Backlog; Nagasaki cooking finish food!

So today I woke up at around 10 and ate my breakfast in peace with my host before we left the house towards the bus station.
There we took the bus to Nagasaki station and there we changed to the streetcar. I got of before her to go to the Nagasaki
atom bomb museum. She continued with the streetcar to her school.

I walked up the steep hill and entered the museum. It was such a great feeling to get out from the hot and humid weather
to the air conditioned museum.

The museum building was very modern and it was very interesting. The one in Hiroshima was great but I think that since
it was my first time visiting Nagasakis museum it seemed a bit more "fresh" and new. But which one is better I can't really say
but I'd probably go with the museum in Hiroshima. But the one here was really modern and great in my opinion.

So I walked around and read a lot while at the museum until I left to walk and see the hypo-center of the bomb and after that
the peace park.

I first arrived at the Hypo-center and found the remaining arch of the Catholic church that was left there as a reminder.
The church had only been in use for a few years until it turned into rubble in the horrible bombing. What was left now was only
the arch.

The statue of peace

I continued on to the peace park to see the famous statue of peace there. It was a bit funny to find escalators leading up
to the park. It was not that high up but well, you know Japan, they make everything so convenient.

I walked around a bit and snooped through the smaller statues before going to the big one. And a big one it was, I mean it was
a huge statue of what I assume was copper since it was had a greenish blue color.
It started to drizzle a bit outside, it had rained bucketfuls this morning and I had not brought my umbrella with me so I was a bit worried.
luckily it did not start to rain hard, the drizzle stopped after a while.

I returned to the Nagasaki station to get something to eat before I continued my days touring of this magnificent city.

At the china town

After fueling up I took the streetcar to the stop near Nagasakis China town. I wanted to see what kind of place it was.
Nagasaki was a famous trade city back in the times. It was not as big as I thought but it didn't really intrest me that much since
the real reason why I had come was so that I could walk to the "Duch slope" that they had there. It was a quarter where the
Duch traders had made their little "settlement" and had build their houses in the traditional dutch style.
It is also told that since there were these many of these kinds of quarters the local police had no business there but that they
were completely left to the residents to "rule"

I walked and awed at the beauty of these houses and the strangeness that there were something like that here. I know that they

Ouran catholic church

are rebuilt but still the detail is magnificent.

I walked around a lot and started to head towards the Ouran catholic church which was a little walk away from the slope.
On my way there I passed the Confucian shrine/museum but I had decided that I had no time to enter it today so I just continued to walk towards the church.
The church was quite small in size but it was pretty and very typical old church.
I went inside and sat down for a while to listen to the audio tape that was playing telling the history of the place.
It was a real church open for public if I understood it correctly but it is still kind of a tourist attraction.
It was really beautiful so I am glad that I visited and it felt refreshing after all the temples and shrines.

I left after a while since I was afraid that I would get late for my agreed meeting with my host at 4 p.m. at Nagasaki station.
I came in time and we met up at the cafe there from we then walked to the supermarket to by some groceries for tonight's dinner.
I had promised to make some Finish food. We were going to be 7 people so I was a bit nervous at how the food would turn out.

We took the bus to the house of my hosts grandparents that I had met yesterday and we started preparing the food.
They helped me out with peeling the potatoes and rolling the meatballs but the rest was done by me.
So I made us some Meatballs and mashed potatoes, Finnish style. I also prepared a dessert for us with the help of Hiromi and her little sister.
We made some chocolate-oatmeal balls.

Hiromis dad had brought some dumplings as well so we also had those, salad, octopus, rice etc that we could taste.
In short it had turned out to be a feast! And delicious it was and everybody enjoyed the food and company and these are truly the moments
I seek for and cherish with all of my heart!

After the mains we ate the desserts and chatted and played guitar and so on and so on.
Today had been great. We then returned to the other house where I was staying and there I took a shower before going to sleep.
Tomorrow I will go around town first alone and then meet up with my host and then we will go together around town.

Cheers!
Robert

PS. Sorry for the late postings of videos and blogs. There is no internet at the house where I am staying at.