Nagasaki: What I did before going to the Atomic Bomb Museum

Today I was ambitious. I decided I wanted to see three things: the Atomic Bomb Museum, the Clover Garden, and the Oura Catholic Church. Then I looked at the prices for all of them and decided that maybe visiting some of the locations would be good enough. And they were!

But, before I started that tour, I was walking to China Town to try a place for breakfast that we recommended to me. While walking, I came across the Spectacles Bridge, which was built in 1634 (yes, I walked across that older-than-the-USA bridge) but a Buddhist monk. It’s name was taken from the fact that when you look at the bridge, when the river is calm, it looks almost like a pair of spectacles.

The place I was going to, in China Town, was called “Tia”. The cost was a little higher than I expected, but I did get what I paid for.  They had a breakfast that was eggs, fruit, fruit juice, THICK toast (with preserves that are pretty much jellied pieces of apple), and a salad that I’ve never had before but I won’t hesitate to have again.

From there, I continued walking in the same direction (I have no idea what direction, streets don’t always (maybe never?) follow the cardinal directions) to find the Clover Garden, since they were close to each other. But, looking at the cost (500yen, about $5.50) and considering I’m fairly low on funds, I decided I’d pass on that one and head to Oura Catholic Church.

As I’ve come to expect now, I got lost trying to find the Church; eventually, I DID find it. As I was attempting to read a posted sign, my eye caught the sight of a restaurant. Usually that’s normal, but this was a little different: the restaurant was under a church! I don’t know what type of church, but there it was, a restaurant underneath. Those who live in Denver (or know of the place) know there’s a nightclub built inside of an old church. Strange how some ideas pop up, eh?

Oura Catholic Church is the oldest surviving church in Japan, having been built by French missionaries in 1864 and after it was built, “secret Christians” who had kept their faith during the ban on Christianity that lasted from 1614 until foreign interaction was allowed again in 1858 (though missionaries weren’t allowed back in until 1873).

Walking down the hill from where I saw the two churches, making my way to the Atomic Bomb Museum, I came across the former Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Nagasaki Branch building, which was one of the first stone buildings with Western architecture in Japan. After seeing the old bank building, and while walking across a footbridge across a busy street, I noticed the Nagasaki Harbor and the many buildings on the mountainsides, so I snapped a few pictures (please see the gallery link below to see the picture of the bank and of Nagasaki Harbor).

Further up the major road I was following, I noticed a busy intersection near where I realized was Dejima. I snapped a few pics to show that even in a relatively small down (about 500,000) the town is still big and dense. And since I was close to Dejima (which was the specially built island where the Dutch maintained their trading port between Japan and pretty much the world.), I figured I’d walk around it to get a feel as to what it was like.  According to what I have heard, the city had grown around the artificial island and recently, they started (or did they just finished?) creating a small moat around it to make it an island again.

From there, I continued to head up to the Atomic Bomb Musuem, but I will talk about that in my next post.

To see all photos from Nagasaki, please see Japan – Nagasaki .