A city that was once the only window of Japan to the world

Nagasaki was for a long period the only port open to foreign merchants. This made it a special place where you can see how it was for the first contact of Japanese culture and western culture some centuries ago.

A good visit to Nagasaki will require at least two full days. However, on this case, I tried to do it as a side trip from Fukuoka. By using Fukuoka as a hub for future visits to other Kyushu destinations, like: Kumamoto, Kagoshima and Oita.

The trip from Hakata station to Nagasaki station used to be about 2 hours long. Now, with the new partial section of the Shinkansen to Nagasaki. It can be made in about 1 hour and 35 minutes.

This trip can be done as a one day side trip from Fukuoka. It covers six places of relevance: Peace Park, Hypocenter Park and Urakami Cathedral on the north side; Oura Cathedral and Glover Garden in the south side; and the 26 Martyrs Memorial near Nagasaki station. All reachable by tram and walk.

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Started my trip from Hakata station. I took the KAMOME express train departing at 8:57 AM and arrived to Nagasaki by 10:50 AM. After getting my day pass, I took a tram heading north. I arrived to Peace Park station in about 15 minutes and walked towards the Hypocenter Park.

The Hypocenter park is really quiet despite the traffic of a nearby avenue. It is an open space with a set of concentric circles around a black monolith that marks the exact spot of the detonation of the atomic bomb. The monolith also has a memorial for the people who died. Next to is a remnant pillar of the Urakami Cathedral that was destroyed. On the 50th anniversary, a statue of a mother and her child was added.

The park is almost circular and not so big. I was able to walk around it in few minutes. Then, I headed to the Peace Park that is across the street. The access is uphill through a set of stairs. There are also electric escalators to facilitate the access.

Once reached the top of the hill, is the fountain of peace at the entrance. There is a plaque in black stone, with words from a dairy of a girl who survived the explosion that reads: “I was unbearably thirsty, but there was something like oil floating in the water. I needed to drink, so I drank the water with the oil still floating on it“.

At the back of the park is the Peace statue. It is also a place for a yearly prayer to the people who died as result of the atomic bombing. Around the park there statues and memorials presented from countries around the world. A really quiet atmosphere that gives you time to reflect.

After some time of reflection, and some pictures. I headed to the Urakami Cathedral that is few blocks from the park. The Urakami Cathedral was reconstructed uphill from its original location. Near the entrance there are some statues that survived the explosion.

There is a path to the north side of the grounds that leads to the remains of the belfry. The only remain from the original structure. I was allowed to go inside the church but no pictures were allowed. The stained glass was beautiful.

After visiting this three places I walked the street down back to the tram station. It was past lunch time, so I jump into the next one heading back to Nagasaki station, looking for some ramen.

After a good ramen. I recovered my energy to head to the Glover Garden. After getting off at the Oura Cathedral station. I walked up hill towards the garden. The entrance of the Church was visible from the street. I had to skip visiting it as there was a mass at the moment. I did continue walking towards the garden.

The Glover Garden is an open air museum with plenty of gardens and western style buildings. The buildings are from the Meiji era when Japan opened its borders. Buildings are of Dutch and English style. Used by foreign merchants.

I had some nice views of the city and the bay from the Glover Garden hill.

After this place, I went to the Nagasaki Traditional Performing Arts Center. It is located a few steps from the exit of the Garden. They had a nice exhibition of floats and dragons used for the Ja Odori or dragondance.

I headed back to Nagasaki station and there was still some sunlight. I decided to do a quick visit to the site of the 26 Martyrs of Japan. This is the site were 26 Christians were executed in 1597. I took some pictures as the sun was setting. The place is very peaceful.

I walked back to Nagasaki station. I was right on time to the next train to Fukuoka.