Alright. Spent the last 4 days in Nagasaki and pretty much covered everything in that small city. Some of the places and thoughts i have of the place, wont be much and not sure if i will ever get down to elaborate once they passes my mind...

PART I
Nagasaki City (accomodation)
Was staying in a little minshuku (ming2 shu4) or inn just behind the bus terminal. The inn keeper was very nice and spoke little english though on first glance the place looked really dodgy and old. There is a common bath and toilet, and we slept on tatami mats... In general, a very japanese inn experience and the place sort of grows on you. The heating was adequate and the inn-keeper puts out the bath for us each time we come back after a long day which was really nice. This must be my first experience of bathing, the japanese way, where you scrub yourself up, rinsed before soaking in a bathtub full of hot water. Very very relaxing and soothing really. I can see why japanese enjoy this. After the bath, we put on japanese robes and drink green tea and eat little cakes. All this and quite cheap (in japan standards) as well, as long as you do not mind the smell of kerosene in the middle of the night from the hallway heater.

Nagasaki City (transport)
Nothing much interesting about this except they uses tram mainly and its generally cheaper than buses (Y100 for one way to anywhere within the city) though the coverage is not as extensive as the buses. Still, it gets you to most sights in Nagasaki itself.

Atomic Bomb Museum, Peace Garden, Hypocentre
These places are just about 5 tram stops away from the main railway station (nagasaki eki) and not difficult to find. It is actually still quite disturbing to think about the bomb and it sort of tinted my thoughts for a bit. And i would be wondering would i be still left alive while visiting various parts of the city, when the bomb dropped? The A bomb museum was very informative about the effects and explained what exactly happened when the bomb exploded on august 9th at 11.02am. It is quite unimaginable how much devastation it has caused within 3 seconds of detonation. It is not a memory bear remembering nor a memory easily forgotten. The videos depleting the victims was too horrifying for words. It was not a museum meant to garner just sympathy for the victims nor push the blame on the Allied forces. In fact, they have been quite candid about their role in world war two as well. I think facts would be facts and it is already horrifying enough without anymore embellishment. The main thing is, no one wants to have a repeat of that or to have a nuclear war on our hands. Everyone else is someone elses family and loved ones.

To confess, i did not enjoy this experience in the museum very much. While going around the peace garden, i was quite ambivalent towards a war that had happened before my generation and there has not been much meaning in it for me personally but once you are confronted by what a war and do, listen to what the victims had to say, touched the very items which had stood in the presence of that war, it is difficult to remain detached and feel ambivalent or even academic about it. I guess i have finally stepped out of the history books and breathed real air.