Nagasaki, the city that was once buried in darkness

We headed towards Nagasaki and passed by Yanagawa on the way. Yanagawa is also known as the city of waterways, with canals running across the towns. It reminds me of Cambridge and you can pay for a ride on their cruise, which is similar to the punting at Cambridge too. This area has one of the best unagi but unfortunately, this is not the season for eels (eels are fattest and most yummy during summer). Nonetheless, we decided to give it a try at one of their unagi restaurants. Lucky us were given a room facing this man-made garden with 280 pine trees. Pine trees are a symbol of longevity and are a favourite good-luck plant for Japanese.

An overkill with the pine trees....

Eel bento - 4 miserable pieces of eel + a big box of flavoured rice.
Well, as expected, the eels are so-so only.

We continued our trip to Nagasaki, visiting the atomic bomb museum, ground zero and lastly, Glover Garden. Though the A-bomb that hit Nagasaki was more powerful than the one that hit Hiroshima, as it did not hit the city core, the damages were very much reduced as compared to that for Hiroshima. But nonetheless, it was a dark summer morning on 9 Aug 1945, 11.02am.

Nagasaki is a harbour city and as it is opened to foreign trades, it has a rich mix of Chinese, western and Japanese history, buildings and food (they have the Japanese version of our kong pak bau here!). Be prepared to walk up and down when you go to Nagasaki as it is a very hilly area. Among the places visited, Glover Garden (laid out by a Scotsman) was most impressive, providing a breath-taking view of the Nagasaki harbour. And they called it the 10-million dollar view.

View from Glover Garden