The alarm jarred us awake at a painful 5am. Luckily Emily woke straight away and as soon as we were showered and dressed we headed for the airport. The pre-dawn air was pleasantly cool and further helped to revive us. As we rode the busy monorail to Haneda the sun was just climbing above the horizon and it promised to be a bright day. We got lucky with our seats on the plane as we had perfect views of Fuji-san; the flight path was practically over the crater and even through the snow cover I could see the zigzag path I had trudged up on that wet and windy night last July.
All along the route we could pick out places we recognised: Enoshima, Nagoya, the Inland Sea with its couple of thousand islets (it is actually open to the Pacific at either end).
We landed at Nagasaki airport on its artificial island around 10am and went to collect our little hire car. Emily slept on the 45 minute drive to the hotel, which was perched high up above the harbour area. We parked and straight away got on a bus into the city, then changed onto a tram for a short way, to the old foreign district on the south side of town. The attractions here were Oranda Zaka (Dutch slopes) and the Glover garden.
The city has a long history of foreign traders from China and Europe, and during the 200 years of self-imposed exile from the rest of the world, Nagasaki was the site of the only trading outpost in the whole of Japan. The island of Dejima was reserved for Dutch traders and their movements were strictly controlled to ensure that the taint of Christianity was contained.
Though a tourist area, when we needed lunch we found relatively few options, and it was stressful trying to find somewhere all three of us could eat adequately. I didn't fancy the city's speciality, champon: noodles in a broth with various bits of unappetising seafood and a few overcooked vegetables. We ended up eating just about passable food in a nearby hotel. After lunch we strolled up the western-style slopes above the hotel, with their stone-flagged roads and houses with wide verandahs, which I thought looked more colonial than European.
There was one old house free to look around, which we did. Emily loved the Victorian outfits and tried on a hat.
We had refreshments out in the small garden, under a magnolia groaning with buds.
From there, we went to a Confuscian temple, but the entry fee put us off, and in any case it was fairly modern and we had seen much better temples in Taiwan.
Next stop was the Oura Catholic church,
the oldest in Japan, which is in the lee of the Glover garden, which covers the whole steep hillside above. Here we found several 150 year old houses formerly belonging to British and Scottish pioneers, who brought valuable technologies and trade to Japan when it opened up around 1858 (shipbuilding, railways, beer, tea trading). All buildings were open to browse around and some were still furnished and with explanations in English too.
The garden was pleasant and in places large pieces of coral had been used to good effect. There were good views around the harbour and surrounding hills.
On the way out we passed a stall with a cute Hello Kitty wielding a set of numchaka (ninja weapons).
Emily seemed rather floppy and was not breathing well (she has been snotty and coughing for weeks now), so when it was time to leave I carried her in the carrier. On the tram she was trying to sleep but could not get comfortable. It was rush hour so we could not get on the connecting tram and decided to walk to the main station, where we hoped to eat an early dinner. She seemed very distressed so in the end Nick carried her in his arms, but we realised it was quite a way so jumped on a bus. By the time we got there we had become concerned about her as her breathing was coming in little gasps sometimes and she felt a bit feverish. We abandoned our meal plans and got in a taxi, deciding we had better take her to see a doctor. Amazingly, we were told at the hospital that it was not possible to see a paediatrician for another hour, and to see him we would have to go to another clinic across town. In Japan, all doctors specialise; there seems to be no crossover from one discipline to another, and there is no GP system. While we waited, a nurse took Emily's temperature and it was 39.3C so we were relieved when 8pm approached and we were able to take another taxi to the clinic. The doctor listened to her chest and said it sounded alright. In order to check for flu, he took a nasal swab and that made her yell as it was thrust quite a long way up. After quarter of an hour they told us that had checked out OK, so he prescribed several powders and patches and said we should give her the Calpol we had at the hotel too. While waiting she had perked up a bit though still hot, and was even talking to the nurses. A final taxi got us back to the hotel at 9pm. Emily was suddenly hungry so we gave her some snacks and then settled her on her futon. Apart from 20 minutes in the car she had been awake for 17 hours by then. After she had dropped off we sat by the huge picture window and looked at the lights of the city arranged around the harbour and up into the surrounding hills (the so-called '10 million dollar view'!).
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