The fascinating history and beautiful scenery of Nagasaki Japan【Japan life】

It is strange to look at some churches and this is exciting for me for two reasons: the first reason is that I have never been to Nagasaki before and the second reason is that I did not know that Japan had so many churches. Usually when you think of Japan, you think of temples and shrines. I had no idea there were churches here, but anyway, if you like videos like this, don't forget to like, subscribe and enter so we can start our day at Sumitara Omura's resting place. who was actually one of the most famous Christians in Japan, he was a feudal lord and spent his last days here and in fact, shortly after his death, Christianity was banned in Japan in 1614.

Sumitara Umura is famous for many reasons . Not only was he the first high-profile Christian in Japan, but he also opened trade in the port of Nagasaki to the Portuguese, which I found extremely

fascinating

. Unfortunately, his house is no longer here, but they've turned this area into a

beautiful

park and it's honestly one of the most relaxing places I've ever been to in Japan, so let's go and take a look. One of my favorite things about this park is that there are several bulletin boards spread out sharing information about Sumitara Amoro's

life

and he is an incredibly interesting person. one of my favorite bulletin boards because they actually have images on there too.

I'm a bit more of a visual learner so I like to see things so I find this to be incredibly informative so this park is surrounded by residential houses which is probably why it's so quiet and peaceful but I love it . It is important to note that this area is quite spacious and there are many benches where you can sit and just relax. I think my favorite is right here because you can see. These two benches with a tree towering over them are absolutely

beautiful

and it feels really serene, so now we are in the city of Nagasaki and it is absolutely beautiful here, it is definitely not like any other city I have been to, especially in Japan .

I'm currently walking through this cute little shopping district and it's on a pretty steep incline so you have to be careful where you walk but it's absolutely lovely here, the weather is amazing and these shops next to me are absolutely adorable and I can't wait to go. and check them out so now we move on to our next church, which is the Aura Cathedral, it was built in 1865 and is the oldest Christian building that still exists in Japan today. It is impressive, it has a bright light color, it is on the top of this beautiful hill and it is perhaps one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.

I can't wait to see it closer so you can see behind me how beautiful this cathedral is. It's definitely not something you would expect to see in Japan, but it is absolutely beautiful. It's impressive and I think today's climate further complements the building, so you have to pay an entrance fee to get in, but part of that fee actually goes towards contributing to the maintenance of historic churches and things like that in Nagasaki , so I would say it's okay. It's worth the price so you can't see it from here but when you go up these stairs you can apparently see a spectacular view so I can't wait to check it out so we're right at the top right next to the entrance of the cathedral and if you didn't even look down, I meant down, but actually, just on the other side of your eye line, you can see a really beautiful mountain with a lot of buildings and it's impressive, it really is, it doesn't even seem real , it looks like a model, that's how perfect it looks, it looks like someone made it, but it's beautiful, oh and there's a nice Cool Breeze, lovely too, now that I'm here the church looks even more magnificent.

I love her style, it's really beautiful. Interestingly, although we have quite a few churches in the UK, we don't have too many white churches, they are usually just a standard old brick built building, they are still very beautiful but I don't really get the chance to see them. many are painted white so this is a nice new gift for me so here we have this amazing. I think I'll call it a print because it's not exactly a picture and it's not exactly a sculpture, but basically this is Bishop. He and Bernard Petty Jean became bishop of Nagasaki.

I'm not sure if that was before or after this was made, but either way this is absolutely impressive and I had no idea Nagasaki ever had a bishop. Honestly, I'm learning a lot today and I can't wait to tell anyone who is willing to listen to all the facts I've learned that this is amazing and if you're not expecting it it takes your breath away almost instantly. I have some kakuni Manju here and I've never tried this before so I'm really excited to try it, here we go itadakimasu it's very very smooth. I was very surprised, it is delicious.

Oh, there's the middle part. I'm going to try it alone, it's so tender and soft. it literally melted in my mouth wow so now we're at Nakamachi catholic church and in front you can see a very modern building and I was going to say oh this church looks very modern but actually when you walk in here you can see this beautiful. and it's definitely much more traditional looking than the building I originally saw and is very well hidden. I had no idea this was here until I turned this corner, but it's beautiful and we have this white color again.

