Japan in the Spring - Busan (Korea)

It's strange to put this under Japan in the Spring when Busan is actually in Korea..  I kept the heading just to keep everything together.  There seems to be some legality that requires a cruise ship to visit at least one international port during a cruise, in this case, it's Busan.  We joined the ship's shore excursion as it was an early port departure and we didn't want to miss the boat.

Busan looked like a busy international port with loads of cranes, bridges and containers visible on the waterfront.  Our first stop was the temple by the sea - the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple.  It is in a beautiful seaside setting north of Busan.  Our Korean guide spent a lot of time talking about Korean social issues but didn't talk much about this Buddhist temple.  Some of the rooms are quite spectacular as is the seaside it faces.

The Haedong Yonggungsa Temple

The lineup of animals representing the zodiac along the entrance

One of several dazzling chambers

Golden buddha 

Many steps lead to the upper levels 

The essential bamboo grove

The seaside in front of the temple

Our next stop is the Nurimaru APEC House on Dongbaekseom Island, an island of camellia trees.  The round building was the site of the 2005 APEC summit and continues to be used as a memorial hall and conference centre.  It was a nice walk by the sea with a great view of the nearby islands and the Busan skyline in the distance. 

The Nurimaru APEC House

The conference room

This waterfront trail leads to the mermaid statue on the rocks, reminiscent of that other famous mermai in Europe

Eurasian Magpie (another lifer for me!) and camellia flowers on the island

The bus took us back to the city where we were taken to the gigantic fish market - a real eye-opener.  We were rained out for the subsequent tour of the shopping street but it was interesting to see some of the shopping alleys - very Asian in character. 

An incredible variety of shellfish!  These are smaller stalls outside the actual fish market

Inside the actual fish market

The impressive building housing the fish market

Roadside stalls just outside the fish market

The shopping streets - this could be anywhere in Asia!

There is even a star walk

Containers galore

Bridges and cranes dot the waterfront skyline near the port

These look like oyster farms in the harbour

The fireboat gave us a cool farewell display

Port of Busan panorama

This short stop in Busan gave me a first glimpse of Korea - the brief insight into Korean society provided by our chatty guide (identifying social and academic pressures) helped me understand a little better where movies like Parasite and Minari originated from.  

Next post: Hiroshima

Japan in the Spring - Nagasaki

Nagasaki was the only port where we had to walk around with an umbrella but only for a part of the morning.  We have been very lucky.  There was no free shuttle so we ventured onto a tram after getting some very helpful instructions from the Tourist Information at the port.  It was a pleasant tram ride, not too crowded and gave us an opportunity to see the locals.  I've noticed that the Japanese ladies are very nicely dressed when they go out,  even in the rain.  

Our main destination was the Nagasaki Peace Park and the adjacent museum.  The Peace Park had some striking memorials as you can see in the photos below.  The park was also nicely landscaped on higher ground that can be reached by a covered escalator.  Some of the memorials were donated from other countries so it was interesting to see how different nations expressed their compassion for the city that was bombed.

Fountain of Peace, the centrepiece

The beautiful floral pathway up to the Peace Park

Memorial to the people who died in the bombing

This memorial was donated by the Czech Republic

Donated by China, the back of the sculpture has the characters that represents "Peace"

Peace statue

This is where all the wishes for peace in the form of strings of origami cranes are hung

View from the Peace Park of Nagasaki with the Immaculate Conception Cathedral 

All toilets we have encountered in Japan are impressively clean - but this one is actually pretty!

Ground zero was marked by this dramatic plaza in between the Peace Park and the Museum. 

The river separated the Park from the Museum

Origami cranes are symbols of peace

What luck to come across a snowy egret beside the river

After the visit we dropped by the renowned Spectacles Bridge on the way back to the port. I was surprised that it actually looked like a pair of spectacles! 

A surprise cormorant drying its wings

Two children and a dragon - not sure about the symbolism behind this statue, but they all seem to have happy faces

A traditional house in between two high rises

Japanese lady in the rain

I have noticed that Japanese restaurant entrances tend to be very decorative. Here are a series of restaurant entrances that caught my eye on the street that ran alongside the river

This looks like a shop selling supplies for cats - with an unusual entrance

Nagasaki Chinatown was our lunch stop.  It was quite busy but we were able to find a table at a fairly large restaurant - food was okay but I still missed Chinese greens!

Chinatown consists of several streets like this one - a lot of reds and golden dragons -  unmistakably Chinese...

It was a short walk from Chinatown back to the ship but on the way, the Nagasaki Art Museum caught my eye.  I lucked out because the Museum happened to be running a retrospective on the well-known Japanese artist Yoshimura Yoshio (1950-2013).  It was an amazing exhibit of the works of this artist known for his awesome pencil drawings - a feast for the eyes.  I can only include a few here but the exhibit included "perfect reproductions of newspapers made by copying every single character by hand, a series of self-portraits made every day for a year, and a ten-meter-long depiction of flowers that could easily be mistaken for a photograph."  It was an unexpected bonus.

Nagasaki Art Museum

Yoshimura Yoshio self-portraits

The 10 metre wisteria painting done with Faber colour pencils and close-up below

Nagasaki waterfront

The ship left Japan to sail to Busan, Korea that night.  Japanese authorities had to come on board to do exit procedure for every single passenger.  And they will come back for re-entry...

Next post:  Busan, Korea