It’s always a big deal for me when I make it down to a new part of Japan for the first time.  I still have quite a few regions on my bucket list (Hokkaido sticks out like a sore thumb) but Kyushuu was a pretty big omission.  And it can be very cheap to fly there on one of Japan’s discount airlines – much cheaper than the Shinkansen, in fact, though hardly as pleasant.  So I decided to head down there for a few days during my brief summer holidays.  I flew into Fukuoka and back from Nagasaki, but given my time constraints was sadly only able to spend about 24 hours in the former.

This was an interesting trip for me in many ways, among them my first exposure to a capsule hotel (in Nagasaki).  It was overall better than I expected, certainly a great value, and at this point in my life I would take it over a shared hostel dorm any day of the week.  There’s a roulette factor with snorers of course (the second night was brutal), but on the whole there was a feeling of reasonable privacy and not overwhelmingly one of claustrophobia (though I’m not especially sensitive to that).

I saw enough of Hakata (Fukuoka) to know I need to go back for more.  I’ve heard very good things about the city as one of Japan’s most liveable, and I can certainly see that.  Like Kobe, it seems neither too big or too small.  There’s an abundance of rivers with attractive walking paths, a bustling modern downtown and a thriving nightlife area.  It’s also the birthplace of Hakata ramen, and after having eaten hundreds of bowls of it all over the world, I couldn’t not commemorate finally having one at the source of the spring.  Hakata is also very close to Dazaifu, one of Japan’s most important historical cities – it was basically the governing capital of southern Japan for many years.

The bulk of my time was spent in Nagasaki and close by, and the city did not disappoint me.  It’s a fascinating place if one is drawn by history – but so much of that history is tragic in nature.  The atomic bomb is the most obvious element there, and the Nagasaki Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum are every bit as shattering as you would expect them to be.  But there’s also the matter of Nagasaki’s complicated relationship with foreigners.  It’s always been Japan’s most open city – even at the height of isolation first Portuguese, then Dutch were allowed here (in quarantined districts) and as a result it (like Kobe) feels very international.  That applies to the food, like the weird “Turukku Rice” (supposedly Turkish but not hardly, a melange of Neapolitan spaghetti, tonkatsu and rice) and a twist on the American milkshake with sorbet and condensed milk (delicious).  Nagasaki is perhaps most famous for its overtly Chinese-influenced Champon and Zaru Soba.

But there’s a dark side to all this, exemplified by the treatment of Christians after relations between the missionaries and the Shogunate went south.  Christianity became quite popular in Nagasaki and the Japanese government saw it as a real threat, and cracked down hard.  All this culminated in the crucifixion of 26 Christians (including women and boys) by the government in 1597.  As with the atomic blast of 1945, echoes of this event can be found all across Nagasaki even today, and it seems very much etched into the city’s psyche.

Despite all that darkness, though, Nagasaki is a very upbeat and gregarious town.  It reminds me of my beloved San Francisco in many ways – incredible (and incredibly hilly) natural setting, streetcars clanging away, Chinatown (and a huge Chinese population generally).  It’s also absolutely overrun by cats, who adore its uneven terrain for all the safe retreats it provides them.  Most of these cats are feral in the sense of not having owners, but they seem to have little fear of humans for the most part and many are outright friendly.  Probably the highlight of Nagasaki in terms of attractions was Glover Garden, the collection of Western houses overlooking the bay.  I went for a night visit (only possible in summer) and followed that by a climb to the top of nearby Nabekanmuriyama Park for its incredible night view.

On this trip I also took the bus up to Unzen Onsen, a little town on the slopes of the very seismically active Mt. Unzen.  A lovely place, but most strikingly absolutely awash in myriad species of beautiful tombo (dragonfly) – one of the hallmarks of summer in Japan.  As well I headed out to the famous “Battleship Island”, Gunkanjima – the former Mitsubishi undersea coal mine which housed as many as 5000 people in its limited space before shuttering in 1974.  It’s been rediscovered as a tourist attraction – a new dock built and a few viewing platforms added.  The forlorn, twisted skeletons of its massive buildings make an unforgettable sight (though it would be all the more so if not surrounded by tourists).