Okinawa Cruise: Fukuoka and Nagasaki

Along the canals of Fukuoka

Fukuoka

Fukuoka is known as one of Japan’s most cosmopolitan cities. It is certainly attractive with rivers running like canals through the city. Fukuoka is also renowned as a culinary center, and we were anxious to try the famous Fukuokan ramen noodles!

Japanese cherry blossoms

Holland America, our cruise ship line provided a free shuttle into the center of the city, a wonderful service they seem to offer frequently. We walked along one of the canals and got our first look at the famous Japanese cherry blossoms. Many people on our cruise chose this itinerary specifically for the cherry blossoms, but we never even thought about it until today. We did not book this cruise specifically for the cherry blossoms, but what a nice little extra!

Famous "Ichiran" noodle restaurant

We walked to the Canal City Mall in search of one of Fukuoka’s most famous ramen noodle restaurants, a place called “Ichiran.” “Ichiran” is justly famous for its flavorful broth and yummy noodles. But it also has a very odd serving process that we found interesting.

In the tiny eating booth at "Ichiran"

First you order and pay at an automated machine which spits out little card receipts for each item you order (spring onions, number of garlic cloves, level of spiciness, egg, qty. of pork, drinks, etc.). Not that you have many choices, but each choice costs you a few more yen. “Ichiran” specializes in one main dish, pork bone ramen noodles. They are famous for their handmade noodles, long-simmering broth, and special flavor (over 30 spices).

"Ichiran" noodles are now served!

Next, a hostess (who speaks no English) leads you to a strange narrow individual booth darkened for privacy on three sides. Waiters roam in a hallway beyond the front of the booth although you can only see their hands when they lift the curtains up partway and deliver the goods. Frank likened the process to being in a confessional booth back in Catholic school. Next, our waiter gave us each a form (barely readable in the dark booth) to indicate our next level of preferences – whether we wanted thick noodles with medium spicy broth and extra pork. Finally, our steaming ramen soup arrived in a rectangular bowl with a lid. Now we were free to commune in silence, alone with our ramen noodles! (This really was a lengthy, odd process, but in the end, it was the most delicious noodle soup, well worth waiting for!)

Drinking Orion beer among the cherry blossoms
in a park by the canal

On our way back to the ship, we grabbed two cans of Orion beer at a 7-Eleven (7-elevens are on every block here in Japan!!). And drank them as we sat along the canal beneath the cherry blossoms! Ahhhhh, pure local Japanese ambiance!

Tram in Nagasaki

Nagasaki

There is something tickling and rewarding about finding your way around a foreign city that writes in no words you understand, and most of the people don’t even speak any language(s) you speak. We found pride in learning and understanding the Nagasaki tram operations in this busy city on our own and arriving safely and precisely at the Peace Park that we targeted. And returning the same way.

At the Peace Park, monuments
commemorate Ground Zero

The Peace Park is located at the point of ground zero, where on 9 August 1945, the 2^nd atomic bomb hit Japan and forced its ultimate unconditional surrender. On the day we visited, the sun was shining, the air was cool, and the park was filled with cherry blossoms just starting to bloom. Several monuments commemorate the horrific bombing event and many of these are strewn with colorful handmade crane banners (just like in the Okinawa Peace Park). It truly was a peaceful place, and we found it impossible to imagine the horror that occurred here in August of 1945.

Stopped clock at the exact time
of the blast (11:02 AM)

As you enter the Peace Park museum, the first room poignantly displays a single, twisted, broken wall clock extracted from the rubble of the bombing. It was stopped at exactly 11:02 AM when the nuclear bomb fell and destroyed Nagasaki. The B-29 Bockscar aircraft was scheduled to drop the bomb on the city of Koroku, but as fate would have it, Koroku was fogged in, so Nagasaki became the unfortunate alternate target.

Replica of bomb dropped on Nagasaki
known as "Fat Boy"

The bomb dropped was a plutonium 239 bomb, whose 1kg nuclear mass was exploded two football fields above Nagasaki. When the bomb exploded, the plutonium ball underwent almost total nuclear fission, while the rest of the discharge went into the environment as plutonium atoms and as fallout.

The flash from the fissionable material was so bright it was like another sun was shining in the sky, according to witnesses. Objects standing near walls left shadowy images burned in the walls forever. Ceramic tiles that were decoratively embedded in walls and on street surfaces were literally boiled from the intense heat of the explosion. Glass bottles laying in the streets mostly became fused twisted lumps of unrecognizable goo.

Stylized sculpture portraying the suffering in Nagasaki

In Nagasaki, 12,000 homes inside a small perimeter from the epicenter were instantly burned down in the first few seconds of the blast. Of course, anybody inside those homes at impact were trapped, and burned to death as the homes collapsed on and around them.

Fused bottles from heat of the blast

All-in-all, the museum was a great experience. However, we found the slant on the Nagasaki story to be a bit biased toward the Japanese side (by omission of info). It seems the Japanese want little to do with their part in the war and like to be the victims who suffered here in Nagasaki on the 9^th of August.

Charred body of Nagasaki victim

We find it hard to be “hard-hearted” about this, but we think the Japanese need to tell the whole story. More introspection and rumination about the reasons for this atomic bomb destruction need to be inserted in this museum that merely concentrates on the horrific immediate terror experienced by the Japanese people.

Behind us, two monoliths identify the point of
the bomb's exact impact

For example, don’t they remember the sneak attack at Pearl Harbor? Not one word of mention about Pearl in this museum that we saw. Cause and effect have been ignored. Did the Japs merely believe the events at Pearl would be forgotten and go unpunished? Dreamers! Plus, we still don’t understand why the Japanese military refused to surrender despite the fact they had obviously lost the war. Just to save face? Dreamers again! Payment day finally came due this day in August, but it seems their responsibility to the United States retaliation simply faded behind their own grief. In the end, a lot of this unnecessary loss of life was, in our opinion, self-inflicted. This word needs to be inculcated into the Japanese history books, this museum, and to the psyche of the Japanese people.

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