We are now heading south. We took the Shinkansen on December 19 towards Kumamoto. We left Tokyo at 9:03am and arrived in Kumamoto at 15:23. We want to visit the Kumamoto Castle, Mount Aso and Beppu. Unfortunately when we asked at the information centre the lady told us that Mount Aso and Beppu were closed due to the 2016 earthquake. Also the Kumamoto Castle is in bad shape and it is going through a massive reconstruction. We will have to change our plans for the next couple of days.
We went to see the castle on the outside and the magnitude of the destruction is incredible, what a sad scene in such a beautiful place. We went for a walk around the City Centre and had dinner at a local restaurant.
In the morning of December 20 we visited the Suizenji Park, a traditional and beautiful garden built in 1636. Since we could not visit the places we wanted to see around Kumamoto we will be heading to Nagasaki.
We made an AirB&B reservation; however the address was not clear and the instructions to find the place were very confusing. After a while we finally found it, left our bags and went to the Nagasaki Peace Park.
It is needless to say that most people come to Nagasaki to learn about the disaster that happened on August 6, 1945 due to the atomic bomb. It is not different for us, we are here to learn as much as we can about one of the mayor disasters in human history.
On December 21 we went to the Nagasaki National Peace Memorial Hall for the atomic bomb victims. This place is dedicated to all the victims of the atomic bomb. It is a very sensible place that will touch you deep in your heart.
We then visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, a place where we leaned so much about the war and the nuclear arsenals that many countries have.
In the afternoon we visited the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture, a very interesting museum that shows Japanese culture and historical events.
We then walked to Suwajinja Shrine, a nearby temple.
At night we took the cable car to Inasa-yama, a mountain 333 meters above sea level where we had a nice view of the city.
All Japanese castles and gardens are impressive, aren’t they? I love this country!