lost or what?

Here, by special request, is the DUTCH SLOPE. I read a sign, apparently the Japanese called every white person Dutch and this is where they lived. I guess there are a few western style houses, and there are certainly catholic churches, but it was really just a hill to walk up and keep going.

The view was already awesome in the early morning light.

Now it was time to walk up the stairs along side the old person assisted hydraulic chair system that goes up a really long way. As you can see there are a couple of semi circular lookout spots on the way up, you can bet as I ascended the stairs I appreciated the view from each of them.

Cat of the day is cat of the trip so far! He has found the best spot to sleep. He briefly opened one eye to tell me to get lost, but otherwise was not moving.

It was now time for me to ascend through some little farms up a staircase, another cruise ship has docked already.

The lookout at Nabekanmuri park is highly developed, theres a public toilet, coke machines and a small car park. This one is closer to my hotel so it might be my 'night view' lookout on of the nights I am here, the other one is a much longer walk up a dark road where I will probably get run over.

The view from up here is no less spectacular than yesterdays awesome view, so I took a lot of shots of the view.

You can see yesterdays view spot across the water about a quarter of the way from the left edge, the towers on the top.

One last of the view from up here before I press on!

I found what happens to all the coke cans from the wall of vending machines located around the base of the lookout.

In attempting to get to the next lookout I went up through a cemetery. This one allowed you out the back way so I did not have to double back like previous cemeteries.

The second peak lookout spot however was no go. This is shot through a huge barbed wire and razor wire fence. It all looks abandoned but you cannot get in to look at the view. Oh well, time to keep going around to the next peak!

In getting to this lookout I went along a series of forest paths behind the main ridge, it was very quiet, but there were huge spiders everywhere threatening to eat me whole. I had to carry a big stick in front of me most of the way so I did not take any photos of the path. The lookout itself was not the best, it needed to be higher, and more importantly, it needed to be at the other end of the park.

Here is the view of the park, as you can see, the sea on the other side of the ISTHUMUS that has Nagasaki on it is just visible. If they had of built a lookout at the far end of the park the view would have been spectacular. There also was not a breath of wind, despite this a guy tried to fly a kite, quite an old guy, it was amusing to watch for a few minutes.

After lookout 2 I got really lost, and ended up wandering through farmers fields and climbing fences. I was following what was marked on my phone as a path. This allowed me to get a good view of the sea, this tiny seaside town and the mountains on the other side of the harbour. So it was worth it.

There were still however lots of farms to cross. Here is an orange grove. People picking various fruits seemed very confused to see me. No one offered me an orange. My camera has made the blue sky a strange blue here...it seems to do that.

I was actually quite relieved to get back to a road! A few things marked as roads were not roads at all. That is the entrance to the tunnel under the hills that goes right into central Nagasaki, I couldnt go that way, I would have to cross back over the mountains! Even if I could go that way I would still go back over the mountains.

After following a highly developed area of the mountains I found this peak sticking up. Challenge accepted.

There are no roads in this area, just steps and paths that look like they are peoples driveways. Oh well, I will just keep going until I cant.

A good bet is to follow the drain, thats normally a path that doesnt end suddenly.

I was very happy to find this sign, which tells me the way to go to the top of the little mountain. Despite this sign I still got lost 3 times going up from this point. Being a postman here is a challenging job.

Once on the path, it was dark and mysterious. I think its a genuinely old path.

I approached the shrine from the back, where the shrine makers had discarded the excess boulders. They are fun to roll down the hills.

And here is the mountain shrine. It did not appear to have anyone looking after it in recent times.

The path down the front of the little mountain back towards Nagasaki was also stone steps and easy to follow. As there was no view from the top (annoying) I took this photo of the view as soon as it appeared. It looks just like all the other view shots!

My journey back through the streets of Nagasaki took me past many shrines. I could not resist the long staircase up to this one. Because it is built on the edge of a cliff its impossible to get a clear shot. That didnt stop me from almost plummeting to my death trying. Lots of people really do plummet to their death taking photos lately.

Literally next door is the red version of the shrine. The competing brown (made from stone) versus red (made from timber) shrine. Who will win? You decide!

After a visit to the 100 yen bakery where it took some time to explain I did not need everything individually wrapped and bagged because I will eat it right now, I arrived back at my hotel. Right out the front, Japanese children were putting on a display welcoming the Chinese cruise ship tourists coming to Japanese Chinatown to buy instant noodles.
Another great day of hill wandering completed!