Sunday, June 28, Morning with Perry

My first post of this morning did not save, so I had to write it again. Forgive me for being short.

This morning we went to the Nagasaki Peace Park. It was already hot with 80% humidity at 8:30 AM. But it was sunny. It wasn't raining so the park was perfect. I forgot my umbrella back at the hotel in Ueno, which seems like months ago now. I finally bought another on our first day in Nagasaki. It was one for both rain and sun. And, since I forgot my sun glasses at a restaurant back in Kyoto, the umbrella provided some shade for my eyes this morning.

We got "Nagasaki ice cream." It was so good! The man scooped it in a way that, by the time he was finished, it looked like a rose. Then he made a second one for Perry. It was just a scoop. He smiled and said, "ladies only."

We walked around the the park, looking at the different statues and structures that were donated to the city of Nagasaki as a symbol of friendship. The one from the US was made by a St. Paul artist. He made two identical structures: One for Minnesota and one for Nagasaki.

We approached one statue in the park. It had a drawn color picture taped to it. There were two vases of flowers next to it. There was a bucket of water beside the vases. An old man, who we assumed was a gardener for the park, approached the display. He smiled like he was happy to see people stopping to look at the picture. In Japanese, he said "good morning."

From the little Japanese I know, this is what I think he was telling us. The statue was made for him. He survived the atomic bombing because of some metal poles that mostly shielded him from the blast. The posts on the statue represent the ones that saved him. The picture was something that he created to show what he most remembers of that day. He was outside walking to work when it happened; he just happened to be next to the poles that mostly shielded him, but was knocked out. When he woke up he saw every building around him in flames. People's clothes had been burned off or melted into their skin, if their skin had not melted off of their bodies already. He was 15 years old when it happened.

He said he comes every day to water the flowers. He invited us to water the flowers too. We were lucky to have met him and to have heard his story of survival.