JPN: Nagasaki Downtown

Nagasaki City, Nagasaki, Japan

Literally meaning 'Long Cape', Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of the prefecture of the same name on the western side of Kyushu. Prior to 1543, it used to be a small fishing village that had little significance until contact with Portuguese explorers that was the catalyst for the development of the port city.


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My BFFs and I reached Nagasaki by train from Huis Ten Bosch. How I miss the awesome theme park so much!


Directly connected to Nagasaki railway station is a shopping centre named AMU Plaza Nagasaki.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, I wonder how's Christmas going to be this year.
There's a branch of Mister Donut in AMU Plaza Nagasaki. It collaborates with Pokemon to come up with adorable merchandise.


As mentioned in one of the earlier posts, we stayed at APA Hotel Nagasaki Ekimae. Not far from the hotel is a branch of NHK, Japan's national broadcasting organisation.



Did you know that part of Nagasaki was home to a major Imperial Japanese Navy base
during the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War?
Just a stone's throw away from the NHK building is the Site of the Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan.


This particular spot on Nishizaka Hill was the site of crucifixion of the 26 Catholics
under the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who saw Christianity as a threat to national unity.

They were four Spaniards, one Mexican, one Portuguese, three Japanese Jesuits and
17 Japanese members of the Third Order of St. Francis, including three boys.

There's also a small museum there.
Speaking of Christianity, let's take a look at Urakami Cathedral, a Roman Catholic cathedral near Hypocenter Park & Peace Park, which original building was destroyed by the 1945 atomic bomb.


The ruins of the original cathedral can still be seen in front of the reconstructed building.


We didn't enter the cathedral as there was a funeral service going on.


Nearby is a priest hall, which also houses a small museum that displays the damaged artifacts salvaged after the atomic bombing. There's no entrance fee, and there's a gift shop there.



The construction of the original cathedral started in 1895 after the ban on Christianity was lifted.
The modern incarnation of the cathedral that we see today was completed in 1959.


Imagine the scorching heat...


On another occasion, we took a tram to the Ishibashi station, which is the southern terminus at the point of writing.



I must say that was my first time riding a diagonal elevator. Anyway, it's called Glover Skyroad.



Look, a sleepy cat!



Wouldn't you love living on a hill?



Glover Garden is a park built for Thomas Blake Glover, a Scottish merchant known for his contribution to the modernisation of Japan in shipbuilding and coal mining. The main attraction is the oldest surviving Western style building in the country. The entrance fee is ¥620 (~S$8.15) per adult. We didn't go in though.


We had a good walk to Oura Church.


People living there must be pretty fit, having to go up and down the slopes every day.
 


Now I can't remember what bulding is that.
 

Oura Church is a Roman Catholic minor basilica that was, for many years, the only Western style building declared a national treasure.

It's also said to be the oldest church in Japan that was completed in 1864.


The path in front of the church is lined with lots of shops. I saw many people buying castella, a popular local product of Portuguese-influence sponge cake. I've tried castella before, but even after trying some samples in the hometown, I still can't understand the hype.



From there, we walked to Nagasaki Seaside Park.



Spectrum of the Seas is the fifth largest fleet of Royal Caribbean International.



That looks like a really nice spot to play with your dog.
BTW, here's a photo of the gigantic cruise ship that I took when we made our way to Champon Museum and Shikairou.


Wasn't it such a lovely day?



The so-called Dutch Slope is a stone-paved street leading to a hillside where many foreign traders resided after the opening of the city's port in 1859.


I didn't know earlier that one of the houses, Higashi Yamate 13, is open to the public.
You may want to check it out when you're there.

As the Dutch were the only Westerners allowed in the country for the preceding two centuries,
the word 'Dutch' referred to anything and everything Western for a while.

Below are two random photos that I took after dark.


Black Diamond is one of the companies offering a cruise experience to Gunkanjima,
an abandoned island with the remains of concrete buildings and seawall.
Dejima was a Dutch trading post from 1641 to 1854 on an artificial island shaped like a fan. For 200 years or so, foreign merchants were generally not allowed to cross from Dejima to Nagasaki. Likewise, most Japanese were banned from entering Dejima, except interpreters, carpenters, clerks, cooks and regulated prostitutes.


The artificial island was originally built in 1634 to house Portuguese traders in order to
separate them from the local society. The Dutch then were moved there in 1641.


Due to the limited time we had in Nagasaki, we didn't enter the grounds,
even though the admission fee is only ¥520 (~S$6.85).

We walked around the district to catch a glimpse of Dejima, which was designated a Japanese national historic site in 1922, from outside.





Find all nine figures of Miffy, a rabbit character created by a Dutch artist called Dick Bruna!



Originally, the Dutch mainly traded in silk and cotton, but later on sugar became more important.


There are staff members wearing traditional outfits.

Here are four restaurants that we went to in Nagasaki:
- Kaiten Sushi Jigemon (Japanese)
- Kineya (Japanese)
- Shikairou (Japanese and Chinese)
- Hikari No Restaurant (Japanese and Western)

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