We began the rather wet day in the super-deluxe shopping mall next to our hotel, looking for Uniqlo. Prices were less than half that in the UK – and then we had the tax knocked off on top because we were tourists. So we’re stocked up with warm tops in case the weather deteriorates.
Following that success, I managed to order a spare pair of sunglasses with all the mod-cons (varifocal lenses, scratchproof etc etc) for under half the price of my UK ones, to be delivered to my hotel next week. We’ll see how that works out but it seemed like a bargain.
With brighter weather promising, we made our way via two lifts to Glover Garden, another reminder of Nagasaki’s cosmopolitan history. The garden iss named after a Scot, Thomas Glover, who set up Japan’s first soft drinks company at the end of the nineteenth century which later became Kirin Brewery. Several nineteenth century houses occupy the grounds of this the pretty garden, although we were less impressed by them (we live in a nineteenth century house, for goodness sake!) than by this enormous creature sipping from the flowers:
It’s the kind of place where guests dress up and waft about:
One of the buildings was now the Museum of Traditional Performing Arts which showed off the elaborage floats carried during the Kunchi festival held in October in Nagasaki (we missed it of course). Although very snake-like. we were traasnfixed with these three:
A small girl feediing fish almost as large as her caught our eye (Alan, this is for you!)
Our afternoon ended with a visit to the contemporary art gallery which specialises in Spanish artists but had a temporary exhibition of an installation by a British Columbian artist Janet Cardiff. We sat looking out of the enormous windows of this beautiful building, surrounded by 40 loudspeakers playing Tallis’s stunning music – no photos sadly but click this link for a taste of the work if you don’t know it.
What good timing with the butterfly and what wonderful dragon photos. Just looked up Uniqlo clothing too, what a find. That little girl looks so absorbed in the fish, simple pleasures
Yes, a very pleasing day all round I’d say! The little girl had all the power in the encounter – she had fish food…
Thank you for the fish. ‘Now that’s a koi’.
Looks as if the Asian hummingbird hawkmoth is bigger than the ones that visit our gardens.
V v big koi – would cause a bit of a tsunami in most ponds I feel. Those moth are gorgeous aren’t they?
I can almost feel the luxurious sense of your day – drifting through the garden, gazing at drifting boats, watching a child watching drifting koi, then drifting around the speakers of the beautiful Cardiff installation. Question – did listeners actually stop to hear to hear a lot or most of the glorious Spem Alium? We’ve seen this in a few places and I’m always disappointed that so many visitors just wander through it and leave after a minute.
Yes, a calm and drifting sort of day, compounded by jet lagged sleep disturbance I think. The music was completely riveting and yes, people sat and listened all the way through, including two school boys, young teens I think. Fantastic experience.
It sounds and looks like you had a really lovely day – weather notwithstanding! Tallis is always great!
The music was, indeed, really spectacular as was the gallery building – all glass, wood and views of the sea and harbour.
Finding such bargains at Uniqlo resonates with me and puts a spring in your step for what follows in the rest of your day. Looks/sounds like it was a rich variety of spectacle and sound.
Yes, indeed – spectacle, sound AND Uniqlo cashmere vests!
Janet Cardiff’s work looks very atmospheric and hope 40 loudspeakers on tall stands didn’t obscure your view too much – she could have done a bit more to make them less obtrusive. Or is there annoying obtrusiveness the point? Anyway moving to more important things – staggered that prices are cheaper than in Britain – I always thought Japan was prohibitively expensive.
Oddly, the loudspeakers didn’t feel intrusive and you could walk around them and listen to the individual voices coming from each one which was sort of magical. In terms of prices in Japan, hotels are quite pricey but other things – transport, museum entrance, meals, sake – seem pretty reasonable so far.