Sunday Part I: Exploring Nagasaki City

First off, Saturday night as we were walking home I saw this:

I really wanted a picture even though a man was restocking it at the time. He gave me a weird look when I took the picture, so I pointed at the side of the machine and said "Gojira ga suki desu." (I like Godzilla), he smiled and nodded "Ah Godzilla" (sounded more like Godazerra). But this was the first time I talked to someone for no particular reason, I wasn't saying excuse me or thank you, I didn't buy anything or order food, but to me there was something about it that just stuck in my mind because I communicated with a total stranger even though I didn't have to.
At any rate we set off for an area in Nagasaki this morning that was mostly free to look around. We visited the Meganebashi (spectacle bridge), Hamanomachi Shopping Arcade, and Shinchi China town before lunch. Daniel (my roommate) took two trains to get to Meganebashi, there were some interesting things besides the bridge there, like Koi swimming in the river and...

 A drinking fountain! We take these for granted in the US, this is seriously the first one I've seen since I left the airport, it was so awesome I had to get a picture, and a drink.

 This sculpture was also there, I can't read the inscription, but it was beautiful, so I figured why not. the next few pictures are of the Koi swimming in the river, I love Koi!

 See the gold one just above and behind the orange one? Stunning. 

 This monk seemed important, but again, I can't presently read the plaque.

 Can you see where the bridge gets it's name? If you look at the reflection in the water it looks like spectacles, right?

The bridge was almost destroyed during some flooding during 1982, but they were able to find all the stones used in it and repair it.

And this is me up on the bridge. I enjoy Japan because you can interact with history here, most of what I've been able to see in the US is behind glass and rope, and while that happens in Japan as well, it's fun to be able to reach out and actually touch something that is old and valuable.

After we left the bridge we decided to get lost for about an hour, completely on purpose too, at no point was I not in complete control. But in the course of our wandering around we found this in front of a corporate building and I just thought it was neat.

I also came across this in a local park:

 This is a Japanese train from the mid 1800s, I just liked it.

Again, if you can read Japanese please enjoy this explanation

After finding our way back we visited the shopping arcade and walked around. The place was huge and had some eateries as well as little shops with unique goods, nothing really main stream except maybe the McDonalds that boasted 24/7 on the window. While I didn't take any pictures here I will tell you that shopping arcades are really just like having several blocks of strip malls, but with a covered roof, the area is still open to the outside and cars can come through in certain areas. One thing that did make me take note of this place was the Manga shop that had used copies for about half the price of new copies, I might go back and get some of the Fullmetal Alchemist series later. One thing I have noticed is that almost everyone carries a bag of some kind when they are out, I might have to buy a small satchel for everyday use.

As we continued to wander I came across another oddity on a back road just off the main one we were following:

Tattoo shops are a little rare in Japan, mostly because tattoos are associated with Yakuza, that is slowing changing though, and with the lower art forms advertised out front I'm fairly certain this place doesn't cater to the world's largest mafia. A few blocks later we came to China Town, a small section maybe four blocks in area. I did learn one thing real fast, Chinese food in Japan is nothing like Chinese food in America. Something looked interesting, but with prices being what they were we decided to pass this time around.

 This was the main entrance.

On the far end was a little stone park where you could relax.

After leaving China town we found a convenience store and had some lunch. I had a sparkling pear juice, among other tasty items like inari and some spicy chicken, that I later noticed contained sake as well, I couldn't taste the sake at all, but the drink was quiet good and so low in alcohol content that I never noticed it. After we finished lunch we set out for Dejima, an area that was once an artificial island built for dutch traders from the Dutch East India Company, the only group allowed to trade with Japan during it's 200+ years of isolation. The island was connected to the mainland by a bridge, but foreigners were not allowed to cross over to enter Japan. While there were later a few exceptions for certain individuals this remained a rule until the end of the Dutch East India Company in 1799. If you would like to know more about the history you can read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dejima

Tomorrow I hope to share what I saw and experienced at Dejima, the only port to stay open to foreign trade during the Tokugawa Shogunate. Jikai (next time) Sunday Part 2: Dejima.