The michi-no-eki that we stayed in last night happened to have free spring water. After we spent money (only ¥100) filling half of our bottles up. But, we still had a few empty bottles to make the most of the free and delicious water.
There was a fancy onsen nearby, so we headed to that for an early morning bathe. A little too early, as we arrived (and started queuing) before the doors had even opened. It was a good onsen, using real onsen water and even having one bath that was scented/infused with tea-leaves.
Nagasaki City was still a few hours drive away, so we had to get into serious driving mode if we wanted to see anything during the day. We headed straight to the atomic bomb museum for another dose of sorrow. This one was much smaller than the one in Hiroshima, and also felt a lot tackier, almost, almost bordering on amusement park in one area. There were still the annoying students, though their numbers were much less (but, the area was also much smaller). A lot of the same information, but that was to be expected. It was still a good museum, but not as much of an impact at the one in Hiroshima (though, if we’d visited in a different order my opinions could be reversed).
Risa had also been suggested that we visit a Chinese restaurant in town, and after our feasting yesterday, we couldn’t resist. We were told that it was a Nagasaki speciality, and had to be tried. The dishes that we tried were Nagasaki chanpon and Nagasaki saraudon. The chanpon had crispy fried noodles underneath a blandish mix of vegetables and a single meatball, the saraudon were thin flat egg noodle in an equally bland tonkotsu (pork bone) soup. We were quite disappointed. Oh well, it’s supposed to be good, but maybe we had a dud restaurant.
From here we went and had a look a park by the docks, which reminded us that we had to organise a tour that we wanted to take tomorrow, to an abandoned mining island. We must have spent two-hours making phone calls (and searching online) for the options that would work for us. It got to the point where I was tired and ready to give up. Eventually Risa found a company that didn’t require advanced credit card bookings and didn’t leave super early in the morning. The only catch, we had to catch a ferry via another island and have a complimentary onsen. Bummer!
It was nearly 9PM and I was exhausted. There were no michi-no-ekis around the town, so we had a search for beaches. Risa found one about 10km from where we were, and after a bit of searching (and darkened mountain driving) we were there.
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