Kyushu 2023 - Nagasaki Tsukimachi Shopping Street

Good morning! Our last day in Nagasaki, and since it's near the end of our trip, I had nothing planned for the day! We woke up at our own leisure time, and admire the beautiful view of the city. Today, we're just gonna take it slow.

My breakfast, some matcha red bean pound cake along with my free DormyInn Hotel Hot Coffee. I don't really spend a lot on my travels as I tend to enjoy eating snacks for breakfast, street food for my meals, and maybe an occasional splurge on a nice restaurant. My highest cost for travelling is usually just the flight, and the hotel. In some countries, I can get pretty cheap hotel below my daily allowance of 50sgd a day. But in others, sometimes I have to up my budget to 100sgd a day. And when I travel with friends, sometimes it's way beyond 100sgd, but I guess it does come with the experience. 

So on our free day, we decided to just take a walk to the nearest shopping street and wander around there. It was a share that the Nagasaki JR area was going through extensive renovation, else the main shopping area was just across the road from our hotel. But with the renovation going on, it was extremely noisy and dusty there, as well as disorientating since you have to follow all the side roads to get to where you want. No luxury of just wandering in any direction there :(  But as I am writing this in 2025, I read that the renovation has been completed and the malls are all opened again! 

Reached the shopping street. The usual covered walk ways with individual shops at both end. It was pretty long, and lots of people around. Was it a weekend? I can't quite remember. I don't recall we did much shopping at all!

We did sat down for a coffee. Or at least, the husband had a proper latte. He didn't like the free coffee from the hotel as it wasn't a 'proper' latte with real fresh milk.... I wanted a coffee too, but with almost the same place, why settle for something usual when I could have okinawa brown sugar coffee with red beans? Yup, that was what I ordered! And I don't regret it!

We were also pretty sick of Japanese food at this point, and decided we wanted some western bread. We ended up having baguette at the cafe and sat there just people watching. There were many solo diners there, and the seating arrangement do cater to them as it seems they are the majority here. There were also a lot of solo senior customer. I don't know whether it was a sad sight or an independent one. But I do like it that solo people can just go out and enjoy themselves in Japan and that was the norm here. When you dine solo in Japan, sometimes you get the best seats in the cafe! None of those facing the wall at the back of the shop kind of seats!

We did bought back our snacks and dinner from some supermarket to enjoy back at the hotel.

As usual, since this was our last full day in Nagasaki, we kinda went overboard with the sashimi and sushi and all sorts of food again. Maybe I kept some for next day's breakfast to! Who knows! But it was very affordable to enjoy our favourite Japanese food here when you are in Japan!

We even save some space in our tummy for our free ramen from the hotel. Above is what it looked like.  Although there aren't any meat inside, the taste of the ramen is pretty awesome! Very light and hearty supper. I think they serve it from 9pm to 11pm every night. You could get the usual free drinks there too.

I can't actually remember where I got this pen, but I usually don't keep more than one favourite pen with me. Interestingly, I now uses 2 such pens with 6 different colours at a time! So far I could only find the character ones in Japan. Those in Singapore are usually just the normal pen that cost twice the price. I recently also saw one with Hello Kitty, but decided not to get it since Hello Kitty is quite a common thing. I decided to only have one character pen, and it was going to be Moomin! Yeah, I should probably make a Moomin pencil case to go with it.

Sunset at Nagasaki from our hotel. Bye bye lovely city! Hope I can visit you again in future.

Kyushu 2023 - Nagasaki Walking Back and Sushi Dinner

The walk back to our hotel from the pier area was very enjoyable. I mean, look at the view! And it wasn't crowded either. I especially love the flat grass area, pair it with the slopped villages and hills. I felt almost like I was in some western country. Maybe in Europe or the Alps! On our right side was the sea!

It was around sun set 5pm time or so by now, and the sea and sun was super hot.

All the boats docking at the pier area. Lovely breeze and blue skies!

Although there were giant seagulls and birds flying above our head, we were considered lucky to have nothing hitting us from above as we enjoyed our walk by the pier back to town.

The historical bridge. Since we have more time now, we could stop and read some of the signs. 

The whalf area above which I initially wanted to come for breakfast or lunch or even dinner. But it looked kinda deserted, and kinda expensive too. So we didn't eventually dine there at all.

We also walked passed some industrial amusement ground where you could go in for a visit. But it looked pretty deserted too, so we skipped that as well, lol. It was basically just old warehouse area for Nagasaki Port during the industry revolution. 

I think it was called Daijima? Which translate to Big Island? It was a man-made island if not mistaken. You could just cross the bridge to enter the area to take a look. 

The beautiful waterscape of Nagasaki. 

And sun setting.

My husband (with the help of Google) wanted to eat at a traditional Sushi Shop, so he lead us to this small shop in a nearby town on our way back.

