Of course I am back in Japan yet again - Oct and Nov 2018 - Page 7

Here, by special request, is the DUTCH SLOPE. I read a sign, apparently the Japanese called every white person Dutch and this is where they lived. I guess there are a few western style houses, and there are certainly catholic churches, but it was really just a hill to walk up and keep going.

The view was already awesome in the early morning light.

Now it was time to walk up the stairs along side the old person assisted hydraulic chair system that goes up a really long way. As you can see there are a couple of semi circular lookout spots on the way up, you can bet as I ascended the stairs I appreciated the view from each of them.

Cat of the day is cat of the trip so far! He has found the best spot to sleep. He briefly opened one eye to tell me to get lost, but otherwise was not moving.

It was now time for me to ascend through some little farms up a staircase, another cruise ship has docked already.

The lookout at Nabekanmuri park is highly developed, theres a public toilet, coke machines and a small car park. This one is closer to my hotel so it might be my 'night view' lookout on of the nights I am here, the other one is a much longer walk up a dark road where I will probably get run over.

The view from up here is no less spectacular than yesterdays awesome view, so I took a lot of shots of the view.

You can see yesterdays view spot across the water about a quarter of the way from the left edge, the towers on the top.

One last of the view from up here before I press on!

I found what happens to all the coke cans from the wall of vending machines located around the base of the lookout.

In attempting to get to the next lookout I went up through a cemetery. This one allowed you out the back way so I did not have to double back like previous cemeteries.

The second peak lookout spot however was no go. This is shot through a huge barbed wire and razor wire fence. It all looks abandoned but you cannot get in to look at the view. Oh well, time to keep going around to the next peak!

In getting to this lookout I went along a series of forest paths behind the main ridge, it was very quiet, but there were huge spiders everywhere threatening to eat me whole. I had to carry a big stick in front of me most of the way so I did not take any photos of the path. The lookout itself was not the best, it needed to be higher, and more importantly, it needed to be at the other end of the park.

Here is the view of the park, as you can see, the sea on the other side of the ISTHUMUS that has Nagasaki on it is just visible. If they had of built a lookout at the far end of the park the view would have been spectacular. There also was not a breath of wind, despite this a guy tried to fly a kite, quite an old guy, it was amusing to watch for a few minutes.

After lookout 2 I got really lost, and ended up wandering through farmers fields and climbing fences. I was following what was marked on my phone as a path. This allowed me to get a good view of the sea, this tiny seaside town and the mountains on the other side of the harbour. So it was worth it.

There were still however lots of farms to cross. Here is an orange grove. People picking various fruits seemed very confused to see me. No one offered me an orange. My camera has made the blue sky a strange blue here...it seems to do that.

I was actually quite relieved to get back to a road! A few things marked as roads were not roads at all. That is the entrance to the tunnel under the hills that goes right into central Nagasaki, I couldnt go that way, I would have to cross back over the mountains! Even if I could go that way I would still go back over the mountains.

After following a highly developed area of the mountains I found this peak sticking up. Challenge accepted.

There are no roads in this area, just steps and paths that look like they are peoples driveways. Oh well, I will just keep going until I cant.

A good bet is to follow the drain, thats normally a path that doesnt end suddenly.

I was very happy to find this sign, which tells me the way to go to the top of the little mountain. Despite this sign I still got lost 3 times going up from this point. Being a postman here is a challenging job.

Once on the path, it was dark and mysterious. I think its a genuinely old path.

I approached the shrine from the back, where the shrine makers had discarded the excess boulders. They are fun to roll down the hills.

And here is the mountain shrine. It did not appear to have anyone looking after it in recent times.

The path down the front of the little mountain back towards Nagasaki was also stone steps and easy to follow. As there was no view from the top (annoying) I took this photo of the view as soon as it appeared. It looks just like all the other view shots!

My journey back through the streets of Nagasaki took me past many shrines. I could not resist the long staircase up to this one. Because it is built on the edge of a cliff its impossible to get a clear shot. That didnt stop me from almost plummeting to my death trying. Lots of people really do plummet to their death taking photos lately.

Literally next door is the red version of the shrine. The competing brown (made from stone) versus red (made from timber) shrine. Who will win? You decide!

After a visit to the 100 yen bakery where it took some time to explain I did not need everything individually wrapped and bagged because I will eat it right now, I arrived back at my hotel. Right out the front, Japanese children were putting on a display welcoming the Chinese cruise ship tourists coming to Japanese Chinatown to buy instant noodles.
Another great day of hill wandering completed!

