Nagasaki Peace Park

So today was my first day of class. Today started off with getting on the wrong bus and "accidentally" going to an all girls college up in the mountains. I was calm though even after the driver told us we had to get off there and I walked down the hill with another JASIN member to the next bus stop and caught a bus back to Sumiyoshi (it came 6 minutes after we got there). From Sumiyoshi we caught a cab and got to class about 45 minutes late (these are 90min classes). The teacher said it was okay and didn't dock us for it, so I'm happy about that. I did also see this on the way back to Sumiyoshi:

These farmers were out harvesting rice with a little push harvester that wasn't much bigger than a lawn mower, it was interesting and I was glad I got to see it, I'm just off the main road in Nagasaki so we're no where near farmland, wouldn't have seen this if I hadn't gotten lost. Also if you've noticed a difference in the picture quality you can thank my new phone:

The Galapagos 005SH smart phone, android platform, internet, wifi, GPS, infrared etc. Has a 3D display and will even take 3D pictures by taking one shot, stepping to the right and taking a second shot, unfortunately there is no way to post them. This new phone boasts an 8 Megapixle camera and cost about $130 US... I fell in love with my first smart phone, but this one... I just might propose to this one. I just found a user manual online in English tonight, so I'll probably read it this weekend so I know what all my phone does. While I will not be keeping it active after I return from Japan it will work in the US, so if I decide to live here I will not need a different phone when I come to visit.
I have to touch on this real quick because it has been bothering me since I got here.

These recycling bins are by all the vending machines, one side is for Cans (Kan) the other side for PET bottles, they both go to the same place. Why the distinction? I do not understand, it is completely pointless. Some bins have separate sides, most that I have seen do not. It's just weird.
Well let me get to what I really wanted to talk about today, Nagasaki Peace Park (I promise I will get to Dejima this week, I just haven't had the free time yet because there is a lot to explain in that one, more than I can do on a school night). This park is at the site of the Atomic Bomb detonation in Nagasaki. This was a hard place to visit, despite the school children looking around seemingly enjoying themselves, the weight of what this place represents, both in the tragedy that occurred and the hope for a brighter future was immense. It was impossible for me to stand at the hypocenter, ground zero, and not tear up, to know in that spot, in a flash, tens of thousands of people just ceased to exist. Ultimately about 75,000 were killed in the blast, 75,000 more injured, most of whom died not long after. Another thing I want to point out, this park is 10 minutes from the home where I am staying. Because I want to end this on a brighter note I am going to start with the more disturbing monuments and move toward more encouraging ones. I have included plaques when I had them in English, but many of these structures are simply donated from various countries, you may recognize the writing, I saw Russian, Korean, Chinese, Latin, Portuguese and many others.

 This "coffin" lists the number of people lost in the attack on Nagasaki.

This black monolith marks ground zero, it's hard to tell from the pictures, but it is actually down in the crater that the blast left. On many of these monuments you will see bottles of water, those are left as tokens for all the people who died crying out for water after the atomic blast. This is something else you will see a lot:

As you can see from the second picture this beautiful bundles of color are actually tens of thousands of paper cranes. The legend goes that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes that your wish will be granted, these bundles of cranes adorn many of the monuments that wish for peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons.

This is the Fountain of Peace, it is a water feature to commemorate those who died for lack of water after the detonation. Beautiful fountain, disturbing memorial. To continue, here are the rest of the sadder memorials: (The plaques are before the monuments)

 Now on to the hope and the future, beginning with the Peace Statue:

 Here it is, it is HUGE.

 On either side are these little shrines filled with paper cranes.

The rest of these are various memorials or works dedicated to the park from other regions in Japan and other countries, the plaque is shown before any that had it in English, otherwise you can just enjoy the beauty of these pieces.

This is part of Urakami Cathedral that was moved here, you'll get to see the rest later when I have time to visit it. It was near ground zero, about 500m away.