EVACOMICS BLOG

At last! The final installment to my (not so popular) Kyushu series! I shall end it with food and hot spring in the Kyushu Hotel, my favorite part from the entire budget trip. 終於要結束我（不是很受歡迎的）九州系列！整個行程中最喜歡的就是九州旅館的食物和溫泉了！

Ok, I assure you that this is towards the end of my Kyushu series. We visited the Peace Park in Nagasaki that commemorated its atomic bombing on the 9th Aug, 1945. The government had erected numerous monuments to offer the souls of the dead clean water that they had so desired during their last moments. 這是接近我的九州之行的尾聲。 我們在長崎參觀了紀念1945年8月9日，原子彈投下的和平公園。日本政府到處設立有乾淨水源的紀念碑，為了就是要給生前渴望水喝的死者。（中文版在下）

I was quite surprised that Confucius is rather popular in Japan. 我很意外孔子竟然在日本如此受歡迎。

I was thinking of skipping this review, but I thought the museum's effort to raise awareness about volcanic eruption was rather well done. This small theater show made use of anime and puppet to narrate about what happened 200 years ago, called the "Shimabara Disaster". I was grateful that they had English guides :) 本來不要寫這篇的，但是因為我欣賞災難館為了提高大家對火山災害的意識，所以還是寫了。這小小的劇場使用了動畫和木偶來講述200年前，稱"島原大災害" 的故事。我很感謝他們有英文說明器 :)

Dejima, located in Nagasaki, was a man-made small island completed in 1636. The purpose was for Japanese to conduct trade with Portugals, but it was soon isolated due to rebellion to lift the  Christianity ban. It later became a major trading port between Netherlands and Japan. However, the island's surrounding was later reclaimed and thus the whole area had to be rebuilt to restore its previous glory. 位於長崎的出島是建於1636年的一座全人工小島。目的就是為了促進日本和葡萄牙之間的貿易，但是因為基督教禁令，所以完成沒多久就被隔離了。之後，變成了荷蘭和日本之間的主要貿易港口。可是現在的出島周圍已被填海，所以政府得重新重建。

Just another castle... (I think there were too many castles in our tour). This one, located in Nagasaki,  was constructed in 1616 and contained a lot of exhibits from the period of Christianity suppression. 又是另一座城（我們的行程也太多了吧！？都看起來大同小異） 。這座島原城位於長崎縣，1616建成。裡面的展覽品大多是基督教禁止時的雕像，記錄等。

We took a ferry from Kumamoto to Nagasaki and the boring ride turned out to be like a zoo feeding frenzy. Tourists, who were like me, were snapping photographs non-stop to capture "the moment", when the sea gull grabbed the pocky stick. 原本從熊本到長崎的輪渡，竟變成了像動物園餵食的場面。很多遊客都紛紛狂拍照，為了就是拍到海鷗夾到pocky棒的那“一剎那”。

Kumamoto Castle was constructed between 1601-1607 but the entire castle above the stone platform had been destroyed by fire in 1877. A rebuilt of the castle was carried out in 1960 and was completed in 2008, based on remaining old photographs and written accounts about the castle. As you can see, the stone platform has two different colored stones, marking the original charred ones from the newly added ones. The curve on the wall was meant to trick samurais into climbing them, only to find out later that it's impossible and unfortunately became easy targets to be shot. 熊本城建於1601-1607年，但是整座城在1877年的大火中被燒毀。日本政府在1960年時，根據舊照片和紀錄開始重建這座國寶。從照片中可以看到基礎的石頭有兩種顏色。下面是較深色，被燒過的大石，上面則是後來蓋上的。牆壁的傾斜是為了誤導武士攀越攻城。武士爬到上端時才發現不可能前進，並成為箭下目標。

Oura Cathedral, located in Nagasaki at Kyushu prefecture, is the oldest church in Japan completed in December 1864. It was designated as a National Treasure on 23 Jan 1933. This church is also named as "Church of the 26 Japanese Martyrs". 大浦天主堂位於九州的長崎。建於1864年，是日本最古老的一棟教堂。1933年時被認定為國寶，正式名字為“26聖殉教者天主堂”。 How Christianity spread in Japan was largely credited to a Spanish missionary, Francis Xavier, who arrived on Kagoshima island in 1549. However it was later banned in 1587 due to feudal lord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's fear that Christianity was a barrier to his plan of uniting the whole of Japan. Centuries after his death, the country was re-opened and Christians, who went into hiding, came out. Nagasaki, which was the heart of Christianity activity, still remains as a prefecture with majority of its population as Christians. －中文省略 XD －

Our first night was spent in one of these hostels run by the state government. The hostel name can be interpreted as "National Youth Nature/Exchange Hostel". These hostels are wide-spread throughout the nation and are always situated within nature bountiful mountains. They are popular with schools and companies who want to train their people because they are equipped with classrooms, assembly halls, sports and camping facilities. However be warned that there are a lot of taking off shoes and changing to slippers or walk bare footed in Japanese facilities and museums! 我們的初晚在這類國立宿舍渡過。名字可翻譯為"國立青少年交流／自然之家"。這類宿舍遍佈全國，而且通常位於充滿大自然的山上。因為裡面都備有教室，禮堂和其它運動和露營設施，對那些要集訓學生的學校，童子軍，公司等受歡迎。不過在日本的設施和博物館內，得常脫鞋穿鞋，非常麻煩。

During the 21st Oct, scholars from the same organization and I went for a 4 days 3 night study trip to Kyushu to learn more about the Japanese culture, history and customs, as well as to interact with the local Japanese. Our first stop was the Aso mountains located at the heart of Kumamoto.  10月21日，我和其他獎學金學生一起去了一趟4天3夜的九州研修。目的是為了對日本的文化，歷史和生活有更深一層的認識，並且于當地的日本人交流。我們的第一站就是位於熊本縣中央的阿蘇山。 Aso mountains is filled with man-made grasslands, wide-spread through human intervention of burning and clearing the lands for cow grazing. It was a nice change to walk around open space unlike the crowded streets of Tokyo. Though feeling relaxed, there is not much scenery to look at during that time. 人工草原遍佈了整座阿蘇山，這些都是通過人為燃燒出來的，為了就是能放牛。 在廣闊的草原中漫步和在東京的擁擠街頭是截然不同的新鮮感覺。雖然心情很放鬆，不過那時沒什麼好風景欣賞。