What's fun in Nagasaki?

I think the best way to feel settled in Nagasaki and not get home-sick is to go out a lot and explore.
I really enjoy just wandering round the city because there’s tonnes of fun little places, parks, monuments and sights to see.
We also like planning where we could go, for little weekend trips to places like Beppu or Kummamoto (real onsen, macaques, and the samurai village) the penguin park (:D) or the many islands around Nagasaki, such as Gunkanjima, an island made in the shape of a battleship, that used to be home to the prefectures coal miners, now uninhabited and ruined by the waves, it was the setting for the James bond Skyfall baddies hiding place.


We also try to make friends, because that’s the best way to really understand the culture. Me and Chloe now go to tai-chi every Wednesday afternoon with a lady called Ezo-san, and her best friend Fujiko-san.
They both travel the world to see solar eclipses, and have been practically everywhere. They are also trying to learn more English, and are happy to teach us Japanese in exchange.
The tai-chi is pretty difficult, but very fun, and everybody in the group is really lovely.

The session is two and a half hours long, and pretty intense, but they we have a break about halfway and everyone offers round snacks. Last week a lady had just got back for Uzbekistan and gave us dried fruit she'd brought back. She’s called Kanaka-san, and offered to teach us how to do ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) So we're going to her house next week. Fujiko also took us for cakes at a gorgeous little French themed cafe. Giving gifts and treating people is a very big thing in Japan, so we're going to be prepared with snacks at the next session.






On Friday we went to our local haunt, the shopping centre/food court/cinema called Coco walk, just down the road from the hospital. We decided to go for an Italian, due to the two whole fish we got for dinner. It was really cheap and verrry tasty. Then we went on a bit of a wander, trying on shoes for around half an hour, bought some drinks and headed home.

 Due to the kanji on the labels, its hard to tell what most of the drinks are, and what we thought might be cider turned out to be a 9% lemonadey thing, that was pretty nice. I also thought i'd be a good idea to buy sake (not a good idea)
We spent 3 hours watching beyonce videos on you tube and looking up places Chloe would like to get married. It was a fun night XD

On the saturday, when I was feeling a bit better, we headed over to the train station, basically hoping we could get a train to Sasebo, a US navel city on the other side of the prefecture. Luckily there was a train as soon as we got there, so off we went. It was literally the most beautiful train journey I’ve ever been on. The tracks hugged the very edge of the coast almost all the way, so we looked out onto the perfectly calm sea with hazy islands in the distance. It looked like we were in spirited away, on the water train.





Sasebo was nice, a few more westerners than central Nagasaki, and with a shopping arcade that was 1km long. To be fair, we didn’t buy that much, but it was fun to walk down. And there was even the perfect shop for me, a tiny, stuffy second-hand shop in an upstairs room, filled with black flag t-shirts, sisters of mercy posters and a chopper covered in warning tape.

After the arcade, we got some food and sat by the harbour. It had been blue sky all day, and was really nice to watch the boats go out and the jellyfish squidge around. The baskin robbins chocolate orange ice cream was pretty good too.