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If I said yesterday was the best day of the trip, of course today had to be the worst. Why? Well, in summary, I had to leave most of the staff we had met in Hirado behind, I had to leave my homestay family behind, and I had to go to the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki. And I was filmed pretty much all day.*

So, first thing in the morning, I got up, went to breakfast, then I took my things and left the house. We weren't going back. Yoshie drove us to the community center, where we left her. Masao came with us to a bus stop, where we left him and the other staff behind.

So, yeah, I was sad. I cried while we were pulling out of the bus stop, I cried on the bus, I finally calmed down when we got to the Nagasaki Peace Park.

Big mistake.

After visiting the Peace Park, we headed down to the Hypocenter Park, where the atomic bomb hit the city of Nagasaki. And we basically got ambushed by the press (who were, I think, trying to be ninjas as they followed us into the Atomic Bomb Museum).

So, after we entered the museum and got to the Nagasaki Memorial Hall, I started crying again when we talked to Yamaguchi-san, a man who had survived the blasts of two atomic bombs. It was pretty emotional ( he himself started crying during the speech he gave).

We got to talk to Japanese school students about peace and about life at home, too.

After that, we got to go to dinner at a Western-style restaurant. We went by train instead, though, and the driver of the coach picked us up afterward. He drove us back to the hotel, which was a Best Western (and pretty ritzy like all the hotels we had been to thus far).

I finally got my suitcase back from the porters, which was good because if you think living out of a suitcase for two weeks is hard, try living out of a BACKPACK (and a smaller backpack) for two days.

Today's entry is shorter than usual... I don't want to type too much about it, I guess, because I was so sad. crying

*I believe this picture illustrates rather well just how much publicity we had that day. This was taken in Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum by one of our group leaders. It might take a while to load.
Click here to go to this picture.