If you've ever heard of Puccini's Madama Butterfly (which is what Miss Saigon is based off of), the house/supposed story of this house in Nagasaki is the inspiration for Puccini's story. A Japanese wife patiently awaits the return of her American husband, and has a son by him, but he later remarries, leaving her alone. Thomas Glover, an American, moved to Nagasaki in the mid-1800's and married Tsuru, a Japanese woman, and they had a son together. (I don't know if he left and/or remarried or not...I don't think so.) Anyway, we toured their house, their garden and the rest of their estate. It was interesting to see one of the first Western permanent residences in Japan.
I both do and do not enjoy being a spectacle of sorts for the dozens upon dozens of 小学生(elementary schoolers) there. All complete with yellow hats. Why there are so many elementary schoolers taking field trips to every place I go, I don't know. I guess it's school trip season. (They don't get summer break until August.) Upon seeing me/eyeing me for a few minutes, quite a few of them will say "harro," "hi" or "konnichiwa" or even do head-nod bow. (It's practically against the rules in Japanese culture to randomly talk to stranger without a good reason. You can't just randomly say hi or make conversation, so they wouldn't do this with just anyone.) It's not like they've never seen a blonde/white person before, but I think it's sort of "special" for them, especially since I can and do speak Japanese to them. It's cute because I love kids, but I don't like being singled out because I happen to look different from them. I'm not special, people. I'm just another tourist to Glover Garden just like you. I'm not a celebrity; I didn't do anything. I don't like speculating about what their attitudes and impressions of American/white people are. I could say more about this but I won't right now.
The views from the garden/house area were amazing since you could see all down into the Nagasaki wharf/pier area, but since it was cloudy out visibility was limited and the sky was white.
Afterward Mai and I went back to Dejima wharf and we were gonna wait for sunset/take pics but it was getting dark so slowly and it was getting cold and it was cloudy anyway so the sunset wouldn't have been that great anyway so we just walked home.
I'm especially tired today because I got into a bad sleep cycle the past two days (sleeping late and taking naps) and so today's my "fix" day where I have to go all day on five hours of sleep with no nap. So more later. :)
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