destruction, it was horrific just going through one musuem. Nagasaki bay is a beautiful inlet surrounded by heavily forested hills.

The third day, we boarded a local bus that would take us to a cycling trailhead further south down a peninsula. We had planned to rent bikes once we arrived there, but the bike rental hut had closed a year before. So, we got back on the bus, taking it further down the peninsula. Luckily we found a beautiful stretch of coast, where we explored and hiked around for a few hours. It was wonderful to smell the ocean, and walk its shores. We were blessed with a crisp, sunny day, so we made the most of it. (pictures to follow)

We got back into Nagasaki around 5 and headed straight for the Dutch East India Company's old outpost, Dejima. Once a man-made island off the coast of Nagasaki, where the Dutch were the only westerners left after the Japanese bakufu had kicked "all" foreigners out of Japan in the 17th century, it is now part of Nagasaki proper being surrounded by other fake-land. That was a long sentence. I enjoy the grammatical freedoms that Japanese allows, in the sense that you can almost indefinitely extend a sentence.

On a related note, I feel like I've lost what little sense of humor I had before. Or maybe I should say that I feel I've become more serious. I know this is all rather insipid, but its something that I think about. And this is a place for me to write my thoughts. That reminds me of a quote by Dr. Takashi Nagai, a doctor who was a victim of the atomic bombing in Nagasaki but also is noted for his early studies of the effects of atomic bombing radiation. "It is said that a person who cannot laugh is the most pitiful, but more than this, I think a child who cannot cry is worse."

I don't know what to say after that. But I had a fun springbreak.