The Scottish Samurai - Thomas Blake Glover

Saturday the 14th of October was the big Nagasaki sightseeing day. I had originally intended to cover all our sightseeing in one blog entry, but I think that the story of Thomas Glover is deserving of an entry all to itself.

I have always had an interest in Thomas Glover ever since I read the book 'Scottish Samurai' in Edinburgh about 7 years ago. In Scotland, I had never heard of this man, but in Japan, he is almost a national hero. As a Scot myself, it is only natural that I have been very keen over the last 7 years to visit Nagasaki and the home of Thomas Glover. It turns out that Glover had a finger in many pies. He set up Japan's first brewery (Kirin), started the first rail line, helped establish the Nagasaki shipbuilding yard, and initially made his fortune as a gun runner. An impressive CV by anyone's standards!!!!

As we started our walk around Glover Gardens, I could faintly hear bagpipes coming through nearby speakers. It was also nice to see that Mitsubishi Shipyard still appears to be in fine health as a number of large ships were under construction or undergoing refits.To be honest, I did not find the inside of the house of much interest. It was small, dingy, and had contents that I have seen many times before in similar preserved homes in Scotland. However, that was all immaterial. I was just pleased to sample the place from where a Scotsman had played a major part in the development of Japan.

A few years ago, I recall reading that some Scots had campaigned to have the wording on Glover's bust changed. On the bust, it said that Glover was an Englishman - obviously incorrect. It was interesting to see the remedial work which had taken place and that Glover is now properly represented at his former home. Click on the picture to have a clearer view of the changes.

We are lucky that there is a Glover House to visit in Nagasaki. When the USA dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, the main target was the shipbuilding yard. However, in a not too unfamiliar example of American precision bombing, the bomb was dropped in a mainly residential area 3.5km away. The luck that saved Glover House saw thousands of civilians incinerated in an instant.

More Nagasaki adventures to follow soon.

Road Trip

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our planned trip to Nagasaki at the last minute because of a typhoon. It was a shame but I will visit Nagasaki one day - I really wanted visit the old house of Thomas Glover, a famous Scot who once lived in Japan and who was instrumental in making his adopted country one of the world's leading industrial powers.

Instead of Nagasaki, we drove to many places to the North West of Tokyo (around the area marked with the blue arrow). We saw so many places, but only for a very short time - it feels like I never actually went to these places at all. I have to say that my patience was wearing slightly thin at being in the car for between 8 and 10 hours each day. Clara was well behaved though and never complained, although she did ask if we could make more stops to the many beaches we passed during our epic journey. Still, I am lucky to have seen more of Japan, however brief our stops were.

We stayed in a very nice hotel at a place called Hida Takayama. Hida Takayama has some old style Japanese streets which have wooden houses and shops. The area was quite charming and Clara really enjoyed her 15 minute rickshaw ride. The area seems to be famous for selling wooden goods - I was quite tempted to pick up a few nice pairs of chopsticks but some were quite expensive. After our tour of the 'old town', we retreated back to the hotel and Clara decided she wanted to paddle in a small stream outside our hotel (while Yuki was doing more shopping).

The next day, we drove to an extremely famous town in Japan called Shirakawa Go. This town is also a World Heritage Site and makes frequent appearances in calendars on sale in Japan. It was lovely to see, but the weather was scorching and there were so many tourists around. I would love to visit the town again in winter - I'm sure the houses would look fantastic when they are covered in a layer of snow. After Shirakawa Go, we travelled up the Noto Peninsula and stopped off at more picturesque places. Senmaida was lovely and it was interesting to see all the tiny rice fields (terraced) there. Terracing is said to exist so that the local people (for many generations) could make most efficient use of their land. It is said that the smallest rice field can fit under one farmer's hat. The other main highlight of the trip was visiting the seaside and looking at an island called Mitsukejima. This island has the nickname Gunkanjima - Warship Island in English (for obvious reasons). Our final destination was Nagano (the place which held the 1998 Winter Olympics). Nagano seemed nice enough and I hope to go skiing there one day in the future. Nagano is famous in Japan for the wine produced there. I also noticed another local product which is not as appetising - honey with a massive bee (which looks like a wasp) floating in the jar!!

After our short visit to Nagano, it was time to make the relatively short journey back to Tokyo. In Tokyo, I went to Ochanomizu Station to look at the many ski shops there and I also met a couple of Japanese friends who I knew in Scotland. It was time to return to Shimogo.