Day 35

Time to go back to Tokyo. I feel that I have seen enough of Japan for now, many of the obligatory stuff. Only two places left on my schedule. Enjoyed the very beautiful view on the train from Nagasaki to Hakata while listening to AKB music. This is the hotel/hostel I stayed at in Nagasaki. Share room, which is actually perfectly fine. Actually, it's just more fun, since you get someone to talk to and share experiences with.

And saw something funny on the scrolling text news at Hakata. There are now [b]48[/b] people above 100 years old in Japan now. Made a quick stop at Akihabara to check for new stuff and eat dinner. This is beef kebab from Star Kebab located on the street behind Sofmap Mac Center.

Day 34

The main reason I came all the way to Nagasaki was for Gunkanjima, so went on a guided trip in the morning. There are only guided trips for it and it's illegal to visit it alone. Gunkanjima means "battle ship island" and the name comes from that the island looks like a battleship. It's located about an hour by ferry from Nagasaki.

It's all fallen apart and that's why they won't allow people in on their own. They recently restored it and now you can only walk on a very short route on the south side of the island, which was dissapointing.

There was some guy fishing there. Looked like he had been dropped off by boat as it seems impossible to get there any other way unless you're a ninja.

Was done around noon so went to check out the "Hollander slopes" which is a pretty steep slope with lots of western style buildings where people from Holland often walked/worked in the past.

After lunch at Gusto I made my way for the second point of Nagasaki - the Peace Memorial Park and the a-bomb ground zero.

After all that I had got enough of history and on impulse bought a ticket at Toho Cinemas for the new movie Inception, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page. Pretty good in my opinion. If a movie isn't good nowadays, at least the visual effects are often really cool. But cinemas at Japan are crazy expensive. I got the half price after talking them into that I'm a student but has no student ID card. The service, comfort, and cleanliness, however, is just outstanding at Japanese cinemas.

By the way, Nagasaki had alot of Sakamoto Ryoma advertisings and sightseeing spots. Next time I'd like to check those out.

Day 33

Started the day with a breakfast buffet at the hotel. Biggest breakfast I had so far, and it was about time I had something decent. Bread and onigiri from the convenience store gets pretty awful after awhile.

With my stomach full, I went to the Hiroshima Castle just for a quick view of it, then walked all the way to this empty tree I don't know the name of, and finally arriving at the A-Bomb Dome. I think I was six days early for the yearly anniversary. People tie origami (folded paper) in a long knot to remember the people who died.

Took the tram back to Hiroshima station to get some local speciality, Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, before getting on the train to Nagasaki. The resturant floor had only teppan food resturants like this one, and they all went crazy when a customer walked by, doing anything to make them choose their resturant. The one I chose was cool, and I could finally conversate in Japanese without them acting like I'm stupid. The chef was pretty skilled with the tools, and I mentioned Teppan Shoujo Akane (drama with Horikita Maki), but they didn't know about it. Obviously they knew AKB, but they seemed to be more proud of Perfume, who are from Hiroshima.

The train to Nagasaki was called Sonic, and both exterior design and interior looked nice with leather seats. Seats were more comfortable, but overall more inconvenient than the regular Shinkansen.

I headed straight for the hotel to get some rest. Both Nagasaki and Hiroshima were hotter than Tokyo. In the evening I went up the ropeway to Mt. Inasa. Didn't get too good pictures.

At the ground station there was a small temple with this cool dragon named Shenlong (Shinryu in Japanese). It's a spiritual dragon from Chinese mythology that controls wind and rain.