A Day In Nagasaki

The reason I had decided to include Nagasaki in my itinerary for this trip was because 5 years earlier, I had visited Hiroshima and its Peace Memorial Museum was the most memorable part of the trip for me.  Since Nagasaki is infamously known as the site of the second atomic bomb that was dropped by the Americans during World War II, I was interested in finding out whether Nagasaki would have the same effect on me.

I arrived into Nagasaki by rail and just outside the train station was an endless display of flowers.  I’m not sure if this is a permanent display in the summer, or whether there was something going on around the city, but it was beautiful to see.  The exterior of the station did also remind me of the Hiroshima train station.

After checking into our hotel, we made our way to Chinatown to try Champon.  Much like how Koreans have created jjajangmyeon and jjambbong as Korean-Chinese food, someone in Nagasaki created Champon as their version of Japanese-Chinese food.  It’s interesting how both the Korean and Japanese words for these noodles sound similar (jjambbon vs Champon), but yet, there is no Chinese translation for either word.

It was mid-afternoon when we arrived, so none of the restaurants were busy.  Most restaurants had store front displays of plastic moulds showcasing their menus, and we selected a random restaurant and ordered Champon along with some sweet and sour pork.  The Champon was amazing.  It was a large bowl of noodles with pork, seafood and vegetables in a rich, delicious broth.  The sweet and sour pork was just so so though.

We didn’t want to eat too much, as we wanted to try some street snacks as well.  We picked these black sesame balls, a common snack we had growing up.  They tasted just as good as any we’d ever had.

Nagasaki’s Chinatown actually reminded me a great deal of Incheon’s Chinatown.  They both seemed a bit more traditional than the North American Chinatowns I was used to seeing.  There was a great deal of “red” everywhere.  Restaurants and stores alike all seemed to choose this auspicious colour.  The streets were lined with food vendors as well as shops selling merchandise, reminiscent of any Chinatown in the world. 

After our visit to Chinatown, we made our way towards the Atomic Bomb Museum.  I had very much been looking forward to this place, hoping that it would be similar to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Museum.  Unfortunately, it fell way short of my expectations. The museum had many random displays and also included a small outdoor area, but it had nothing on the grandeur or scale of the Hiroshima equivalent. 

After a very short visit, we made our way to the Dutch Slopes.  I’m not sure what we were expecting exactly, as I knew that the Dutch Slopes was a residential area with much western influence.  I think I thought that it would be similar to the French Concession in Shanghai where the residential area is lined with Western restaurants, bars, and businesses.  In reality, the Dutch Slopes was just a residential area, and didn’t present anything overly exciting for a tourist.

From here, we made our way to a local mall and had a simple supper there before calling it a day.