Nagasaki Graduation Trip

          Our fall semester is over so wjc students had a graduation trip to Nagasaki for 2 days. We left Fukuoka around 9am and reached Nagasaki about 11:30. After having lunch at a lovely hotel, we all moved to Nagasaki Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum as Nagasaki was one of two cities in Japan where the US dropped atomic bombs in 1945. Compared with ones in Hiroshima, these things in Nagasaki are less pretty and interesting, but they also cover the history of bombing in Nagasaki, portray scene of the war, the dropping of atomic bomb, reconstruction of Nagasaki and even discuss the development history of nuclear weapon. 

WJC students in front of the Peace statue at Peace Park

With Buddhi, Huong, May and Caroline

with Buddhi

With Buddhi and Caroline

Nagasaki Atomic Museum

Lots of cranes as prayers for atomic bombing victims (same in Hiroshima)

A prayer for the bombing victims

The place where the atomic bomb was dropped

We reached our hotel after the museum. It is located beautifully on Yumihari hill where you can see stunning sea and green islands. The hotel architecture is lovely as well with curves on top which makes it somehow look like Moroccan houses. We had a super delicious dinner, then did karaoke, which most of the girls here love to do. 

A corner of the hotel ( day view)

Night view

The city from the top

On the day after, we visited an aquarium and watched dolphin show which was the most interesting there. After that, we hit Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park resembling Netherlands, where most of us looked forward to seeing. It is considered Kyushu’s Universal Studios. The most unique thing here is tulips, a sea of tulips, as tulip festival is happening at the moment. Apparently, places with tulips attracted most of people to come and take photos and I was not an exception. 

 

The dolphin show

Huis ten bosch

Lunch time

A corner of Huis Ten Bosch

Don't know these flowers' name but they are beautiful

Me with the tulips

Besides taking photos with tulip flowers, I also strolled some corners in Huis Ten Bosch with Giang. We had lunch at a buffet restaurant, then went to The Ghost hospital in Thriller city as Giang said it was the most scary one. We ended up playing a game called Shooting star, which you slide down along a wire from the top of the hill to a canal. This game was very fun, relaxing, and you can feel you are a real shooting star when playing it. I’m not a height lover but I did enjoy it immensely. 

And here's Giang

Flowers and windmill

A sea of flowers

Shooting star

Nagasaki is a city influenced by Europe because it was founded by the Portuguese in the 16^th century, so you can find some Europeans characteristics in the city’s architecture. For example, houses are built on the hill, small curve roads lead to the top of the hill, or European imported food such as a Portuguese sponge-cake called castellas (it looks lovely but tastes very sweet, if not too sweet) or tempura, which came from the word “tempuro” in Portuguese. You can also see many Chinese features in this city with red lanterns, Chinese restaurants and many other things. Having been to several places in Japan, I realize every city has its own beauty which brings me different feelings. Nagasaki, like the others, has stolen my heart. And I might come backto this city again to discover it more. 

Castellas - sponge cake - Nagasaki specialty