A Life Incomplete

I started the day by going to Palm Sunday Mass at Urakami Cathedral. I first came here eight years ago to attend Easter Vigil Mass. The original cathedral was the largest in Asia. It was destroyed after the US dropped an atomic bomb on it — the cathedral was only 500 meters from the hypocenter. I lingered a bit after Mass and chatted with some parishioners before turning around and seeing a large number of tourists gathered in the back of the church behind a rope. I walked down to the Dr. Takashi Nagai Memorial Hall. It is small but it made clear and concrete the affects of war, especially atomic weapons. I bought a bilingual copy of Nagai's most famous work, The Bells of Nagasaki. I walked through the Peace Park to Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Museum. It was my first time there although this is my third time to Nagasaki city.

In the afternoon I went to Oura Cathedral and the new museum built in the old seminary on the grounds. I didn't have much time but that ended up not being a problem, in the end. A free pork bun sample led me to having a full sized pork bun before having dinner at the new development near Dejima. I tried to go to a jazz kissa that I read about in Monocle Magazine but found it closed so I found an old coffee shop with a cat and spent some time there. I took a photo of Megane (Spectacles) Bridge before heading off to my hotel for bed.