Eisley's Cake Smash

We finally were able to celebrate Eisley's first birthday together as a family by doing a cake smash. She really enjoyed it, and she is awesome at sharing so she wanted to make sure she hand fed us some cake too. I think we were almost as smeared in frosting as she was. I was surprised that she wasn't as messy and destructive as I thought she would be. Happy Birthday beautiful girl!

Before and After

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China in Japan

While in Nagasaki we visited Koshi-Byo, a Confucious Shrine that is the only one in the world built by and for Chinese people outside of China. It is a sovereign territory of the People's Republic of China. It is the ONLY place in the world where an individual can legally enter the People's Republic of China without a passport. So TECHNICALLY we visited China, would you count it? Travel Weekly has an interesting list of rules for counting countries, do you have any specific family rules?

The shrine features 72 followers of Confucius and has an awesome Historical Museum of China. The museum features Terra Cotta Warriors, a stone horse from Xi'an, stones from the great wall, and a lot of other treasures. However, it doesn't seem to be visited by Americans a lot so the signs are mostly in Japanese or Mandarin. It is a bright, colorful spot in a fairly monochromatic city.

Shrine inside the temple

Instruments used for animal sacrifice

Carefully carved ivory tusk and bricks from the Great Wall

Scene carved into soft cork

Nearby is Nagasaki's Chinatown. Called Shinchi Chinatown, it is the oldest Chinatown in Japan. Nagasaki port remained open to Chinese traders even during the Era of Isolation, but strict rules and curfews were put on foreign residents in Nagasaki. It is tiny (just a few blocks), but I have heard it is beautiful during the Nagasaki Lantern Festival.  They have a few restaurants, shops, and street food vendors.

One of the popular local foods of Nagasaki is Kakuni Manju in Chinatown. It is a square of fatty pork slow cooked and stuffed into a soft steamed bun. This sweet vendor was happy to say that all their food was handmade and not store bought.

Steamed pork bun, and Kakuni Manju

Soda flavor ice cream

Chinese Pudding flavor ice cream, it was delicious!

Map Links:

Confucius Shrine and Museum

Nagasaki Chinatown

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Nagasaki

On Memorial Day we were able to visit the City of Nagasaki. I can't think of a better place to spend this special day.  We were able to solemnly remember the lives of those who were lost in the pursuit of peace. 

We first visited the beautiful Peace Park dedicated to the souls lost in the Nagasaki Atomic Bombing.

Nagasaki Peace Fountain, It is shaped like the wings of the crane and is a remembrance of the bombing victims begging for water.

This is the Hypocenter, the exact spot where the bomb landed.

A scorched remaining wall of Urikami Cathederal, a few hundred feet from the bomb hypocenter. This was once the largest Catholic Cathedral in the Far East.

Overlooking the Hypocenter from the Atomic Bomb Museum.

The Atomic Bomb Museum was as educational as it was chilling. It had exhibits that discussed the facts of Atomic power as well as articles from Nagasaki that were affected by the bombing. The exhibits included discussion of world scientists about the use of atomic bombs and a full scale model of the type of A-bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. They display clocks stopped exactly at the time of detonation, melted glass bottles and metal coins, wood with shadows forever charred on the surface, clothing worn by victims and bits of charred bone. It demonstrated the power and destruction of the atomic bomb both physically and emotionally on the residents of Nagasaki along with the rest of the world.  

Clock stopped at the precise moment and a twisted watertower

Angels whose faces survived the atomic bomb at Urakami Cathederal a mere few hundred yards from the blast

These before and after photos show just how much was destroyed in Nagasaki City.

Next we visited the Remembrance Hall that contains all the names of the victims. It was absolutely gorgeous and so peaceful and quiet. We folded a paper crane to be added to one of the many chains.

Our next stop was Sannō Shrine. Some of the most interesting things to see in Nagasaki are the few things that have survived. This shrine is interesting in the fact that half of the massive stone Tori gate survived the blast and is still standing today. It also has two huge, beautiful Camphor trees that were stripped bare and charred, but miraculously regrew. Even while we were there visiting a worker was lovingly patching holes and re-enforcing the thick trunks.

The beautiful Camphor trees.

We stopped at 7-11 and bought this refreshing watermelon Popsicle. The "seeds" were chocolate.

One thing David and I were discussing during our visit the sweet testimony of Elder L. Tom Perry, an apostle of our church, about his experiences in Nagasaki. Sadly he passed away a few days after our visit. His story is in the video below:

Overall our trip was very interesting and informative. It gave us a new perspective and reverence for the terrible event that was WWII on all sides. It is probably the one place in Japan that I have felt the least comfortable being an American. I'm not sure if it was from the history, or if it is just a bigger city and just not quite as safe and "country" as Sasebo, but it seemed to me like the people were a little less friendly the further out in town we got away from the main touristy things. I plan on going a few more times while we are here, so hopefully that opinion changes. 

Map Links:

Nagasaki Peace Park

Atomic Bomb Museum

National Peace Memorial Hall

Sanno Shrine

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