Saikai Bridge is a fixed brace arch bridge 244 meters tall and 1,927 meters in length. The bridge was completed in 1955. Today it has a companion bridge, the Shin (new) Saikai Bridge which was completed in 2006.
The new bridge opened across this channel and has gained enormous popularity which I had to check out for myself. Unfortunately I didn't do my homework before visiting otherwise I would have gone to the footbridge built under the bridge which can be accessed for free. From the footbridge you can enjoy the scenery and also view the powerful currents from the 60cm diameter glass windows in the floor of the observation area. I guess these photos will just have to wait till my next visit!
Hario Straits is one of Japan's three fastest flowing currents and is famous for its whirlpools created by the seawater from the expansive Omura Bay rushing through the narrow strait during the changing tides. The rate of the whirlpools increases particularly at springtime due to the great difference between the tides at this time of year.
Out of interest, nearby are the three Hario Wireless Towers, which transmitted the coded message that launched the attack on Pearl Harbor and triggered the Pacific War on December 7, 1941. They still can be seen and although they still work today they are not very powerful compared to their capacity during the WW2 period whereby the were used because of their operational efficiency and strength.
Check out Saikai Bridge here on a map below:
Click on the photos below to enlarge:
The new Bridge
Swirling waters below
Famous for its rapid currents below
From my previous post, I promised that I would return to the Saikai Bridge and witness the fast flowing waters below after doing my homework and finding the best place to access the attractions in the area. I found out that the best viewing point is from the old bridge from the normal road and not the new bridge which can only be accessed from the toll road.
Here are some more photos from the site seen from a different angle that those above from my original trip: Click on the photos below to enlarge
Nicely mapped out
Walkway
The new bridge
My son enjoyed the view
Birdseye view
The infamous Hario Towers
The old bridge
Panorama
Please click on the videos below to see more about the Saikai Bridge Nagasaki:
The Kosuge Slip Dock in Nagasaki is a site of Japan`s Meiji Industrial Revolution. Western ships the Japanese purchased through Nagasaki-based Western traders near the end of the Edo period were mostly older vessels that had been in use in the seas around China. As a result, they were constantly in need of repairs. In response to the demand for a repair dock, in 1866 the Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover helped draw up plans for such a facility.
The Kosuge Ship Repair Dock, completed in January 1869, was the first modern Western-style dock, which used a steam engine in Japan. In 1869, it was purchased by the new Meiji government and placed under the jurisdiction of the Nagasaki Iron Works. In 1887, ownership of the repair dock passed to the Mitsubishi conglomerate, and the site remains in the possession of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries today. The Kosuge Ship Repair Dock was a slip dock designed so that at high tide a ship could be set on dollies that were hauled up along tracks running from water to land by means of cables and boiler-powered steam winches operated from a winch house. In this way, workers were able to make repairs and do maintenance work on the ship’s bottom.
The Kosuge Slip Dock and winch house are the oldest structural remains of modern naval technology in Japan and provide a rare and valuable example of such transplanted Western technology in the late Edo period and early Meiji era. As naval vessels grew in scale and the Tategami shipyard began operating full throttle, Kosuge Ship Repair Dock came to be used exclusively for work on small vessels, until it finally closed down in 1953. In 1969 it was designated a national historical site.
The Kosuge Slip Dock is a great site to look at in order to realize how Japan did actually convert from a feudal system to the economic superpower that it is today. By taking the technologies from the West and putting them into practice but also fine-tuning them and making then better and more efficient than their competitors allowed them to reach the heights that they did in the 1970`s and 80`s.
As we speak the Iron/Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal mining of Japan have been inscribed to the 2015 World Heritage List. Please click on the photos below to enlarge:
Illustration of the slip dock
Message in English
The equipment
Lots of history
Nagasaki History
Some of the remains
Click here to see the Kosuge Slip Dock in Nagasaki on a map:
Please check out the Kosuge Slip Dock on the video below:
Anyone who has ever read James Clavell's "Shogun," or seen the movie, has already been indirectly introduced to William Adams. The fictional heroics of John Blackthorne were loosely based on Adams' exploits.
After serving in the Royal Navy under Sir Francis Drake, Adams became a pilot for the company Barbary Merchants. During this service, he took part in an expedition to the Arctic that lasted about two years in search of a Northeast Passage along the coast of Siberia to the Far East. It was late November 1599 when the ship sailed westwardly for Japan. When the ship made landfall April 19, 1600, in Oita Prefecture as a result of a typhoon.
Allegations by Portuguese priests that Adams' ship was a pirate vessel led to seizure, and the sickly crew was imprisoned at Osaka Castle on orders by the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.
But the Shogun took a liking to Adams, eventually making him a revered diplomatic and trade adviser and bestowing great privileges upon him. In 1604, Ieyasu ordered Adams to build a western-style sailing ship.
Ieyasu's rewards for Adams' service and loyalty were grand, and included a large house in the new capital of Tokyo. The most impressive, however, were two swords. A badge of rank and authority, the swords transformed Adams the English pilot into Miura Anjin the samurai. Along with this came a handsome salary, and the means to marry Oyuki, the daughter of a noble samurai and official of Edo Castle.
Adams and Oyuki had a son, Joseph, and a daughter, Susanna. In 1613, he became preoccupied with trading after helping the British East India Company set up a trading post near Nagasaki then setting up his own.
