Nagasaki

Well, we`re almost up to date now thanks to the wonderful internet and the lovely Akari International Hostel in Nagasaki, which is where I am now.
We arrives yesterday, its actually really lovely to be back at a hostel and meeting fellow travellers again, staying in (albeit budget) hotels in Japan can get a bit lonely. This hostel is fantastic though and we`ve been making our own food (we bith admitted to each other yesterday that we were growing a little tired of sushi and soba!).

Today we visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb museum, peace park and hypocentre of where the bomb went off. It was really harrowing and we both feel very reflective and sad now. I can`t believe such a thing happened and also that England had in some part something to do with it. I couldn`t help crying when reading a story about a child who was trying to rescue its 2 year old sister from being trapped under a pillar, everyone, including the fire brigade, had tried to remove the pole, but had given up. Then they spotted a lady running over, completely naked and burned all over, the child realised it was her mother and knew that everything would be ok. Her mother looked at the pole and then lifted it up with some kind of superhuman strength. The child was rescued but then they realised that the mother was in an awful state and that she was bleeding from where her skin had stuck to the pole. She died that night.
There were so many awful stories like that, it was so so sad. The worst part was that the second half of the museum focused on how atomic weapons are still being tested and built around the world to this day, and on the peace efforts which are trying to irradicate it. It just makes no sense after seeing the devastation it causes and I feel so cross about it now!
Well, sorry for the depressing post, but thats been the mood of today (in the best possible way), its even rained a little bit.
Peace park was lovely though, there is a beautiful fountain in the shape of doves wings so that you remember all of the people who died longing for water. There was also hundreds and hundreds of paper cranes everywhere, some in garlands and others making beautiful pictures. There was lots of peace art and the whole place ha d avery peaceful and reflective feel about it.

I echo Hannah`s comments about the museum. It was probably the best museum i have been to and it is very thought provoking. It seems strange that after such a horrific event we still are determined to destroy humanity in a similar fashion.

xxx