Nagasaki Lantern Festival

We took a little road trip down to Nagasaki for their annual Chinese Lantern Festival. It was a cold, rainy day so we didn't stay that long, but it was totally worth it! They have hundreds of ornate lanterns of all shapes and sizes. My favorites were the ones that represented each animal of the zodiac. Most of these were seriously HUGE! They also put on fun shows including a dragon dance and a lion dance along with some traditional umbrella dances. 

This one is made entirely of porcelain plates, cups, and spoons.

The offering tent where you can give a donation and pray

Eisley enjoying a toasted rice triangle

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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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Yokohama

Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan and a major port city. It has a nice harbor area and a lot of nice skyscrapers. There is also a little theme park called Cosmo world. It has a nice ferris wheel that was the largest in the world in 1989 but has since been surpassed.  

Minato Murai 21 (harbor of the future)

Nippon Maru, a 1930's sailing ship that serves as a museum. 

Yokohama Landmark Tower

Each city has their own decorative manhole covers

Yokohama also has Japan's largest Chinatown. It has beautifully designed gates and a bunch of great restaurants and dumpling stands. 

Busy making perfect rows of Chinese dumplings.

Delicious steamed buns. The piggy one is pork, the red is strawberry and the white pandas are chocolate.

Chocolate filled steamed bun. It was interesting, not bad at all. It tasted like chocolate Malt-O-Meal, but not quite as grainy.

A major specialty of Chinatown is whole roast duck. We also found the Yokohama special Strawberry Cheesecake kit kats and Rum Raisin kit kats.

We were able to see Kwan Tai temple, which enshrines the diety Kwan Tai who was a general in 200AD for the Chinese Imperial Army. The Chinese shrines are so ornate and colorful!

Everything in Yokohama was Panda themed, even the caution road rails.

The second temple we found was Mazu Miao Temple where the Goddess of the sea is worshipped. 

We went inside where a sweet man walked us through Kau Chim, a chinese fortune telling practice. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! We were told to ask a question (there was lots of kneeling and bowing involved). Then they give you a cup filled with 100 sticks, each numbered. You then shake the cup while it is tipped slighly forward until one stick comes forward of the others and falls out. To confirm that you got the "right one" you toss two wooden blocks called Jiaobei which have a flat side and a rounded side. If they fall with one facing up and one facing down, then the stick you drew is correct. If not you must start the process over again until you get a favorable result. My fortune is below, google translate as always was very unhelpful. Someone my friend knows was able to translate it partially for me, and he said it means that now is a good time for change and for moving forward, whether it be major life events or travel. 

Map Links:
Yokohama Landmark Tower
Kwan Tai Temple
Mazu Miao

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