Come Away with Me

Welcome to Goto islands!

A friend from uni days came to the island. Yes! Sharon Sum (just to distinguish from another Sharon friend i have from uni ;p) said she'll come visit me and really 'dropped' by Goto and stayed at my place for 4D3N!

Well, it is not easy actually to just 'drop' by where i am. To put things into perspective, i've gathered some simple maps to show all where exactly is Goto island in Japan. Perhaps you'll be as surprised as i was when i first found out earlier this year where i was heading. So you see the map of Japan where the capital Tokyo, and next big city Osaka,are marked together with Nagasaki (that's where I am, for the benefit of some people who really might still think i am in Tokyo OR Hiroshima, the other A-bombed prefecture!). As you can tell, northern Japan has Russia in their backyard while southern Japan is closer to Asia. Nagasaki prefecture is located near Korea and China, which explains why there used to be a rather substantial Chinese population in Nagasaki city and the Chinatown we see today.

Next, let's take a closer look at Nagasaki, located at the northwestern part of Kyushu, at the far west end of Japan. The prefecture has an extremely hilly and mountainous terrain and very few flatland areas. Another geographical characteristic is the many islands and islets, inhabited or uninhabited, located throughout. Big and small, approximately 588 isles made up the prefecture of Nagasaki. As such, the whole prefecture is very spread out and many Nagasaki JETs are thus more isolated from one another due to the fact that many of us are living far apart, on islands that may easily take up to 3 or 4 hours to reach a city. You will understand what i mean if you take a look at the following map.

This is the zoomed in view of Nagasaki prefecture. Unbelieveable isn't it? Here, instead of trains and subways, ferries, jetfoils and speedboats are the main mode of transportation to move around the many islands. Nagasaki as marked on the map above actually refers to Nagasaki city.From there, you can hop onto a ferry bound for Goto island. A one way ticket costs ￥2,700 and the journey takes 2hr 40min, longer than a trip to Bintan!

Goto is essentially the most western point in Nagasaki and now if you remember from my description earlier, Nagasaki is located in northwestern Japan. Which simply means that i am probably at one of the most western bit in the west side of Japan. So it does look like i am floating somewhere in the East China Sea and nowhere near Japan.Given the seclusiveness of the island, it was no wonder why it was the main hideout place for many hidden Christians during the persecution era. Up till today, you can still find many of these little churches all over and they had since become part of the main tourist attraction on the island.

Ok, enough of geography for now. So anyway, as Sharon speaks enough Japanese to get by, i gave her specific directions to find her way to the island and instructed Alvin to fetch her from Narao terminal as I was at work when she arrived that late afternoon. From Fukuoka, she took a bus to Nagasaki city, found her way to Ohato ferry terminal and got herself a ticket on the ferry bound for Narao, well-done Sharon! =)

posted by テレサ @ 12:25 AM