Tonight I followed a tram line, so I took photos of trams. Here is a tram from above. It now occurs to me that I have not ridden on a tram and probably wont, because I enjoy walking too much. Trams are only for when its raining.

Here we have the Cocowalk mall. It is very large. I think it has replaced everything else that used to be in Urakami.

It has a ferris wheel. I have been on many ferris wheels but did not feel a need to go on this one. I must be getting really old, they are now more excitement than I can handle.

Ahhh, the bustling city centre of Urakami.

I retreated back to the highway and found this place with a tram running under it. I also wanted to run under it, but I would be run over by a tram if I tried.

This is the inside of the shopping centre. It looks like you are outside. Its an indoor outdoor brick paved semi abandoned shopping and English teaching centre.

Despite the lack of options, the one option I did find was pretty good. Tonight only, your choice of pasta with any salad free! TONIGHT ONLY? How could I possibly pass up such a bargain that would never ever be repeated. It was very nice! They provided a couple of different chilli sauces to drink from.

My journey home took me past the peace park, and also the pink peace park motel and pachinko parlour. I bought a few balls and won a voucher for a free salad at the pasta shop.

Its the Huis Ten Bosch express, for $40 (each way) it will take you to a theme park based on Holland with windmills and tulips that costs only $100 to enter! Seriously it costs more than Disneyland!

I remembered the nearby bridge had a good view in the morning, how is it at night? Hmm, not as good. But it did help me get over my 40,000 step daily goal, mission accomplished. That is some serious star beams on the right.

Why is this place open at 9pm? Who needs a broom or a basket at 9pm? Why is this store in a residential street that is otherwise pitch black? Surely its a front for something?

Final photo tonight is the mini Huis Ten Bosch located right here in Nagasaki. Well its on the right edge of this picture. To contain the Portuguese who the Japanese refer to as Dutch, they made them all live on an artificial island. It now has re-created churches and coffee bars and a $10 entry fee. I bet I can get a tart from there. But probably not a purple sweet potato tart. I now eat purple sweet potato tarts exclusively.

Do you think this guy missed an r or does steet mean something and I am too old to understand?

My hotel is there somewhere. I know I sound old but, HOW ABOUT THIS WEATHER? I have had 3 weeks of perfect weather, the only 2 grey days were when I spent all day on a plane or a train.

This is where you get the boat to Gunkanjima island. I considered it briefly but google told me the boat takes you around it, they may not even let you off, and if they do there is UP TO a 200 metre path you are allowed to walk along. Interesting sign though.

I dont know what this building is but it is very near to the expensive to gawk at Glover garden.

There really is a different cruise ship every day. They have a little mini market set up each morning. The tourists visiting for the day were just getting off as I arrived. You can see them being marched along to their tour buses behind the fence. Some would visit the bridge. Some would probably go to the Dutch theme park.

Eventually much later in the day I would be all the way over the other side staring at those ships being built from behind a fence.

I dont think this is a church. I dont think its religious in anyway. I think its just a wedding hall where Japanese people have their 'western wedding' without mention of Jesus and without some old guy giving you his permission to fornicate with your new wife and produce fresh meat for the church to abuse. I dont dodge the issues.

I thought this photo would turn out better than it did. It likely needs a lot of editing to make the background separate from the rusty foreground without making the colors of both weird.

My walk around the old shipping yards was very interesting. At first glance it appears abandoned but often there were some old weathered geezers hanging around waiting for a boat to arrive that needs some rusty bits replaced with even rustier bits.

Ahh, there she is. You could see a bit of the bridge above, but this is your first glance of the bridge in all its bridgey glory.

I had already come a long way from down town Nagasaki, a very interesting walk, and not a single hill to climb over!

First I had to loop around under the bridge to get up onto the bridge where I will say the word bridge even more than I have been saying it so far.

I found a spot to take a photo of NOTHING BUT BRIDGE.

A lot of cruise ship bus tour groups were taking photos here. So I did also. Of course I waited for my chance when there were no other people. There was also a public toilet here! Presumably to stop people urinating off the bridge.

Traffic was very sparse and slow on the bridge. I felt as though it was perfectly safe to stand in the middle of the road. I still suspected the police might come and yell at me, but they did not.

Obviously the views from the bridge were pretty good. A bit windy today (by that I mean gentle breeze) so not a lot of smoke to ruin the view. This is the view away from Nagasaki. You can tell because you cant see Nagasaki.