Adams died at Hirado, north of Nagasaki, on May 16, 1620. He was 56.
It is worth noting that William Adams had a wife and children in England, but Ieyasu had forbidden the Englishman to leave Japan. In a true stroke of wisdom, the Shogun decreed that William Adams was dead and that Miura Anjin, a samurai, was born. This made his wife in England a widow and allowed Adams to serve him on a permanent basis. Also, only as a samurai, was he eligible to marry a samurai's daughter.
Please see William Adams Gravestone on the map below:
Please click of the pics below to enlarge:
Messages in English
William Adams Gravestone
The tomb
Insciptions
Well signposted
Interesting indeed
Here is a video of William Adams Gravestone located in Hirakata Park in Hirado:
Hirado in Nagasaki Prefecture is home to many Christian churches but the most-photographed is the St. Francis Xavier Memorial Church.
Sitting atop a hill overlooking the small town and its harbor, the church was originally named the Hirado Catholic Church, but was renamed following the placing of a statue of St. Xavier in the grounds. The church was originally built on a different site in 1913 but was reconstructed at its present location in 1931.
There are so many writings about Saint Francis Xavier but here are a couple of excerpts that i think fully show how significant he was during his life:
Arriving in Japan in 1550, Jesuit priest Francis Xavier played a key role in the early spread of Christianity in the country. His missionary work included preaching in Hirado in the northwest of present-day Nagasaki Prefecture, where Christianity took root most firmly and “hidden Christians” preserved the faith during centuries of prohibition. Today Hirado is home to numerous historic churches, testifying to the enduring influence of Spanish and Portuguese missionaries.
St. Francis was a model for missionaries, formed upon the spirit of the apostles. So absolute a master was he of his passions that he knew not what it was to have the least notion of anger or impatience and in all events was perfectly resigned to the Divine Will, from whence proceeded an admirable tranquility of soul, a perpetual cheerfulness, and equality of countenance. He rejoiced in afflictions and sufferings and said that one who had once experienced the sweetness of suffering for Christ, will ever after find it worse than death to live without a cross. By humility, the saint was always ready to follow the advice of others and attributed all blessings to their prayers which he most earnestly implored.
There are so many interesting and important historical statues and landmarks on the site that one can easily get lost in the historical significance and be overwhelmed by the tragedy and sacrifice of it all, for example the Monument to the Martyrdom of Fr. Camillus Costanzo, an Italian missionary, stands as a symbol of dedication to one`s faith and belief`s. I wandered around for a good 45 minutes and wish I could have gone inside and taken some more videos and photos but as a crowd had gathered (the area is full of pilgrims of Christian and non christian faith) I didn't want to be disrespectful and cause a scene. I am fairly certain that i will be back for some further investigations.
Please check out the Saint Francis Xavier Church in Nagasaki on this map:
Please click on the photos below to enlarge:
In all its glory!
Nagasaki Churches
English Reading Material
Strong images everywhere
Inside the Church
Famous view of the church with a temple in the foreground.
Lots of info
Powerful image
Here is a video of the Saint Francis Xavier Church Nagasaki for your pursual:
Recently I have spending a lot of time researching and updating my information and knowledge of Hirado in the Northwest of Nagasaki Prefecture. I have had a couple of Private Tour requests of the area and in particular regarding Christian History of the region.
The history and the culture of the area is very different from the rest of Japan and in many regards different to Nagasaki City and the Shimabara Peninsular which are the 2 speciality areas that I use predominately for my Nagasaki Tours.
A couple of reasons why this is so, is because of the amount of foreign influence that the region was provided and accustomed to in regards to foreign trading with the Dutch and the British and also in regards to the amount of Christian missionaries who were mostly Spanish and Portuguese.
In the next month of two I will endeavor to post more and more about the region and highlight the fascinating feature and numerous attractions that they have.
The Kita Arima Christian Monument is a symbol of the many Christians who died for their Christian faith mostly during the 17th century. There are many of these statues, monuments, reminders, posts, tombstones and the like all over the Shimabara Peninsular in Nagasaki as this area of Japan was a hive of Christian activities during the 16th and 17th centuries. I have been discovering and searching for these site for a while now and more keep popping up all over the place.
In 1549, St. Francis Xavier and two other priests arrived in Kagoshima to bring Christianity to Japan from Spain. There were an estimated 300,000 Christians by the end of the sixteenth century. Problems arose and Christianity was suppressed and the first Martyrs of Japan died in 1597. 250 years later, when Christian missionaries returned to Japan, they found a community of Japanese Christians that had survived underground and were approached cautiously by the descendants of the Christians after their suppression.
There were 205 Japanese Christian Martyrs between 1597 and 1637. One of these incidents is documented with a Nagasaki Christian Monument in the town of Kita Arima on the Shimabara Peninsular. Here 29 Christians were martyred in the Arima River, death by drowning for not renouncing their Christian faith, in times where Christianity was banned throughout all of Japan by the rulers. It was quite an intense feeling to be at the site of such atrocities that were committed so many years ago but as with all shocking incidents it is better to learn from our past rather than hiding the real truth!
Please check out the Kita Arima Christian Monument on this map below:
Please click on the photos below to enlarge:
Remembering the dead
29 Christians died here
The place where the Christians were drowned
Remembering the turbulent times
Please click on the video below to see the Kita Arima Nagasaki Christian Monument:
