Friday 11 March -Nagasaki Japan

Ship docked at 8am and we spent the morning visiting Glover Gardens which has a collection of Western Style homes built by influential foreigners that lived and worked in Nagasaki in the 19th Century. We also looked at the Oura Catholic Cathedral completed in 1865 which is the oldest surviving christian church in Japan. From here we took a taxi to the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Park and visited the Hall of Remembrance which was quite stark but very moving. We then went to the Atomic Bomb Museum which graphically illustrates the trajedy and horror of the nuclear bomb, quite harrowing but it had to be done. The bomb exploded 500 metres from the largest catholic cathedral in Asia and all but one wall was destroyed in the initial seconds. The rebuilt cathedral is very simple in it's beauty. Our final port of call here was to the memorial at the actual point of impact which again really made us think. Armed with our trusty streetcar map and feeling quite brave, we took the streetcar back part of the way and then walked the rest of the way back to the ship, calling on the way for some tasty free samples of food and drink. We tried the sake and cheap Japanese whisky, we won't be bringing samples home! We also tried some of the famous Nagasaki Castella cake believed to have been introduced by the Portuguese in the 1500's (madiera cake to you)! Arrived back on board tired but happy and looking forward to a relaxing evening. At 5.30pm the grim voice of Captain Carl announced the earthquake and massive tsunami and told us not to worry but he was going to make a run for deep water! We weren't worried until he asked all crew on deck 3 to return immediately to their quarters and seal their portholes! More tomorrow if we're saved.