A Day Trip to Nagasaki

Glover Garden Nagasaki in June

Glover Garden Nagasaki in June

We had been planning to visit Nagasaki for quite some time. When we had a chance for a short visit, we did not think twice to book the flight. It was a spontaneous trip over the weekend. All in all we could visit the highlights of the city without spreading ourselves too thin. There are two major tourist spots in Nagasaki. One is Atomic Bomb related monument, park and museum, and the other is historical buildings near the coast. We chose the latter one, because now Japan is proposing those buildings for a new World Heritage sites.

The city was so quiet when we arrived in the morning. It’s very different from many other touristic areas in Japan, a plus point for taking pictures. Going around Nagasaki is so convenient. Trams operate regularly to reach famous places in Nagasaki. Buses serve further destination reaching to rural areas of Nagasaki.

Tram Nagasaki

We spotted this old canal on the way to Cathedral.

Old Canal Nagasaki

Oura Cathedral is the oldest church in Japan that was built in 1864. A white marble Virgin Mary statue greeted us at the front side of the Cathedral. It is famous for stained glass windows, but pictures taking is prohibited inside the Cathedral.

Virgin Mary

The next spot is the Glover Garden. A famous spot of Glover Garden is Glover House, a western style residence that once belonged to a Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover. He played important role in the modernisation of Japan’s shipbuilding and coal mining industry. Glover House has been listed as one of Japan’s important cultural assets for many years and recently it has been listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

There is a series of different properties related to Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron an Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining that has been included as the new World Heritage Site 2015.  Those properties are located in  Yamaguchi, Kagoshima, Saga, Iwate, Nagasaki, Yamaguchi and Fukuoka. World Heritage Sites in Nagasaki are the site of Kosuge ship repair dock, Hokkei well shaft, Takashima coal mine, Hashima coal mine, Glover House and Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyard. With this list of  World Heritage Sites, Nagasaki is definitely on a spotlight.

NagasakiDutch SlopeNagasaki Old House

Glover Garden has a beautiful view overlooking Nagasaki harbour.

Glover Garden Harbor View

We found a tea house inside Glover Garden but we skipped this part and headed straight to the next spot: the Dutch Slope

Tea House in Glover Garden

Dutch slope is within walking distance from the Glover Garden. We spotted this old British Consulate on the way.

Old British Consulate Nagasaki

It took us around 10 minutes walk from Glover Garden to Dutch Slope (Oranda Zaka). Dutch Slope is used to be foreigners’ residential area on the hillside. Point of interest of this area is the remnants of foreigners’ residences located at the upper part of the hill.

Dutch Slope NagasakiOld House in Dutch Slope Nagasaki

We then continue on to the Dejima, an old artificial island that used to be Dutch trading post. The architecture of most of the building here shows dominant influence of western style.

Inside Dejima Island

Some parts of Dejima uses Japanese style building.

Dejima Island Nagasaki

Our last stop was China Town, less than 5 minutes walk from Dejima.

China Town Nagasaki

We skipped other parts of the city as we had flight to catch. We decided to go for a little bit of shopping. Nagasaki is famous for castella, a sweet sponge cake. We were only interested in food this time so we bought original taste and chocolate castella. The chocolate tastes better than the original I think. It is not too sweet and buttery.

Nagasaki is a quiet city but interesting to explore. I would love to come back for more than a day trip to visit World Heritage Sites and try different tastes of castella.

 

Are you interested to visit Nagasaki?

 

 

Comments

    1. Post
      Author
      Mima Isono

      One of the tourist spots, Glover House is now World Heritage Site, Eden. You have one more reason to visit Nagasaki now.

  1. Kathryn

    I love Nagasaki. I’ve been there a few times – always in the middle of summer when it is crazy hot and, with all those hills! At least I feel like I can eat what I like because I’m exercising so much.

    I’ve never bought castella because there are so many shops giving out free samples on the way to the Glover House 🙂

    1. Post
      Author
      Mima Isono

      I’m glad you enjoy your time in Nagasaki, Kathryn. It’s a nice city. The Glover House is now listed as World Heritage Site.
      We felt in love with castella the moment we tasted 1st sample and kept eating it for the rest of the week hahahaha.

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