A hydrofoil going to one of the many islands went past at great speed. They must really damage the sea life and ocean floor. There is an even bigger ship building yard on that island in the distance.

There is Nagasaki. The enormous cruise ship looks pathetic and tiny from here.

Last shot from the bridge because of the huge solar farm along the rivers edge. Strange place for it I thought.

While crossing the bridge I spotted a shrine on one of the hills. So now I had to figure out how to get to it. It wasnt difficult but you do have to find the road that goes back under the bridge and kind of go backwards. There is a sign though. I think if you want to walk over this bridge you will be able to find the shrine. I provide helpful directions for future generations of bridge crossers.

Its a shrine, and the bridge lurking behind it. I like to presume the shrine exists to appease the earthquake gods into not destroying the bridge.

The shrine is clearly the best place to view the bridge from. Tour bus tourists miss out. SUCK IT LOSERS. Walking a 30km loop is far better than sitting on a bus.

I think a lot of idiots like to come here and enjoy the view, because everyone has left their sake bottles and vodka cans lined up. Someone even left their esky?

Shortly after the shrine I had to make a decision, more exploration on foot or head for home... I voted for more exploration and was soon back down at sea level, taking very low photos of the sea.

The entire coast was littered with little fishing ports like this. They look more like recreational fishers rather than commercial 'sweep the ocean floor clean' fishing fleets.

I was looking for a tiny island you can walk out to, this was not it.

The path to my tiny island was filled with a huge amount of disturbing rubbish, it was a bit annoying! I tried my best to not photograph all the abandoned floats and life jackets.

The far side of the filthy path revealed a causeway to a tiny island, time to get down low and take another photo. This is not used for anything anymore, they used to tie the dolphin hunting fleet up here and cut their delicious fins off.

The far side of the tiny island revealed an ancient sea wall, one that has defended Japan against hundreds of tsunamis.

Again this area was filled with rubbish, but I found a nice angle where you cant notice it. I liked the colors here.

If only I could walk more than 30km at a time, I could go around there also! Not today, it was time to head back and do my washing.

The bay has lots of tiny islands, all kinds of weird stuff has happened on them over thousands of Meiji restorations.

I found a supermarket to buy mass manufactured sushi for lunch. And I found this cat. Then more cats appeared. And eventually I had to flee! There were 10 of them at least eyeing off my sushi.

A tunnel appeared! I love tunnels nearly as much as bridges. Its not the same view but its a cool opportunity to stand in the traffic and mess about with all the settings on your camera while fuel tankers approach! There were actually 2 tunnels I went through, this one was long and had curves in it, but they both had pedestrian walkways.

Another fishing boat area around near the Mitsubishi factory. I like the THREEDEENESS of this photo. My new trend by the way is to capitalize words I make up. Also the code editor thing I use to type this into only has an American dictionary for spell check, so I generally use z instead of s like in capitalize cause I hate the red squiggly line.

I did it! I actually succeeded in featuring the bridge and the tunnel in the same photo. I am a certifiable genius.

Here is the Mitsubishi heavy engineering ship building factory number 7. The whole complex goes for many miles, generally there is a huge fence. In this gap in the fence I think I can see a warship being built.

I still had to get back around to there, where the cruise ship is, or a bit to the left of it. Time to get my jog on or I will never get back.

Last photo for today, great colors again here, these boats have been blown up a sewer. I did not expect boats on canals but there actually were numerous areas just like this.

Here is a spooky drain after I beat a retreat from a spooky forest that prevented me from taking a night shot of Nagasaki.

Near the drain was this row of shops and houses, with strange colored lighting. It was over the road from a huge graveyard, perhaps the red lights are to ward off evil spirits.

Even though I was right on the edge of the city, there were a few shops still open. Closer inspection revealed all of them (7 in total) to be fancy bakeries. All within a hundred or so metres of each other. Why would they all open in this small area?

I never rode a tram in Nagasaki. Tomorrow I have to take a bus to the airport. The airport floats in the sea and has no train!

My retreat down the hill went through another closed shopping street. The places that were open make no sense to me. Florists, a mens suit shop, but the restaurants were closed?

Now we start our trio of food pics. This is PLASTIFIED champon lard noodles.

And here is real LARDIFIED ramen. I hate it when the picture shows the egg cut in half and then they are too lazy to cut it and give you the full egg instead. I always try and cut it in half with chopsticks as shown here. Have you ever tried to use a chopstick as a knife???

