Today i had the day to myself. Five was off at work, and left me with my amazing surroundings. So i began my walk. Five pointed out this sign to me yesterday when we arrived:

With some spooky guy trying to get the women. Five translated as best he could, "don't walk alone at night".

Anyways, one place i planned on going was the shrine of 26 matyrs around the corner. Here's an alright panaromic shot of the shrine. There were a bunch of stray cats hanging around on the benches and nearby. I wasn't exactly sure where they had been, so i didn't play around with them too much.

The shrine of 26 matyrs is there to honor 20 japanese and 6 foreignors who were slain defending the name of Christanity. Around the corner was the church this shrine was dedicated to:

The shrine also featured a map, which i thought was quite helpful.

Before i went any further, i forgot five's number back at the apartment. "I should probably go back and get that, JUST in case," i thought to myself.

here's a pic on the way back:

and a pretty little house on the corner:

As i ventured out again, i took another panoramic shot off a balcony beside the road: here. Nagasaki is so beautiful. There's so much stuff. So many houses and residence. America just seems so plain now.

I got back out to the main nagasaki road to look around for some food. I found this in a vending machine:

Deeppresso, the coffee that causes depression.

I saw five's apartment from the street too: here. It's that little blue one near the center of the pic. here's some other random pics:

I finally found a convience store of sorts. I picked up some Onigiri and grape juice. I couldn't eat them right there, so i decided to go back to the apartment. On the way back i snapped some pics of the gas station prices:

Regular is 147 yen per liter. 2.5 liters is about one gallon, isn't it? That's about 375 yen per gallon then. So gas is about $3.50 here. $1 more. I really wonder how much gas mileage some of these car get. Most of them look pretty futuristic ^_^.

One really odd then i've noticed from the moment i got to Japan, is that all the cars are pretty much new. I haven't seen a single car that looks older than 5 years, except for the taxi cabs. Everyone drives something that's actually pleasant to the eyes, rather than some crappy ass car you find all over the US. It seems like Japan actually has standards when it comes to these things. All the more reason to pick up a Prius when i get back.

Also when i was out I found several Beer vending machines:

This one has those gigantic cans that i saw at the grocery store yesterday. So... once i got back, i snacked on my Onigiri and checked the internet again. It was a good rest considering i've been walking up and down hills to get everywhere.

__

Once fully rested, i departed for the department store to look for games and things. My mission got somewhat side tracked when i came across this staircase:

This sign said 'Shrine this way', so i figured this would definately be awesome:

and i wasn't dissapointed ^_^. here's a panorama of the base: here. This shrine was the center of a pretty massive grave yard, nested within the heart of the neighborhood. There were plenty of decorated graves about the place.

I went up the side of the staircase, and took another panoramic shot, or two. Off to the side, there was a massive staircase, just begging me to climb it:

Which gave me a better view ^_^. It was getting closer and closer to this massive statue i've seen from the distance:

That's as close as i got to it though. Maybe tomorrow, i'll go over to that shrine. I continued up the staircase, and took plenty more panoramic shots. I kept climbing and climbing and climbing. I turned around to see how far i've gone:

Good lord.. and there were still plenty left to go. I think by the time i come back, i'm going to be in pretty good physical shape.

I finally made it to the top, and i whipped out my camera for some more panoramic action. So.. now i was right next to the White Hotel building that has been in my other panoramic shots. ALLLLL the way at the top of hill/mountain. I turned around to see what was on the other side of the mountain..

holy crap.. more city. I took out my camera and took more panoramic shots: one, two, three, and four. I stopped off at a convience store to buy some water because i was so tired at this point.

I continued forth, though. I found another staircase that lead up to the top of the next hill. It lead up to an empty baseball field. Off to the side was a scenic overlook, but you couldn't really see anything with all the trees in the way. I figured at this point i took enough pictures and was tired enough to warrant a visit back and the apartment.

___

Japanese people are so cute ^_^. I mean, besides the girl's being hot, the older folk have been quite nice. Whenever when someone walked passed me, or noticed me, i would smile and nod and they would always smile and nod back the same way. Quite friendly ^_^

When i went into the rural convience store, the guy on the counter figured that i had no idea what he was saying and pointed out the cost of my purchase in a very instructional way, like i couldn't read numbers or something.

That wasn't so easy earlier on that day with the other convience store which didn't have a display counter. I heard the cost quite clearly, ä¸?ç?¾ä¸?å??, but i kinda choked. San byaku.. what the hell is byaku. it's 300 something.. eh, screw it, i'll just give her a 500 coin. when i saw the 8, it clicked. I forgot about all those crazy conversions with 4 and 8.

The whole trip i was just waiting for some little kids to run up to me and start talking to me or making fun of me or something. I knew it was going to happen eventually. On my way back to the apartment the second time, there were these 3 little girls playing around outside this playground. They were looking at something intently, so i scuttled past unnoticed.

One of them noticed me, and the whole little group started following me wondering what the hell was up with me. Before i turned down the corner towards the apartment, i turned around to see what they were up to. They had this "what the fuck" look on their faces that was pretty funny. I made some faces at them, but it didn't seem to stun them anymore than they already were.

Anyways, nagasaki is rather tiring. I spent a good 6 hours walking up and down hills today, and then another 3 hours going through all the pictures. I would clean up those panoramic pictures a little more, but that takes too much time at the moment. I don't want to stay in the apartment all day long editing photos. Though, next time i'll probably rotate them so the pictures fit together a bit better.

Not all the pics i took today are shown, but all the good ones can be found here: http://www.theschlock.com/photo/060914_stuff/