This is me in front of the statue at Peace Park. It's huge! I had no idea how large it was before this trip. From here we ventured down to The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. The museum was quite moving, and I learned many new things. There were so many images I had never seen before. One of the most intense things was watching the videos of survivors and listening to their stories.
Another moving place was the hillside memorial for 26 martyrs who were crucified there in 1597. Unfortunately, the museum was closed when we visited. We noticed a giant statue on the nearby hill and decided to do a little exploring. It turned out the statue was the top of a Buddhist temple. We ended up getting an unexpected tour. The remains of many people, especially soldiers, are buried under the temple. It was an odd little place, but the tour guide was very nice. She encouraged us to touch and take pictures of everything. This is me "ringing" a giant bowl. The expression on my face shows the general confusion of the whole experience.
This may look like Europe, but it's actually Glover Park in Nagasaki. The large park contains the old homes of Europeans who settled in Nagasaki after Japan opened up in 19th century. It was quite beautiful and I imagine it is even more so in the spring. It was this era and area of Nagasaki that inspired the novel which Puccini's Madame Butterfly is based on. Pierre Loti stayed in the homes in this area before writing his novel Madame Chrysanthème.
Not far from Glover Park is Oura Catholic Church, the oldest church in Japan. Though it was built for western merchants in 1865, Japanese Christians emerged from the underground church to worship only weeks after construction was completed.
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