Miho's visit (April 28 - May 2)

DAY 1

Despite the long travel from Kochi city to Nagasaki (left at 4am only to arrive in Nagasaki at 6pm!), she had enough energy to start sightseeing around Nagasaki as soon as she arrived!

There's the 'port festival' going on for 3 days this weekend. I'd never been, so it was something new for the both of us. Along the famous Dejima Port (the only port where foreigners were allowed to dock during the Edo period when Japan was completely closed to non-Japanese), lots of ships were docked having made the trip from Russia to here. I'm not sure why Russian ships come here....but it was kinda cool to see. As we wandered around the Dejima area, we saw tons of Russian sailors, most of whom couldn't speak a word of English or Japanese! According to one of the sailors we were talking to, it's a 45 day trip from Russia to Nagasaki!

We also went to China town (where all the food is overpriced..!)

I spent a little too much time in the sun today, and am looking like a tomato now...with racoon eyes...hopefully the redness fades away quickly..!!!

Later in the evening, we watched the fireworks over the port. No festival is ever complete in Japan with fireworks. (picture taken with cell phone, cos they turn out much better than with my camera....).


DAY 2

I was hoping to be able to visit the military base store in Sasebo today to see what English OS Toshiba laptops are available. But, it didn’t work out..I think I’m just going to get one from Canada and ask my parents to ship it to me.

So instead of Sasebo, Miho and I spent the day in the beautiful quaint town of Unzen, where we visited jigoku (hell).

We couldn’t pass up the foot bath as we walked by.

The smell of sulphur is a little overwhelming..!
On the way back to Nagasaki, we drove by Aino town, famous for jyaga chan (potatoes). I had heard of jyaga chan but had never tried it until today. It’s delicious!! (but extremely oily..)

Back in Nagasaki, we visited a champon restaurant suggested by Uchida sensei yesterday, where we had to wait for 40 minutes before being seated. This is the best champon I’ve tasted in Nagasaki!

DAY 3

The nurse at my school organized a kaihori (clam catching) day in Shimabara. We met up with Erica and Maki at the port in Shimabara, then headed to the beach where we joined two of my collegues from school.

This was the strangest type of clam catching I’ve ever done (actually, is the only kind I’ve done). Using a ‘scoop’, you dig a shallow hole until you see holes in the ground. Then you put salt into the holes and up pop up these strange looking clams!

When they pop up, you try to grab them..!

Here's the kaihori gang before calling it a day.

When we got home, Miho and I tried to cook them…it turned out to be a little bit of a disaster...I think next time I do kaihori, I will find someone to give the clams to!

DAY 3

Back to work I go..Miho wandered around sightseeing downtown while I was at work. Afterwards, we met up for dinner.

DAY 4

I saw Miho off at the train station on my way to work this morning...these past few days just flew by! The rest of the day was spent at work, nothing too interesting to report. I felt drained when I got home. I just wanted to soak in a nice warm bath and go to bed.

Which I did right after ordering my new computer!!

I decided to order online from Best Buy and have an English OS laptop shipped to Japan. Although having a Japanese OS would have helped with improving my Japanese, I would have found it too frustrating...I'm constantly surrounded by Japanese speaking people, and sometimes am not able to understand or communicate ideas clearly. When it comes to my computer, I don't want to have to struggle!

I can't wait to get to know my new laptop!!

Tomorrow is the start of the 3 day Golden Week holiday. May will be arriving in Nagasaki after a 17 hour bus ride down from Tokyo. I'm looking forward to seeing her again! I hope that she will enjoy her time in Nagasaki as much as I enjoyed Tokyo!