NAGASAKI

Not much is happening.  Sure, Tuesday was a small election day in the U.S., Donald Trump showed more disgruntlement in court and the Israel-Hamas War sort of continues.  Maybe the most newsworthy might be: 

Third GOP debate: Five candidates qualified for tomorrow's third GOP presidential debate in Miami: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. One candidate fell short. Meanwhile, Donald Trump will skip the debate (again) to rally in a city that is 95% Hispanic and where he has broad support. 

About our cruise, I've visited Nagasaki at least a dozen times in the past.  Their Peace Park is a more rewarding visit than the one at Hiroshima, which is more famous.  Some highlights from the past.

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  Here is my posting of 2010 where I mentioned that on an earlier trip my wife and I discovered Nagasaki pork tonkatsu.

Not quite the smooth transition, but while in Nagasaki, you must try their pork cutlet (or tonkatsu).   While supposedly originating in Europe, or, maybe, Tokyo after the end of the second world war, Nagasaki has perfected this dish into an unmatched crispness and delicacy.  The experience is somewhat like when I first had Shanghai dumplings in Shanghai...not quite the Hawaii version

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  A dozen years ago I was escaping from the radiation approaching Tokyo because of the Fukushima nuclear cataclysm.  I said:

Nagasaki is a prefecture (like a state, with a population of 1.2 million) and city (446,000), not too dissimilar from Hawaii and Honolulu, and someone should look into a sister city relationship. This has long been a cosmopolitan harbor and remained somewhat accessible to Europeans even during the closed period of Japan's history.  The Portuguese first came in 1543, with the Netherlands dominating a century later through the Dutch East India Company, but this was all of two ships per year.  They copied the craft of Japanese porcelain, who themselves borrowed the technique from Korea.  You've of course heard of Imari porcelain, where a bowl can cost $2,000.

• In 2017 I visited the Nagasaki Peace Museum and took this photo of Fat Man, the plutonium atomic bomb that exploded over this park.  The second photo is that of a hydrogen bomb, and the third was my lunch, musubi and sake.

My most recent visit to Nagasaki was in 2019, where we also visited the Peace Park, led there by my Blue-bar Pigeon, then had pork tonkatsu at Inaba, the best restaurant for this dish in the world.

So, anyway, back to our present stay in Nagasaki, the port here is the birthplace of the Diamond Princess.

We looked at the port map and I noticed that You Me Plaza was close by, perhaps a half hour walk.  This is where the last time we were in Nagasaki we had a pork tonkatsu lunch at Wako Inaba.  Of course we were first met by my Blue-bar Pigeon.

Fall colors.

You Me Plaza.

Unfortunately, Wako Inaba did not survive the pandemic, and we were sent across the street to Hamakatsu, which was okay, but not fabulous.

We then walked back to the ship.

Saw a class outing.

The Diamond Princess was docked just across the way, entering service in 2004, almost twenty years ago.

Goodbye Nagasaki.  Serenaded by a drum group.

We are into the second week of November, and not much can be seen of Fall colors yet.

We sail for two nights, and will arrive in Yokohama on November 9.  But first, dinner, and this was formal night.

Clarence and Cheryl picked up the tab for an Argentinian Chardonnay and a French Bordeaux, which was decanted.

I started with escargot and caesar salad.

While others had surf and turf, I had duck breast.

For dessert, crème brûlée.

The ship's captain came by to say hello,

We then ended the evening at the theater stage show.  They were really good.

A good walking day, 9851 steps.

At sea yesterday lunch was Japanese, with hot sake and cold beer.

Didn't say much about the atomic bomb over Nagasaki, but, after Oppenheimer, there have been various artcles about the menace of nuclear warfare.  Here is one rating the seven most devastating films about this bomb.  #1 was the 1947 The Beginning or the End.

• Good cast of Brian Donlevy as Major General Leslie Groves, Robert Walker, Tom Drake, Audrey Totter and Hume Cronym as Robert Oppenheimer, directed by Norman Taurog.
• Here is the entire 1 hr 52 min movie.
• This MGM film was the first major Hollywood production about the atomic bomb.
• Considerable creative control was given to President Harry Truman and Major General Leslie Groves.

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