Sipping wine while church bells ring across the azure bay, watching yachts gently sway in the sea breeze… wait, where am I? You couldn’t blame me for thinking I’d woken up somewhere in the Mediterranean. Once known as the “Rome of Japan”, I had finally arrived in Nagasaki, one of western Japan’s most well known, international and fascinating cities. For me, the city was a must visit for what happened here in WWII. However in addition to that, Nagasaki is full of culture and history, which ensured my visit here was a good one.

A few days after Hiroshima, Nagasaki became the second target of the atom bomb. I first visited the hypocenter park – this is a monument to show exactly where the bomb detonated. It’s really humbling to stand there and try to imagine the absolute devastation that was wrought here – apparently 100% of people within 1km of the hypocenter at the time were killed. I went to the museum and learned about the political events that led up to the bombing, how the people of Nagasaki were affected (including eye witness accounts I could hardly bear to read) and the international pleas since then to decommission all nuclear weapons. Finally, after the museum’s Peace Cafe I went to the Peace Park to see the Peace statue.

During Japan’s centuries of isolation from the rest of the world, Nagasaki was one of the few ports that ships from Europe and the Americas were permitted to dock. This gave rise to a unique cultural exchange, the results of which are still evident today, with Japan’s oldest western style architecture found here. I visited the Glover Garden, named for Scottish merchant Thomas Glover, a beautiful park overlooking the bay containing old buildings that display an intriguing combination of European and Japanese architectural styles.

Due to its trade with Europe, many Christians missionaries arrived in Nagasaki hoping to convert the locals and establish Catholicism as the primary religion here. They achieved some success; as a result, many churches were built (hence the comparison with Rome). I’m not interested in Christianity or churches but I figured I ought to learn a bit about it while here. I was unimpressed that you had to pay to enter the famous church and that photos weren’t permitted inside once again. All I could think while walking round was – Nagasaki is one of the only places in Japan that embraced Christianity but also it’s one of two places that got atom bombed. How do you maintain your faith through that..?

Additionally, I visited the prefectural art museum which was housed in an absolutely stunning building by the harbour. It was here I spied a book on a shelf that led to me travelling 100km out to sea to visit a specific little museum – more on that in my next post. I traipsed around town seeing various landmarks related to the bomb blast, getting amazing views from the hills at the same time. But mostly, I just enjoyed wandering around by the harbour, drinking happy hour beers and watching the yachts gently bobbing in the water.

Nagasaki turned out to be an absolute highlight of my time in Kyushu; it honestly has it all. I’d filled 5 days here with ease and left knowing that I’d be back one day. Now that’s a mark of a good destination.