On October 16th I left for my school trip to Nagasaki. It was so much fun! Nagasaki was beautiful and I had a really good time with all the girls in my class. I got to know a few more of them in the evenings when we had free time at the hotels. So, my trip was 5 days, and we had a really busy schedule. It was really good because I got to see so much of the city, but I was so tired! We did a lot of walking. And Nagasaki has hills. Lots of them. Anyway, this is what my schedule looked like:
Thursday, Oct. 16:
7:00- meet at Hanadea Airport
8:30- Boarding for the 90 min flight to Fukuoka
10:15- Arrive in Fukuoka Airport
11:00- Bus
11:30- Dazaifu Temangu (Temple)
1:45- Bus
2:30- Yoshinogari Site
4:00- Bus
5:30- Hotel
6:30- Dinner
Free Time
11:00- Curfew
Friday, Oct. 17:
6:30- Wake up
7:00- Breakfast
9:10- Bus
9:20- Huis Ten Bosch
1:30- Bus
2:30- Endo Shukasu Museum
3:00- Bus
3:20- De Rotz Memorial Hall
5:00- Bus
6:00- Hotel
7:00- Dinner
Free Time
11:00- Curfew
Saturday, Oct. 18:
6:30- Wake up
7:00- Breakfast
8:30- Walk to Streetcar Station
8:40- Streetcar to 26 Martyrs of Japan site
8:50- 26 Martyrs of Japan
9:50- Free Time to explore Nagasaki in our small groups! No Teachers! Our group went to the Kofukuji Temple; Ryoma's Boots, museum, and statue (Ryoma Sakamoto was a famous Samurai); Megane Bashi, the famous ice cream stand that sells rose-shaped ice cream cones; Lunch; Dejima; Chinatown; and the oldest Christian church in Japan.
5:00- Hotel
6:00- Dinner
8:00- Speech from Atomic Bomb Survivor
11:00- Curfew
Sunday, Oct. 19:
6:30- Wake up
7:00- Breakfast
8:15- Bus
8:40- Nyokodo
9:50- Peace Park
11:10- Bus
11:30- Lunch at a Chinese restaurant
12:50- Glover Gardens
2:15- Bus
4:15- Walk to Hotel through a hot spring park. It looked a lot like Yellowstone.
5:00- Hotel
7:00- Dinner
Free Time
11:30- Curfew
Monday, Oct. 20:
6:30- Wake up
7:00- Breakfast
8:10- Bus
8:45- Mt. Unzen Disaster Memorial Hall
9:50- Bus
10:00- Ferry Boat ride
10:15- Port
10:50- Bus
12:30- Lunch (obento box)
1:50- Bus
2:50- Fukuoka Airport
3:45- Board flight for Hanadea Airport
5:20- Arrival in Hanadea Airport and go home.
Somewhere in there we had mass two times, but the schedule is in Japanese and I can't read it. Besides where it says bus. So, I filled in the rest using my pictures and many pamphlets that I acquired during the trip. Now, rather than talking about every single thing, which would take forever, I'm just going to write about some of the best parts. You can get a pretty good idea of what everything else is by looking at my pictures and the captions, which I spent a really long time writing. For every single one of the 304 pictures. If you need the link to those, just send me an email and I'll send it to you.
Probably my favorite place was Huis Ten Bosch. It is a huge amusement park that is like the Netherlands. People even live there! It is twice the size of Disneyland. It was really fun. But it wasn't an amusement park like with roller coasters and stuff. It looks like I went to Europe!
The Yoshinogari Site was really interesting. It is thought to be the capitol of Japan about 6000 years ago! That was right when they started growing rice. It was fun to wander around and go in the different building and see what Japan looked like 6000 years ago. And we got to wear those sweet hats!
I am really glad I got to go to Peace Park. The museum was really sad. There were some pretty graphic pictures and stories. It really was a horrible thing that happened and I hope it never happens again. I learned a lot about it that we didn't go over in our U.S. History class last year in school.
Aso san, the active volcano, was pretty cool, too.
The best day was Saturday because we got to go off on our own. It was really fun to go with no teacher and with only 7 other people rather than 77. We had tons of fun, but we walked so much! I don't have a clue how far. A few miles at least.
Megane Bashi (Spectacles Bridge- because when it reflects in the water it looks like a pair of spectacles)
Ryoma and myself
My friends and I on the bus from the airport back in Yokohama.