There's something about it that just looks amazing and I also love the bell tower at the top, it's absolutely stunning so if you follow the path up here they have some really interesting statues with a really interesting story that I would love to share with you so let's check it out. Now for me, here we have the statues of Saint Thomas Nishi and the 15 martyrs, so of the 15 martyrs, nine of them were Japanese, four of them were from Spain and then there was one from Italy, France and the Philippines. These martyrs were murdered between 1633 and 1637 in truly horrible ways, there is a small plaque here that tells you all about it.

I won't talk about it here because it's quite gruesome, so they died for their faith and the only thing that immediately caught my attention is that they are all facing in the same direction, this to me is particularly

fascinating

because the usual structure of statues like this would be just align them carefully, but the fact that they are all strategically placed seemed quite interesting to me now, the reason for this is actually because they all look towards Europe, where Catholicism and Christianity are the main face there and at the time when these people were killed they couldn't build a church in Japan so they looked towards Europe because that's where home is. of their faith is that I found it very interesting and I think this might be one of my favorite things I've seen so far, so unfortunately we can't film in many of these churches, but I walked into this one. one and what surprised me was that the structure of this church inside was exactly the same as the church I go to in London, so it was really strange being there because for a second I wasn't even sure what country I was in.

The design was almost identical as if I couldn't believe it, it was one of the first things I noticed and I felt like I had been transported back to England. It's quite interesting because, as I said, the outside of our churches in the UK, although they are shaped like this, you don't often see the ones that are white and I'm still a bit shocked by the fact that Japan has churches. I spend a lot of my time exploring temples and shrines because I love them too, but I never thought about churches until I visited Nagasaki and now I think I'll be more aware and probably a little more attentive too, so now we're on site of the martyrdom of the 26 saints of Japan, so 20 of those were Japanese Christians and six of them were foreign missionaries and they were executed simply because they were Christians.

The Pope at that time heard all this in Europe and decided to turn these 26 martyrs into saints and right now we are here at the monument to them. 26 Santos and it is very moving that we are now in the port of Nagasaki because we are going to take a ferry to the Gottle Islands. I'm a little nervous because I don't get on boats too often, but I'm also very excited to see what the islands are like, but again it's a beautiful day here in Nagasaki. We are very lucky to have such great weather and spend it on the ocean.

The boats here are quite large and the

scenery

is incredible. I know. It's a harbor, so you'll have a good view of the ocean, but there are also so many beautiful mountains behind me. I will never get tired of looking at the mountains in Japan as they are one of the most beautiful parts of Japan. in my opinion so let's go abroad we finally arrived and the ship was really nice it looked like the inside of an apartment it was very modern there was a TV there to keep you entertained and the seats were very comfortable so it was actually too I was able to sleep for part of the trip, so yeah, it was a pretty good experience and I'm glad I did it because like I said, I haven't been on a boat in a long time and it's kind of rare for me.

Making the trip was about an hour and 30 minutes, which isn't bad and yes, it gives you enough time to relax and maybe take a nap. Videos right now we are on Kashi ragashima island and it is a very small island but the surroundings are absolutely stunning on the way here it was really very scenic every two minutes there was something to look at outside the bus window so it was beautiful , this island has a beautiful church here called Kashiragashima church and it was completed in 1919, but due to lack of funds, they actually had to source the materials to do it from the local area.

An interesting fact is that almost all the residents here except one house are Catholic so this would be their local church that they go to pray at which I find incredibly fascinating and here it is so unfortunately we are not allowed filming inside the church and that will be the case with most churches but we are allowed to show you around so let's go and have a look. As with most traditional churches, they have absolutely beautiful stained glass windows. One of the things I've noticed is that every church we've been to has a completely different style of stained glass.

These are primary colors and they are very beautiful. One of the most interesting things about this structure is actually its surroundings, so you can see that there are very tall trees and it looks like this church is almost on a low level compared to everything else, but it really isn't. There's a hill here, but because the trees are so tall and there's a huge wall here, you'd be forgiven for thinking we're at ground level and we're not, which I think is really strange but interesting, you have to be very aware. from its surroundings, so this church is built with goto Stone, which is apparently a good thing because it's harder for moss to grow, which I had no idea on, so it's really crazy to me.

