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I finished my last full day in Tokyo for now by meeting Yuki for lunch at a Taiwanese place, followed by mitsuan, and finally dinner with Miho and Yuko, where we talked over our slow-burn project to research chirimenbon (books made in the Meiji and Taisho eras for Western tourists, usually telling Japanese folk tales and translated by some notable authors of the time such as Lafcadio Hearn). Here is a lovely view of the three would-be researchers outside a Christmassy Tokyo Joshidai:



On Wednesday I met my friend Mami at Haneda, and we flew to Nagasaki for a couple of days. I'd long wanted to visit, not least because this is the city that was the only toe-hold for direct contact between Japan and the West (more specifically the Dutch) from the 1630s to the 1850s - i.e. for most of the Edo period, when Japan had a policy of isolation (often known as sakoku). Even the Dutch, who were there purely as traders, were confined to a small artificial island known as Dejima - about 120/75m. (This was not reclaimed land, as I had somehow imagined, but was formed by a cutting a canal through a small peninsula.)

Dejima is no longer an island, but they've done a fine reconstruction job. Life there was rather more spacious than one might have enjoyed on a ship of the era, but it must have been tantalising being just a short bridge's width from the rest of the city. Nagasaki citizens weren't allowed in, either - though an exception seems to have been made for prostitutes.



The tablet computer in the last picture shows Nagasaki as it would have looked at the time, with a clear view to the mouth of the bay - rather than with a bunch of buildings in the way.

Nagasaki is, by Japanese standards, a very cosmopolitan city, with its relative proximity to the Asian mainland (it has a famous Chinatown) and its history of Dutch and, before that, Portugese trade - which can be seen in the ubiquitous Castella cakes. Here and there, though, a trace of the old sakoku spirit still remains, as in this pair of QR codes, where the Japanese "Guidance to business opening hours" has been Englished simply as "For foreigner" - which felt a little on the nose!



There's more to Nagasaki than Dejima, not least in terms of food. Most famous of all perhaps is Nagasaki champon, which, having been invented in Nagasaki by a Chinese restaurant owner, is as Japanese as chicken tikka masala is British. We sampled it in the original restaurant:



Nagasaki bay, when seen from above, sans buildings, is lovely. Other highlights included the trams (I'm a sucker for a tram, and this is the third Japanese city I've seen them in after Matsuyama and Hakodate) and a really charming bookshop-cum-picture-book museum, which had something of the air of the Ghibli Museum in its architecture:



We also took a day to visit Hui Ten Bosch - the Dutch theme park. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't this:



And yet, in retrospect, how could it have been otherwise? Actually, Huis Ten Bosch is on a truly grand scale, and in terms of recreating buildings it puts even British Hills in Fukushima in the shade. Highly recommended if you find yourself on the shores of Omura bay with time on your hands!



I said my goodbyes to Mami on Saturday and started working my way back to Tokyo, albeit by a very circuitous route. First stop was Miyajima, home of the famous floating torii gate. This was the one night of the trip when I splashed out on a ryokan, mostly so that I could stay overnight on Itsukushima island (where Miyajima is located). I'd been told that it was easier to beat the crowds if one stayed overnight, though to be honest the crowds weren't that big - no doubt because of the season. (There were, however, more Westerners in evidence here than anywhere else I've stayed.) This meant that I was able to experience the shrine about both low and high tides:



It also got me this view from my bedroom window:



And, of course, ryokan style meals. This was breakfast, before and after the battle:


Altogether, an amazing place. The next day I set off on the next leg of my journey, to the place I'm writing this entry. But where is that place? Tune in next time to find out!