Nagasaki Review

Ship: Diamond Princess

Visit: August 2017

We originally had a ship tour booked for Nagasaki but after looking at the http://www.whatsinport.com site and Google maps, we decided to DIY.

When we arrived we had to clear immigration again as we were coming from South Korea. This was pretty quick. We were given an approximate meeting time and location on the ship (ours was 8.45am) and then we were taken to the Gangway and went through an airport style immigration at the terminal. Only took about 10 minutes in total.

In the arrivals area there were a few stalls selling the usual tack… I mean local artisan produce… and an information desk. The information desk was really helpful and gave us a map and circled the tram lines that we needed to get on to do the Atomic Bomb Museum. You could also buy an all day tram ticket for 1000yen ($8).

At the tram stop there was a local person help queue everyone. However, she moved the later arrivals into a second queue in front of the original one. This meant when the train arrived only the ones at the front got on and ended up in a few p’d off passengers.

We gave up as it was too warm to stand in and headed across the road to hail a taxi. Within seconds we were in a taxi and on our way to the Peace Park. This cost about 1800 yen ($18)

There had been a memorial service the day before as it was the anniversary of the bombing. This meant that there was a lot of staging covering the park but the monument was easily seen.

We then walked down to Ground Zero (about a 5 minute walk on the funkiest escalator – it goes down, turns into a walkway – then goes down again! There was a memorial service by a local school taking place which was nice to see.

From the memorial you head across the park to the museum. Can’t remember exactly how much the tickets were but they were inexpensive and there was a tiny queue despite lots of cruise tours in.

We walked around the museum which was fascinating to see and very harrowing to see the destruction that had taken place.

After the museum we flagged a taxi and returned to the ship – took about 20 minutes.

You could have ventured into town (there’s a Chinatown) or gone to the shopping centre near the port, we returned to the ship as the humidity had us both feeling sticky and horrible.

You can also see Glover House from onboard the ship which was an old colony style house.

When we were departing from Nagasaki there was a local school band playing – this was amazing and a real treat to see.

The weather this night at sea was really stormy and there was a lot of movement on the ship. Not bad for the remainder of Typhoon Noru though.

Thanks for taking the time to write and share this report.

Keith

Thanks for taking the time to write and share this report.

 

Keith

Thanks - wasn't many when I was looking for this area so thought it might help others.

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Thank you for your review and photos.

Thanks for the report! We were in Nagasaki in April and it seemed to us then that it was a port where DIY was totally doable. We will be there again in October 2018 and will try to do it on our own.

We are in Nagasaki next April but only for a short visit. We arrive in port at 13.00hrs and I see some attractions close by 17.30hrs. Would you suggest we grab a taxi or should we arrange a private tour before we arrive? I know there is a tram but there could be long lines waiting to board it. There are 8 people in our group.

thanks for sharing, great report and pictures.