I had never heard of it before, but this stone is very special. because you can only get it in this area so it really feels like this church belongs here, it's part of nature here almost because it's built with materials that you can only find here and I love that so much, I think it's really special. I don't know many buildings that can say they are built with locally sourced materials, especially nowadays a lot of things are imported, so I love it. I think it's amazing that we are now in Elsa Gowda's church and one of the things.

What I noticed right away is the brick of the Secretary of this church. It is not white or a light color like the others we have seen so far. The brick here is quite red and really not much different from the churches we have in the UK. They will be built in this style with red bricks or brown bricks, so yes, to me, this is fantastic. This is the first time I have seen a red brick church so far. This church was built in 1910, so it's actually just over 100 years old, but you wouldn't think that because it really looks well preserved, it looks like it could have been built maybe 10 years ago, that's how clean and fresh it looks. , it really has been very well maintained and one of the important features here is the wooden doors right at the front.

Again it is very similar to what we have in the UK. I'm really surprised to see this because as I said before in Japan you expect to see temples and shrines but to see churches that aren't that different from what we have in the UK is really surprising to me and I love it, it's fascinating, It opened my mind and I can't wait to see more, so the red bricks for this church here are actually from Sasebo City and the residents here helped carry them. and build this church, so keep in mind that each brick weighs about three kilograms and the women were carrying eight bricks at a time, that is incredibly heavy and I think that is something that makes this church even more special and important, Honestly, another thing to mention is thatThis church has a fantastic view like almost all the other churches I've seen so far, it's right on a hill and the ocean is in front of us, it's magical honestly, so let's look around and see what else we can find, so that I love. this here's a little garden right next to the church and again this is something that we have in my church in England we have like a flower bed around the outside it's a little touch that I think makes all the difference because I know someone has to come and take care of this regularly and that just adds a touch of color and makes you feel more at home.

I'd say this is the style of plants you can grow in your own garden at home, so it's nice to see them here with the church we're currently in. nakanoda church and it is so beautiful that it is right next to the boardwalk and you get an amazing view from the opposite side of the shore. I love this church. I think it's adorable. It was built in 1925 and you can tell because the architectural style really represents it. When I think of a small town church, this is definitely what comes to mind. I think it's the cutest thing ever and compared to the UK I don't really see churches like this at all.

It's made of wood and, like me. I've mentioned before that most churches in the UK are actually made of brick and stone, so it's really comforting for me to see this, but it's absolutely beautiful and quite small, but it also feels cozy, so let's take a look. look at the landscape of this church. it's particularly interesting, I love it, it's a small garden and all the flowers are beautiful, there are butterflies everywhere and if you have this amazing view right in front of you of a mountain and the boardwalk, it's amazing, it's so impressive, this garden He's really kind.

It reminds me of the gardens you see in the countryside in England. I love that it's not clean, it's just nature growing together and you have all these different colors here and it looks amazing next to the white of the church. It is really impressive. You could stay here all day and enjoy this, it's beautiful, just the nature around here is absolutely amazing, oh my goodness, there's a little crab there, oh, it's very interesting that we saw a crab here today because we recently learned that the crab is a very important symbol for Christianity with Francis Xavier because at one point he lost his cross and a crab came out of the sea and gave him back his cross, so seeing a crab here today outside this church honestly feels like something out of a dream, it's really cool and it's such an important symbol, so it's so appropriate that we saw it here today.

Behind me you can see the Wakamatsu Bridge and before it was built, people used to have to go to school so the only way to cross was by boat, so this bridge. it has changed many people's lives the surroundings here are absolutely stunning there are so many mountains so many trees the water is this incredible turquoise color it's not quite blue it's not quite green it's beautiful I've never seen the ocean this color before it's incredible I see behind me that there is a church on this cliff here and it is absolutely beautiful, but I think what makes it more interesting to see is the fact that we are below it and above us, so it looks really magnificent, so that's all.

Today's video, guys, thank you very much for watching. I loved my stay here in Nagasaki and I really should come back. The weather was incredible. I learned so many new things. I saw so many amazing places. So yes, this is definitely an area you must see. from Japan anyway, let me know what you think in the comments section. Next, have you ever visited any of the places we featured in our video today or would you like to say a big thank you for watching? See you at the next one. goodbye thank you