Where we stayed was situated in the middle of local red-light district. (Phew, again!)
The noise was just relentless and kept us awake till the early morning...so natuarally we developed the habit of late-start.
Day One.
It wasn't too hard to find the neighbourhood of our accomodation, but the actual building, especially the front part was hidden behind the Cosplay pub (costume play) that it was so easy to miss. When I rang up the owner, she told me to ask at the police station, but I couldn't spot what looked like a police station.
Did you find the police station in this photo? Well if you're wondering, you're like me. The one on the left behind the passing car is the police station, believe it or not.
Yep, this is Nagasaki we're discussing here. Here's the better one.
As you might guess, we were so exhausted from all the walking we did in Osaka and Nara that we didn't do much apart from doing the grocery shopping.
Day Two.
Walked to Dejima Wharf. Almost every tourist destination was in walking distance. We had went to the big cafe by the sea and had coffee with Sakamoto Ryoma's face froating on it. There was a nice park across as well, so we had a decent walk and had lunch there.
By 1pm, we were back in our room.
We had a plan to see the night view from the peak of Inasa Mountain later that night, so we just rested up until 3pm.
We left our room around 4pm. With plenty of time to kill, we decided to have a stroll around the neighbourhood first.
Shianbashi Street mall, just 2 minutes from us was small and narrow, was located opposite from the red light district and most of the shops were restaurants and pubs. There were also a few alleyways, about the width of an average pedestrian path, with tiny Izakayas and Karaokes (those places all had this musty smell, possibly coming from old timber). As we got to the main street, we saw more
shopping malls we would have liked to explore had we had the time. That time, however, we just stopped by Kanko Street shopping mall where we had an early dinner and bought some cheap veggies, then walked further down to the cozier shopping district ahead. The famous Meganebashi (Spectacles Bridge) was just a minute walk from there.
Departed from "Kokaido Mae (Town Hall)" tram stop around 5:30pm.
Mt. Inasa Ropeway wasn't too far away. The weather was okay. It was forcasted to rain the next day so we did it while we could.
There was a Gondola lift operating every 20 minutes from 9am to 10pm. It was only about 7 minutes ride from the Fuchi Jinja Station.
(Inside the tram.)
We were very early and had enough time to see other small islands through the telescopes set up on the viewing platform.
Below it was an expensive but amazing restaurant with perfect view of the city. The food there was said to be really nice but we only had a drink each since we were rather short of money.
For the next 2 hours we enjoyed the free wifi provided there and from time to time, watched the Nagasaki's nightlife slowly came alive.
While we were there, I read a bit more about Dejima Wharf's history and then planned the activities for the rest of our stay.
Day Three.
Rainy during the day, overcast in the evening.
We rested most of the day, got some massage in the evening near Shianbashi tram stop. Ate an amazing meal at seafood restaurant on Shianbashi Street mall, with live fishes caught in front of you and cooked in the kitchen behind.
Yep, the Sashimi was fresh, alright. The tail of the fish that the guys eating next to us was still moving! Oh, it made me so close to tears.
On the way back, I dropped into a cafe run by an oldish lady, who introduced me to the brief history of the neighbourhood and Nagasaki in general.
The area (Maruyama Machi) used to be an up market Hana-Machi (where wealthy men were entertained by female performers, such as Geisha and Maiko.)
The historical high-class brothel called Kagetsu, which now was an exclusive restaurant, was just around the corner, so we walked up there to see Maiko san's coming out of the building. Straight away you could see that grade of Maiko san different to what you are used to see on the TV. They had a class. Everything about them was graceful, literally, from tip to toe.
From the elegant way they walked, how their hands swayed, the proper manner when they talked to their seniors, it was easy to imagine that they would make a perfect cup of green tea, and entertain the customers with their top level dancing and music performance. How I wish I could take their photos. Even the photos wouldn't have been enough to capture the air they emanated.
I was hoping to upload the photo of the restaurant but I seemed to have lost it. There are few photos that went missing after coming back from Japan. If I manage to dig them up, I will put them up.
Kagetsu is actually on the very top of the large photo in which you can see the very old dutch style police station on the left. I have some daytime shots of the place. Here are some.
Well, the first three days flew past like that. We only had two more days to explore Nagasaki. The main part was yet to come.
Oh, talking of Tram. Trams are still operating in few towns in Japan, Nagasaki, Hakodate and Tokyo. There used to be ones running in my hometown Yokohama, and I used to play on the old, decaying tram desplayed in the big park next to my old elementary school as a child.
In the next post, I would like to upload some photos of the trams.
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