I’d heard before my trip that Shimabara was pretty much a pass through place but I thought with a castle and stuff it must at least be decent. However, it turned out to be the only place so far I have not loved.
I had to get some local line which stank of urine to the ferry port. The ferry ride from Kumamoto was cool though. It was still raining a bit but the ferry ride was fairly scenic and it’s always good standing out on the deck I reckon with the wind blowing in your chops.
When we arrived at Shimabara Port and I had to get a bus to the train station. All of this was at my expense, none was covered by the JR pass so that immediately put me in a mood. The bus driver was an idiot too, driving like a lunatic which was slinging this old guy with tubes out of his nose around, and he was getting ratty when I was trying to establish if he was telling me to stay on or get off. ‘Last’ ‘Last’ he kept saying, but I didn’t know if he was saying I should have got off the last one and therefore need to get off now or stay on until the last stop. Unbelievable scenes when nose tube man musters the breath to demostrate simply to me by pointing at the seat to stay and says ‘station’.
My hotel was excellent fair play and not far from the station. I was impressed that the hotel had adopted a coffee table in the lift approach, I can’t imagine anybody settling down for a tea and a biscuit in the lift, but this is Japan after all. I also had a nice view of the castle and that’s where I was heading. The castle was my 6th I think and it was nice on the outside but not very impressive inside.
By the time I was done it had started to rain like I’ve never seen before, and it didn’t stop. I was stuck there for ages because had my small rucksack with laptop etc. They ushered me into a movie theatre to watch a video on the 91 volcano disaster which was incredible to fair. 15 thousand people wiped out by the volcano and tsunami that followed and it was active again in 96. Given the weather, there was no chance I was going to get up to the mountains today though.
Eventually it changed to a light drizzle so I made my way back. I then headed out to see the Carp Tunnel which is basically a long in town stream of carp but it started to hammer down again so I headed back.
I was having a tantrum now so I didn’t bother going out again until dinner and I was protesting so I had KFC. It started to absolutely batter down again so I had to stay there for a bit and then do a runner when it died down.
I have to say, I will be glad to see the back of this place tomorrow, not my favourite at all. I feel like working my way back to Tokyo now really, although Nagasaki is meant to be cool. It’s deadline day though so I don’t expect I will be doing much.
My train to Nagasaki was fairly easy and when I arrived I was pleased to see my hotel was amazing but not so pleased to see it was wet outside still. I hadn’t sported jeans in my whole time so I thought I would today given the weather. True to form, with them on, as soon as I went out the sun came out and humidity cranked up a notch.
I headed for ‘Spectacles Bridge’ which is a foreign built bridge in shape of specs! There were a few antique shops nearby which I went rummaging in but thankfully I didn’t find anything that finally commit me to a wheelchair with the weight I’m carrying in my bags.
I had a good look around the shopping district in Nagasaki and treated myself to a new iPad charging cable and mini USB mouse as my Macbook Pro was playing up.
I barely saw the atomic bomb memorial to be honest, I whizzed past given the weather.
A group of some sorts (with coordinated t shirts) had a wooden boat on wheels with drums, bells and all sorts on. They were singing, chanting and chucking this boat around with kids on like mad. It was clearly some sort of piece or show celebrating or depicting fishermen. It was pretty lively and the kids doing the big drums and symbols were unbelievable, especially considering they were playing while 12 other people are sprinting and spinning this boat around while chanting. I have some video footage when I get back. I asked somebody what was going on and she said they were practicing for an October festival.
Once I got back it was back to deadline day. I was up until 3am only for Arsenal and Wenger to massively disappoint again. It is highly likely we will once again end the season feeling we were only one or two players away from giving it a real good go.
Nagasaki was the end of my city hop, I was now ready to head back to where I started, the capital Tokyo, for my last few days in Japan.
