statutes at porcelain museum unfortunately not for sale

Peace statute in Peace Park

Cherry blossom in bloom

In front of Atomic Bomb museum

Part of our lunch

Atomic Bomb Museum

Our lunch

Our lunch, Thank God for the strawberry and orange slice

Arita, Japan Porcelain factory

Nagasaki, Japan

March 29, 2012

Our tour today was a trip to the countryside where porcelain is made.  We headed to the town of Arita where all the porcelain is made.  We were supposed to go to a Kiln, museum, lunch and then shopping for porcelain.  It was called China on the park and Arita.  Well some man on the bus started to complain that he wanted to go to Peace park and the Atomic bomb museum.  I purposely did not book a tour there because I had no interest in seeing the atomic bomb museum.   Well the tour guide called and changed the whole tour.  So we went to the kiln for 20 minutes instead of the original 45.  It was very interesting.  People sitting with their legs crossed on the floor hand painting the pottery and making it.  Very uncomfortable position it looks like. The museum we were only there 10 minutes they had porcelain dating back to the 16th century we could not watch the movie as there was no time. We were taken to an authentic Japense restaurant for lunch where we had to take our shoes off.  They did put up tables but the floor was covered with bamboo and the Japense people usually eat sitting on the floor.  It looked lovely.  Everyone had their own ceramic box of food.  Well here we go I opened the box and the only thing I recogonized was a shrimp whose eyes were staring at me,  Something else looked like squid or octopus.  Everything was SEAFOOD.  There was a small dish inside with a strawberry and 2 slices of orange.  Yeah there’s my lunch.  There was a smaller box that contained shasami (sp) and then for dessert TOFU.... We then  headed the 1 1/2 hours back to Nagasaki to go to the Atomic bomb museum and Peace park. We drove 1 1/2 hours and we spent 1 1/2 hours there.

Now I am not a happy camper.  The lunch was all seafood and unidentifiable objects.  So  NO SHOPPING AND NO LUNCH... We were suppose to be back at the ship at 4:00pm but didn’t get back until after 4:30 and I had a 4:45 appt to have my hair colored and cut!!!!! By the time I walked through the terminal and got to the Spa it is now almost 5pm. Thank goodness DJ was still able to take me. Not my day.

The porcelain that we ran through was beautiful and I would have loved to have been able to pick up something.  Our tour guide was great and tried to appease everyone.  The Peace park was very nice the atomic bomb museum, although it was exremely moving, they conveniently left out why we dropped the bomb.  No mention of Pearl Harbor at all.... It was very moving but I didn’t want to deal with death and destruction on vacation.  I had seen enough so I went and sat outside as the weather was glorious today  high 50s maybe it even warmed up to low 60s.  Bill and most of them went down to what they call ground zero!  I enjoyed the cherry blossoms and sun outside the museum.

There were children dressed in kimonos who came aboard and danced for us at 4pm but since we were still on the tour I missed it.  Becky did get some pictures for us. 

As the ship started to pull away from the dock the high school band was there playing and people were all lined up waving at us. They had signs saying “See you next time in Nagasaki”.  I was watching from the hair salon while DJ mixed my color!  I waited a week for this appointment and I was not cancelling it! So far the Japanese people have been very friendly and we even learned a little Japense.  Of course I can’t write it using their characters on here but this is the saying

ICHIGO ICHIE

It means Treasure every encounter because it might never recur!

Except for the idiot man on the bus and I do mean idiot he had on a long sleeve collarless green T-shirt with a wild yellow tie just hanging around his neck it was a lovely day in the countryside of Nagasaki.  Beautiful, lush and green when you get out of the city!

On to the next port of call in Japan.  Osaka