My Adventures in Japan: 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.