Japan 2023

Bullet train to Nagasaki on our Kyushu pass, then back late afternoon. We walked to Hakata station, feeling we knew the route well enough to try small variations, and booked tickets with our pass. The people doing the bookings were amazing: the systems worked quickly, and they would give us a few options in English, then issue seat reservation cards that went with the pass, all neatly stashed away in a red "Kyushu rail" envelope.
On the trip to Nagasaki the announcer apologised for a 3 min delay on a shinkansen, but I think the driver (if there was one) was happy sitting on 250kph or so. Wollstonecraft might have more frequent trains and perhaps more comfortable seats, but TfNSW can’t make your ears pop.

Very sunny and a near perfect temperature for wandering around (except in the midday November sun).

Walked to the Peace Park, then back through the back streets and the old merchant city. The epicentre area was sad, but it was almost consumed by light-industrial sprawl, as if even to the locals it did not really matter. Rumours that we too tried to mimic the statue are false ones created months later by one or both sons.

Nagasaki has cats with bent tails. Out of pity, we didn't photograph the one we saw first... an then we didn't see another after we read that it was genetic. We walked along the bay that had had the only area in which westerners were permitted for several hundred years, and saw some rather grand houses that had been built by westerners once they were allowed to live other than on their dedicated island.

Back in Fukuoka we walked to the hotel (15 mins), then back along the river near the station where street restaurants popped up at night. The guide books were very enthusiastic, but they were crowded and a little touristy (although not nearly as bad as the brightly-lit tourist ferries that karaoked their way up and down.

23,281/16.95km and 15.En savoir plus