Olivia's Visit, Glover Gardens and Iojima Island- Beach

Last weekend another volunteer, Olivia, who lives just over 2 hours away from Nagasaki in a place outside of Fukuoka called Iizuka, came to visit us when we arrived home from Tokyo. As I was pretty late we just headed back to our apartment and chatted for a while before going to bed. Over the weekend the three of us walked around most of Nagasaki, shopping, visiting Mount Inasa and the peace park. Whilst Olivia and I were at the peace park on Sunday morning we started to play ‘ the foreigner game’ which she has introduced me to. As there generally aren’t many other westerners in Nagasaki the aim of the game is to find out where they are from if we spotted any other westerners. We spotted two men, I thought they were American and as we approached they said ‘Hey’ to which Olivia responded with ‘oh are you guys from Australia?’ and we discovered they were not from Australia, New Zealand or America but infact Cumbria!! When he announced this I got a little over excited and shouted ‘ Shut up im from Dumfries’ but rather than be offended or scared they were rather amused declaring that we could bond over border news. They were here working for Mitsubushi on a new ship they are building down at the harbour and one of the men had relatives in Annan and Castle Douglas. So strange, im at the other side of the world and im finding people who live not too far away from Dumfries! Throughout the weekend we came across a Canadian in Japan for summer school, an American in the navy, two Italians and a man from Denmark all working on the ship. Strange way to meet people but is a rather fun game to play!

 James from Canada who we met during the 'foreigner game'

Last weekend was a busy one! On the Saturday I visited Glover Gardens which is a popular tourist spot in Nagasaki. It is a selection of western houses and buildings built up on the hill overlooking the harbour. It is here that Thomas Glover and his family lived. Thomas Glover is a famous Scottish merchant from Aberdeen who moved to Japan in the 1800’s when we was in his 20’s. He helped industrialise ship building and mining in Nagasaki and is very famous because of it. He is also the founder of Kirin beer which is famous in Japan. The gardens were absolutely beautiful and the houses were very grand with old artifacts from when we lived there on display. The grandest house which was set highest on the hill had a lovely pond in front of it with the biggest Koi Carp I have seen in my life and that is not and exaggeration!

On Saturday night we went to a Doctor’s house from the hospital where we met her son and fiancé. We had a lovely dinner of soba noodles and tempura followed by some yummy cake. It was a nice night.

On the sunday we took the ferry to Iojima island which is just a 20 minute ride beyond the harbour. The island has some onsen and also a gorgeous beach called ‘Costa del Sol’. We spent the day there in and out of the water which was lovely. Such a relaxing day and I will definitely be going back when I finish work!

Monday was world ocean day so we had it as a holiday from work and we were spending the day being hair models for a local salon. We arrived at 11:30 am and didn’t leave till about 6:45 pm it was a long day but enjoyable. The theme for my hair and pictures was natural therefore my hair was pretty wild and crazy just like it normally is. Infact the girls didn’t do much to it, it pretty much stayed the same from what it looked like when I woke up in the morning plus a few curls here and there. As it was a natural look they were going for I wasn’t allowed to have a great deal of makeup on and off came my tonne of mascara, cry! Lucy’s theme was lady gaga and she sported a red wig and a silver one for it. I look forward to seeing the pictures they took of us.

So I think that is me up to date with my adventures the past couple weeks apart from Hokkaido which will be in a separate blog.

An interesting surgery and some interesting sights of the past few weeks, part 1.

Just a quick warning.. this is going to be a long blog!!
So i haven't quite managed to update my blog in a few weeks and i have been rather busy so im not quite sure where to start. I will probably split the last few weeks adventures into two blogs, to make it easier to write and read! The heat in Nagasaki recently has been unreal, sometimes it is just wayy to hot to be outside and there is still a lack of air conditioning in the wards so work is a struggle sometimes. However i only have two more weeks left working in the hospital as this coming week is when i shall be working at summer camp in Hokkaido. I cannot believe how fast it has went. Its crazyy! Although i am looking forward to having some free time in Nagasaki before i leave and also excited for my trips to Kagoshima and Tokyo before flying home.

A few weeks back we watched another surgery, this time it was a hysterectomy which was a rather strange one to see. The entire womb was removed alongside one of the ovaries. We only caught the last part of the operation as it was a long procedure. Afterwards one of the doctors called us over to put gloves on and let us touch what had been removed. I must admit it was extremely strange and i want be doing anything like that again in a hurry! Since then we have watched another lung surgery but unfortunately i had no idea what was going on in that one. Sometimes i have no idea how they know what they are doing, it all looks the same on the screen and they just seem to hack away wherever they feel like it! 

A couple sundays ago i decided that i was going to take myself a walk down by the station and see if i could find anything interesting. I wandered along some backstreets which were rather interesting and eventually came across the entrance to the Memorial to the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan. In the 1500's a mixture of 26 Japanese and Western people were executed for preaching about Christianity. I do not know too much about the background to this other than in the late 1500's Christianity was banned in Japan and those who preached it were rounded up from various cities in Japan and were executed in Japan.

After I had visited the site of the 26 martyrs I followed some signs for the Fukusai Temple which I had previously caught a glimpse of from our Ikebana teachers apartment . The shrine is shape like a turtle with a woman standing on its back. It is rather huge and interesting to look at and it had a small beautiful garden but i didn’t spend much time at the temple there wasn’t a lot to see inside. Afterwards I decided to go a trek up the hill which was a lot more work than I first thought. It was about 30degrees and I had silly flip flop sandals on which are not ideal for climbing up steep hills! However I trekked on through a graveyard and I was rewarded with a beautiful view of down town Nagasaki. I am definitely going to miss the beautiful mountainous backdrop of Nagasaki when I return to Dumfries.

The following week we travelled to Tokyo on the Friday for a meeting with the red cross about the summer camp we are volunteering at. It was a shame to only be in Tokyo for the day but it was great seeing some of the other volunteers and hearing about their placements. We also found a lot out about the summer camp. There are three main islands of Japan, Kyushu ( the southern one where Nagasaki is), Honshuu  where Tokyo,  Kyoto etc are and then the most northern one, Hokkaido where summer camp is. It is set in a ski resort called Rusutsu Resort and it looks gorgeous in winter however I don’t think there will be any snow at this time of year. I am looking forward to some cooler weather! The summer camp is for children from the Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi regions which were deeply affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The children who will be visiting the summer camp may have lost family, their homes, moved schools, living in temporary fabricated housing and can no longer play outside often due to radiation problems.. The summer camp gives them a chance to release some stress with children who are in the same position as them. It gives them a chance to have fun in an area where they do not have to worry. I leave for Hokkaido on Sunday 21^st, first flying to Tokyo from Nagasaki very early in the morning then from Tokyo to Sapporo and catching a bus to the resort. I will be there for 4 nights and 5 days and im super excited. Once I return I will write a blog all about it.