Finally, evidence that I have consumed a donut. I will deny this later in court and reserve the right to delete this photo at any time and deny all knowledge.

Not many photos today but I did make an effort to get some! I was awoken at 5:30AM so decided to get straight out of bed and run up another hill in the dark for a photo of the dawn. The first couple of stair cases I took ended in dead ends at shrines, so I took a dark shrine photo.

I was now a bit too late for the best of the red clouds when I found a view spot (its cloudy now) but I made the most of what was left of it.

Nice smooth clouds.

So many great spots to enjoy a view are ruined by wires and poles. Also people tend to build a big house with a private view enjoying area to prevent anyone else from enjoying the view.

Happy with making the most of my last chance for Nagasaki view, I descended back down for breakfast, and spotted this crane under the bridge. This reminded me, a couple of nights ago I took a photo of a dark river and theres a crane in that photo also. I am offering a reward if you can spot it and tell me the number of the photo in the comments.

OK, heres something unusual! In many respects. This is actually a photo from my phone, I went to the effort of importing it and including it in the export to my website etc because I got feedback it was awesome. The other unusual thing is the aisle seats. As you board this bus and the normal seats are full, you fold down an extra seat that hangs off the normal seats and sit in the aisle! This would make an evacuation in a fire very difficult! Luckily my bus did not catch fire but there have been numerous bus fires that killed almost everyone on board!
Btw, my skin is not that smooth or white. All Samsung phones selfie cams have beautification baked in that cannot be fully disabled. It is designed to make Asian (Korean) faces skinnier, smoother, and most alarmingly, whiter. Apple actually did the same thing and had to fix it with a patch...they chose not to fix it in Korea!

I was not planning to take this photo but I have a story. Before these kids assembled for this photo they did a very loud countdown for Santa to appear, even though he was standing next to the stage. So in Japanese 10, 9, 8.......,3 2, 1... you get the idea. Santa leaps on stage and starts waving etc. and the kids instinctively broke into a song sung to the tune of old Macdonald had a farm? Is that the default Japan xmas song?

The airport has a cool lookout, its on an island but there is a hill, so its not completely man made, they added onto a real island.

Those mountains across the water are the reason why the airport has to be in the sea. There is nowhere flat near Nagasaki. I proved that over the last few days.

Boring photo of departure area shops.

I was early enough to appreciate all the attractions, included these 3 tyres! You may joke but I was very interested in how the smaller jets and larger jets have almost the same size tyres, the larger jets just have a lot more of them.

Now here is my APA in Kanda, which is the station between Akihabara and Tokyo. It is very new and modern. Theres a huge tv taking up the entire wall at the foot of the bed. It is probably the biggest APA room I ever stayed in actually. Cheap too! About $100 a night on average even though its Tokyo and includes a weekend.

It also has a view of the Skytree. I dont know how this photo worked out as well as it did because my room window does not open so this was shot through glass. The glass also has fine wire mesh running through it, but you cant see it at all in the photo. I dont get it at all. I guess with the huge lens stopped down to f6.3 the aperture is small enough to miss those wires. OK thats enough boring photography talk, I have a lot of steps to get this evening!

Cigarette shops are very different in Japan. Advertising is still everywhere. Big posters, billboards, bikini girls, vending machines.

Right near Kanda there is a cool walkway where you can set up a couple of long exposures like this one....

....and also this one.

This is one of the very new looking shopping centres near the imperial palace. The xmas lights show is all choreographed to music. The worst xmas song of all, the stupid one by Paul McCartney... having a wonderful Christmas time. The wrong Beatle got shot.

Ahh, here we have the Tokyo tower. Hard to believe I had never been here before. It is in a weird spot.

I took 2 photos of it, although I like the above one more.

These are actually real. I am used to seeing fake ones made out of timber.

The streets of Roppongi were busy and colorful. I saw a Russian family having their usual middle of the street screaming match. Which reminds me, I also passed the Russian embassy. I held my breath in case they had some Novichok brewing ready to give Shinzo Abe who is currently negotiating the disputed islands off the Northern coast with Putin.

Not Gucci, Prada. Looks like Gucci though.

This is Takeshita street. If you Australian and have been to Japan you have been here.

Here is the other end!

And finally, here is my spicy chicken burrito bowl, just like in Australia! The serving was smaller and they give you more of their fried tortilla things, but other than that, exactly the same! There were a lot of Australians in here too.