Our material on this port is as follows:
Situated in the northwest of Kyushu, the third-largest island in Japan, Nagasaki is one of the country’s most cosmopolitan port cities, with a decent tourism infrastructure, a fascinating past that stretches back to the early 7th century and a picturesque harbor that’s been an active port since the 16th century. Home to around 500,000 residents, the city is a buzzy yet relaxed place with abundant services, shops and restaurants as well as several cultural and historic attractions that are easily explored on foot and via public transportation. Check out the Nagasaki Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum, which outline the horrific bombing of the city during World War II while making a poignant pledge for world peace. Foodies will enjoy the wide variety of tastes to be found in Chinatown and the Shianbashi Gourmet Street. If you are visiting with children, the Huis Ten Bosch theme park—modeled on a medieval Dutch town—makes for a fun diversion. Look out, too, for popular annual events like October's Kunchi Festival and the wintertime Nagasaki Lantern Festival.
We were here on a beautiful sunny day back in October 2014 during the Kunchi Festival and that was a perfect day to be here. We blitzed the city using public transport taking in a number of the main sights to see. For those interested go to 2014, October on the blog and have a look at what a sunny day looks like here. Lol. Yes, today we got caught in a bit of a foul day where at one point we got hit with a downpour that completely soaked us. More on that later.
The Westerdam docks right in the middle of the city but not only very close to all means of public transport but to many fantastic sights within easy walking distance to the port. We did a casual stroll off the ship around 10am heading over to the Confucian Shrine about a flat half a kilometre away from the terminal. There is a vertical skywalk close by if you want to head up towards Glover Gardens and a shopping district. With rain beginning we opted to head to Tram number 5 and to the covered arcade shopping area, Hamamachi Shopping Arcade. This shopping area encompasses about a 4 block area and is a great spot to escape the rain. We were looking for a mag safe case for Jan’s phone at some point in this trip so this worked in well. Yes we found one in one of those funky, we have everything and everything, stores - one of those multi level stores packed full of stuff. After browsing in this mall for a while we ventured out into the street where the rain was still coming down pretty hard. Ah, I think it’s lunch time. It was recommended to have the Ramen here, so yes we complied and it fit the bill on a rainy day, call it comfort food. We had one more sight on our list for today and in between raindrops we jumped on Tram number 1 to take us to Dejima centre to take in a Geisha performance. Well in the time that we left the tram and made our way over to the centre the skies decided that this was the time to drop buckets and buckets of water. We were almost there when we saw that much of this centre looked like an outdoor walking area, this caused a rethink as we were now pretty soaked despite the rain jackets we had on. Okay, this is not much fun, let’s make our way back to the ship and call it a day. Two trams later we made it back the terminal and then the ship. The skies did clear later in the afternoon but we decided to just enjoy the ship and a good hot tub.
For most people on the ship, they ventured to the Peace park and museum and the spot where the second atomic bomb was dropped. Many took tours but with a one tram transfer you could get there on your own. As mentioned we did this comprehensively in 2014 with a sunny day, today would not have been ideal for this visit. That said, still highly recommended on any day here as this spot carries some heavy significance in todays world.
Tonight, the Rolling Stones Band played in the World Stage and as far as I’m concerned a much better venue for them. They are a talented group that got the house rocking.
As I write this a day later in the Crow’s nest around the noon hour, the rain continues to pound down on us as we head to Ishigaki, our next port of call. The Typhoon has stalled over Taiwan and it looks like it is headed to China, this leaves the door open for us to continue on our intended itinerary, hooray. Hopefully we will have good weather at this new port for us.
A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy…
My samurai face. Lol
Where’s Waldo
On the tram #5
Some Ramen, yum.
Our next tram.
Yup, back at the ship. Another great performance by a high school band.
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