Pictures of hotel surroundings. Took countless pictures beside the bus while waiting for the rest of the tour people
Our amazing self-taken 5 persons shot~ 3 oinks for piglet Wanlin =)

It was a bright sunny morning =) Clear blue skies. It made our pictures turn out good! You can tell how bright it was hee =p

Our driver Mr Tanaka-san took this photo for us =)

Our first stop was Glover Garden, which belonged to Thomas Blake Glover and his family. 



We had to climb quite a few flight of stairs and take some escalators all the way up to the Glover Mansion

Wan Lin and Yong Qi up on the escalator














The view from the 2nd storey of the Glover Mansion atop the hill. We could see the whole port from here!

Our tour guide D*anny showing us our current spot. We were at the highest point of the Glover Mansion
Taken on the first floor of the Glover Mansion




This is the former Glover House. The main focus here seems to be the flowers though =p 
With four wings spreading out like a cross, the former GLover HOuse is the oldest Western-style wooden building in Japan, built at the end of the Edo period, and has been designated n important national cultural property. (Taken from Glover Mansion Brochure)



That's the Statue of Tamaki Miura - Japanese Opera singer was world-famous for her role as the heroine of the opera Madame Butterfly, a novel by John Luther Long and set in Nagasaki. The opera is the story of Madame Butterfly, who awaits the return of her love: Captain Pinkerton of the US Navy. (Taken from Glover Mansion Brochure)


After that we walked down a path and it lead us here... It is a display of Nagasaki's ceremonies, art and culture. It was kind of dark so did not take much photos here.

The stone path leading down to the streets... Spot something?
It's a beautiful heart shaped stone! =p




The CUTE entrance of a shop along the streets which led us back to the bus =p





Peace Park

Established in 1955 near the hypocentre of the explosion, remnants of a concrete wall of Nagasaki prison, which was located here prior to the bombing, can still be seen.





At the park's north end is the 10-meter-tall Peace Statue created by sculptor Seibou Kitamura of Nagasaki Prefecture.
The statue's right hand points to the threat of nuclear weapons while the extended left hand symbolizes eternal peace. The mild face symbolizes divine grace and the gently closed eyes offer a prayer for the repose of the bomb victims' souls. The folded right leg and extended left leg signify both meditation and the initiative to stand up and rescue the people of the world.
Installed in front of the statue is a black marble vault containing the names of the atomic bomb victims and survivors who died in subsequent years.

Information from Wikipedia

We spotted these colourful hanging decoration which we thought were just like party streamers... We didn't think much of it until we went closer...


... and realised that they were paper cranes! GoSh! Millions and millions of paper cranes. It must have taken a lot of people to do and a lot of time... Inside the Atomic Bomb Museum were cranes and artwork featuring paper cranes similar to these. A pity we could not take pictures in the Museum, the artworks were really amazing!






We walked further down to look for the Fountain of Peace... and by the tree, we saw...



... mini school bags...



belonging to...



... these adorable elementary school Japanese kids! The tour guide told us that different classes wore different coloured caps =) Their school bags are exactly the same! Japanese are really uniformed ne~



Fountain of Peace

The Peace Fountain is built to resemble outstretched arms

Picture taken from: http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=98

We did not manage to take a photo of the black stone plaque, so had to take the picture off the internet.

"At the south end of the park is a "Fountain of Peace". This was constructed in August, 1969, as a prayer for the repose of the souls of the many atomic bomb victims who died searching for water, and as a dedication to world peace. Lines from a poem by a girl named Sachiko Yamaguchi, who was nine at the time of the bombing, are carved on a black stone plaque in front of the fountain. It reads: "I was thirsty beyond endurance. There was something oily on the surface of the water, but I wanted water so badly that I drank it just as it was." - Taken from Wikipedia

We saw the stone sign "He Ping" so Danny beckoned us to take a photo



And the two random piggies, piggy and piggo started singing S.H.E's he bing gong yuan~ totally irrelevant! --=p



In 1978 the city of Nagasaki established a "Peace Symbols Zone" on both sides of the park and invited donations of monuments from countries round the world. The following monuments can be seen in the park:





Atomic Bomb Museum - We weren't able to take pictures in the Museum... But here's a brochure of the museum... This is one of the cathedral walls which was left after the bombing



This is the spot in Nagasaki (known as hypocentre or ground zero) where the bomb hit. The tour guide said that the radiation in this area is very high. It was really amazing to see it for yourself. The historic event that you have only heard of and read in textbooks, books, websites; but seeing it for yourself is really incredible

Picture and information taken from Wikipedia

"The surviving victims of the bombings are called Hibakusha (被爆者), a Japanese word that literally translates to "explosion-affected people". The memorials in Hiroshima and Nagasaki contain lists of the names of the hibakusha who are known to have died since the bombings. Updated annually on the anniversaries of the bombings, as of August 2007 the memorials record the names of almost 400,000 hibakusha — 253,008 in Hiroshima, and 143,124 in Nagasaki".

The statue nearby, on the plate it has the date and time of when the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. August 9, 1945, 1102hrs.
We went for lunch shortly after at a Chinese restaurant which was filled with LOTs of school children on an excursion. It was interesting that EVERYWHERE we went there were always schools of children. Peace park. Glover Garden. Lunch. Atomic Bomb Museum... 

Blood Pool

This was obviously a photoshopped postcard. I think the original picture of it looks waaaay nicer =)
Notice they name the pool Beppu Blood Pool Hell (direct translation) that's because all the hot steam resembles the scenes in Hell. Heh heh btw if you really get into THIS boiling hot spring then oh-oh...



Us at entrance of the Blood Pool

A really random picture of the vending machine beside the Blood Pool Entrance. Shany suggested that we take a photo of the vending machine since Japan is kind of known as a 'vending machine nation'. 

It's boiling hot!

Us at the Beppu Blood Pool
Taking turns to take picture of the Blood Pool sign with the date 4th June on it

We had to rush over to next door to catch the Dragon Whirlpool because is only erupts once every 22 minutes or so. Outside the Whirlpool, they have a light indicator. If it is red it means that the geyser is going to erupt?

Postcard of Dragon Whirlpool
Porky Shany managed to take videos of the process =)

Look at the powerful spurts and steam coming out!

Taking photos at the Dragon Whirlpool admist the frenzy =p

After the 'show' we spotted something at the side... Tofu Ice Cream! The 5 of us shared one mini tub. Guess what flavour did we choose?

Soybean Powder! Cos it seemed the most special =) Can't really describe the taste, think it tasted a bit like mochi? But its really gooood ^_~

After that we took a 3 hour ride to our stay for the night, Kajima Kogen Spring

Kajima Kogen Hot Springs Hotel 
Our room numbers were 337 (qi and lin) and 338 (shan, ru, en)

Shany.Rucy.Ernie

Loved the Kajima Kogen's rooms =) It was a combination of Japanese and Western =p Had the Japanese Tatami, the western bedroom and a half-half toilet? =p

The tatami 'living room'

The toilet's so spacious clean and bright =)

Snapping away in the toilet =p





Next door qi and lin were doing the same too! Ahaha~ GREAT minds think alike!

The pee pee poo poo palace (below left) is detached from the pom pom palace =) The walk way to the right leads us to the bedroom.

Which looks like this...

... and this (this picture was taken by shany while we were getting prepared at like 5 am in the morning!)

We took a bath before we went down for our buffet dinner. The tour guide said we could wear our kimonos (they are actually called yukatas - its what you wear to take a bath in the Hot Spring, kimonos are a whole lot elaborate and prettier!)

Our yummy assortment of foooood =)

Ernie piggy is loving her grapes!

Individual Kimono Shots

Duo Trio Lobby shots

Group shots in lobby

Outdoor Shots

Our mini tea ceremony
After our photo taking shoot, we went back to the room and realised that there was a tea set and tea leaves for us to brew some tea. So I started to make some tea while shany helped.

Dou-zo!

Look at our tired faces... But you-know-what? The tea kept us awake! Gosh... haha we were tossing and turning in our beds for eternity an hour plus? 
Morale of the story: Don't drink tea before you go to bed ESPECIALLY when you don't know what incredible potent type of tea leaves you are dealing with~
It was a really LONG day. We covered quite a bit of our trip!

Lots of Love ❤ Ru