Unwinding Around the Year’s End
Unwinding at Dejima Wharf facing the bay of #Nagasaki around the year’s end.
Dejima 出島, literally “a protruding island“, was an artificial ghetto for foreigners, created by the Shogunate government back in 1634. During the period of self-imposed isolation (鎖国 Sakoku), foreign traders - first the Portuguese and then the Dutch – had been confined here.
In a way, it is a birthplace of our profession, interpretation ( #通詞 Tsuji = #interpresters ).
Nearly four centuries have passed since Dejima’s creation. As a visitor from a land of 紅毛人 (the red-haired foreigners), I am sipping a cup of coffee ☕probably brought from a former Portuguese (南蛮人) colony 🇧🇷. Who would have imagined that in those days?
Nagasaki is a good place for reflection and to unwind after all the hard work of the year.