Date: March 1, 2012
Cruise Ship: Diamond Princess
Nagasaki is famous because of the opera - Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly". In 1904, a U.S. Naval officer, Pinkerton, rents a house on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan for him and his soon-to-be wife, Butterfly. Her real name is Cio-Cio San, (Cio-Cio, pronounced "Chocho", is Japanese for Butterfly).
Nagasaki is also a sad place - atomic bomb dropped here during World War II.
It was raining on the day when we were there. We used local street car to take us to the Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum. The other famous place is the historical Catholic Urakami Cathedral. It rained too hard, we all got wet.
Diamond Princess is built by Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyard. We did not have any chance to see the detail of the city, its China town or Chinese temple. Maybe, we can do re-visit in some other time.
The city is not big, the transportation is convenient by street cars. The street car is not new, it is pretty antique but with good flavour. The city has opened to foreigners for a long time, so the people are more friendly. The scenic is not that great at a rainy day. Many famous baked goods stores along the hill to the famous catholic church. I believe it is Japan's first port opened to westerners. There is a photo of old Shanghai Bank at Nagasaki.
On a streetcar ride
Admission to atomic bomb museum
