Japan: Part 4. Nagasaki.

After Kyoto we headed to Hiroshima where we spent time in the Peace Park and wandering the streets of what is an incredibly hip and cool Japanese city. We had a lovely time there and saw some of the best cherry blossom action of our entire trip. The park surrounding Hiroshima Castle was incredibly beautiful with all its trees in full bloom. Unfortunately I was sick of carrying my 'good' camera around and I didn't take it out in Hiroshima, so I have no images from there. But I made up for that when we visited Nagasaki!

Nagasaki is in the south of Japan, on the island of Kyushu. It's a harbour town, a major Japanese port, and as such its architecture and culture has been heavily influenced by traders from around the globe such as Portugal, Spain, China, the Netherlands and Britain. For this reason many of the sights in Nagasaki have their roots somewhere else.

We stayed right next to one of Nagasaki's major attractions - Glover Garden, originally created to surround the home of a Scottish Merchant who played a central role in modernising the Japanese shipping and mining industries. The gardens overlook Nagasaki harbour and combine both Japanese and English gardens which were flowering with gusto while were there.

We also visited the Confucious Shrine, built for the local Chinese community. This temple, with its rows of imposing confucian statues and elaborate central shrine is actually Chinese territory. We spent ages wandering around the grounds soaking up the serenity of the space. It was one of those things that we stumbled across, which turned out to be an absolute gem to visit.

For the rest of our time in Nagasaki (we had three days) it mostly rained so we just took to walking the streets when we could and exploring, soaking up the local ambience and enjoying being somewhere quiet (compared to other Japanese cities we'd visited). I took lots of snapshots along the way...

Japan: Part 3. Kyoto.

 

Kyoto, oh Kyoto! How I adored you! *sigh* Yes, I fell head over heels for Kyoto. I've heard that this is a common occurrence. It isn't difficult to understand why. A perfect blend of modernity and tradition, Kyoto caters to tourists but maintains its own history with poise and grace. Kyoto does not scream 'look at me', it doesn't have to. There is so much in this city to discover. I regret that we were only there for three days. But then I think that this means I must one day go back.

My other regret is that I only brought my camera out for one day whilst we were in Kyoto, so I can't show you all of the fabulous things that we saw and experienced. Actually, perhaps this isn't really a regret, at least not a strong one. It was rather nice to be able to explore the city uninhibited by the weight of the camera. And explore we did! We racked up over 40 kilometres of walking distance in our three days in Kyoto. It's just one of those places you want to keep digging into - so many side streets and backstreets and blossom lined paths to follow!

We arrived just at the very beginning of Kyoto's Sakura (Cherry blossom festival) and had three glorious days of witnessing blossoms in various states of blooming. These images are from our first day - we spent it following the philosopher's path to the Silver Pavillion and to other smaller temples and shrines that dotted the path. It was perfectly glorious!