Nagasaki

2 years ago I got one of those chowari (deep-discount) deals from ANA that allowed you to go anywhere in Japan (excl. Okinawa) for the roundtrip ticket price of $200. I figured I should choose someplace as far away as possible, someplace that even on the shinkansen would take over 5 hours to get to. Of the available flights remaining, that seemed to leave Nagasaki (Kyushu) and Hakodate (Hokkaido). I chose what was, for an American at any rate, the more historically resonant place.

Despite its history though, in my consciousness about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the latter has always seemed like the poor cousin, if one can trivialize it as such. When I think of mushroom clouds, obliterated landscapes, the effects of radiation, even now I think of Hiroshima. (I wonder if Hersey’s Hiroshima, which I read in high school, or Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour, which I watched a few years later, were instrumental in this regard. Recently reading hadashi no Gen has helped solidify this.) As such, I had this idea that the city would be less travelled, both in real terms (get a random group of 100 Japanese together and I would be willing to bet a majority have been to Hiroshima, whereas only a bare smattering have been to Nagasaki), and less travelled in my consciousness as well.

Ah well, it seems foolish to try to talk about it, is there anything I could really say that hasn’t been said better by others at this point? With respect to the city of Nagasaki, however, there’s of course much more than the Atomic Bomb Museum or the Peace Park to see. About this trip what I remember most was the unrelenting early-September sun. It wasn’t humid like Kanto, thank heavens, but there seemed little respite from the sun. It didn’t help that I had decided I would “go Medium Format” for the trip, so I was toting around my heavy-ish Mamiya, and more b/w film than I could possibly shoot. And I brought a tripod. And just in case the 35mm SLR with film for that too. Seems a bit laughable now, especially considering that I never bothered to check if the battery for the Mamiya was okay (it wasn’t, which I discovered on Day 2, resulting in lots of over-exposed wasted film).

As a “shooting” trip it was hardly sucsessful, but the city itself remains indelibly etched, particularly the landscape. Topographically I couldn’t help but be reminded of San Francisco where I spent so many years. And up on Mt. Inasa, looking away from the city, towards the ocean, dotted with small isles, in the twilight I could almost imagine I was back on Santorini or looking over Halong Bay. Not entirely sacrilegeous thoughts, for the city itself has long been home to folks from other lands, and this history is everywhere you go, from the churches to the hillside estates of industrialists to the monuments dedicated to Christian martyrs.

Heartily recommended, Nagasaki. Nothing second cousin about it.

(Click the photo above for the gallery of what I was able to salvage).