Day 32, in which we chew tobaccy

We spent a lot of time travelling by train to Nagasaki today. Although Nagasaki is on the same island as Kagoshima it is by no means on the same train line and so we arrived late in the day at the Loisir Hotel in downtown Nagasaki, and ready for a nap.

Our room sits in one corner of the building and so has superb views of Nagasaki: from one window, the estuary snakes down to the sea where the giant cargo ships ply their trade; and from the other the Dutch Slopes rise up through historic Nagasaki, nestled in a warm nest of urban sprawl. That was about as much as we saw of Nagasaki today, although we did indulge in some local history by visiting YouTube to see Bertie Wooster singing the Nagasaki song (“Back in Nagasaki / where the fellows chew tobaccy / and the women all wicky-wacky-woo”; as Jeeves commented: “Most exhilarating, sir”).

After a nap and a soak in the 10th floor baths (nude this time, but all male thank goodness) we went to the local Chinatown and discovered that just as Chinese food in the UK has been adapted to meet local tastes (fewer turkey feet and sea slugs, for example), it has also been tempered to meet the bland austerity of the Japanese palate: our prawns in chilli sauce were about as spicy as white bread soaked in milk, while spring rolls were stuffed with that bland, gloopy brown fluid which has proven to be so very popular over here.

Part III of Cleopatra occupied us until bedtime, and as we reached the end of the two hour epic – with Caeser dead and Cleopatra's plans in tatters – we were disappointed to see the title 'Intermission' rather than 'The End'. It seems there are two more hours to go and, unless Burton and Taylor really pull some twists out of their hat, I can't see it being two hours well spent.