After five hours of train travel, my parents and I have finally made it to Nagasaki on the south-eastern tip of Japan. For several hundred years, Nagasaki was the stronghold of the Christian daimyos (regional lords) and, despite being terrorized by various shoguns over the years, there's still a noticeable Christian presence here. Yesterday in Tsuwano, I visited one of the top five Inari shrines in Japan and watched temple priests perform chants in their traditional garb. This afternoon on the train to Nagasaki, I saw a Japanese nun. This country is filled with contradictions.
I'm interested in Nagasaki because it's where foreign and Japanese cultures have been mixing for centuries. In a country as insular as Japan, cultural fusion is fairly rare. Nagasaki is famous for the atomic bomb, but also for its 'castella cakes,' Dutch-style houses, Chinese food, and cathedrals. I'm curious to see what has been absorbed into the local culture and what stands out as noticeably Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, or Korean. Obviously, the Iberian regard for arriving late never caught on - our train pulled in to Nagasaki station right on time.
Tomorrow I want to see all the sights within the city so that, on Saturday, I can head out to Aso-san and peer into the world's largest active caldera. I want to take a big whiff of the sulfurous air that oozes straight from the earth's core. Unfortunately, a typhoon with estimated 100 mph winds is expected to hit Kyushu tonight. Sightseeing in a hurricane has never really topped my list of favorite things, so I may find a shrine and rattle the bell, appealing to the gods to hear my weather-related prayers. Or, better yet, I'll find a cathedral and light a candle.
Maybe both would be more effective.
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