We were the first customer, and was later joint by another foreign couple, and one Japanese salary man. I guess because the shop had good ratings in English in Google, hence it was visited more by foreigners. The staff tried to put up a show, but it was rather forced (in my opinion anyway). It was kinda sad, that they only have foreign customer, yet kinda glad that foreigners were keeping them in business. I had mixed feeling about visiting this place.

Our sushi order. We ordered one mixed sushi platter.

And one of sashimi. It was delicious, but not outstanding delicious. I wouldn't say it was that authentic an experience. But at least they have business to keep them going. Kyushu, especially outside of Fukuoka area, seems to be in a need of more tourism to keep them vibrant and going! Please visit these area when you consider your next trip to Japan. 

Kyushu 2023 - Nagasaki Glover Garden Area

Nagaksaki was pretty walkable. After the museum, the next nearest attraction was the church. It was called the Oura Cathedral, and looked pretty nice seated on a slope. The cat in front of it was pretty cute too. We just admire it from the outside and didn't enter. We were kinda tired from the day's exploration, and was pretty much walking around the touristy place out of obligation more than interest. Sort of like checking them off our list like we did the Eiffel Tower while we were in France, lol.

There was a sign board at the bottom of the slope telling you how to get to all the nearby places. Super tourist friendly.

Initially I was quite interested to visit the musical box museum. Turns out, it was just a shop selling musical shop. And it didn't really look that inviting either as compared to those in Otoru Hokkaido. So I skipped it. 

There was a children's story book museum or something that looked straight out of a fairy tale. But I was too paiseh to venture in since I was like, 46 years old? Lol. But I love whimsical places like these. 

We walked up the slope area and came to Glover Garden and decided to visit it.

More maps telling you what is on top before you decided whether to put in the effort on climbing those stairs! Unfortunately they failed to mention that to actually go inside Glover House would require an admission ticket :(  And since it was just a small western style house, we decided to skip that too.

This is at the top of Glover Garden. Nice view, and a super cool telephone box in white there! Dr Who vibe!

And as usual, got to have a mascot for every place and things in Japan! 

Kyushu 2023 - Nagasaki Gunkanjima Digital Museum

This is what the Gunkanjima Digital Museum looked like from the outside. Rather plain and boring. Frankly I went back to visit since it was included in our ticket to visit the island itself. Since it was free, I shouldn't waste the opportunity, right? But I was glad I went back. The museum was pretty cool!

 

Above was one of y favourite exhibition, cool photos of the island. And since it was a digital museum, there were also a lot of electronic display of the place. Everything looked rather futuristic inside. It was almost of a different world inside, although quite a gloom one because of the abandon nature of the island. The drone videos and photos were just haunting.

There were also a lot of exhibition about the nature and history of the island. Very detailed!

And another of my favourite was the living unit of the people on the island. They have life size model of it in the museum. And although it was small since they have to fit so many workers on the island, it was modern as the wealth of the workers could be seen by the coloured TV set in each unit, lol!

There was also a corner dedicated to all the movies shot on the island, especially the super famous ones like Skyfall and Attack of Titans. They show you the scenes of the movie featuring the island too.

You could even cosplay Attack of Titans at the museum. Costumes were provided, as well as set for you to take photos at. I think it's pretty cool, but I always have hygiene phobia whenever I see such shared clothing, lol. 

And lastly, my ultimate favourite display was of Gansho-kun's Room, the mascot of Gunkanjima! Yes, the poo looking mascot. I find him so super cute and hilarious! I mean, imagine being condemned to carry the whole island city on you for the rest of your life like a waist bag or a big mexican hat on your head! Hahahahaha.

Here  you go. I bet this was catered to kids. But I love it!

And there were kid's drawing and exhibition  more for kids here in Gansho-kun's room.

All the drawing so hilarious too.

Super educational for the kids!

There were also beanies and kids could just sit there like they were in a living room. It was all just so inviting and cosy! Even for me! Good job museum!

Hahahaha, this is a curtain holder clip of Gansho-kun! Look at him! Cracks me up every time!

But at last, all good things must come to an end. We stopped by the cafe for a drink and bid farewell to Gansho-kun eventually :(  Please visit him if you're ever in Nagasaki! Gunkanjima is an unforgettable place to visit too! You will not regret it!

Kyushu 2023 - Nagasaki Wagyu Lunch

 

Happy with our Gunkanjima excursion, we decided to break for lunch before going back to visit the Gunkanjima Digital Museum. We wandered around the area, and found ourselves wandering into Chinatown. Although we were sure we didn't want to eat any Chinese food, the prices of food in Chinatown was a lot more affordable. No doubt catering more to tourist, we eventually found a bbq shop selling Nagasaki Wagyu Beef. Since the price was acceptable, we decided to treat ourselves to a BBQ lunch here. And wow, what a nice ambiance it had! These days, I am not so shy about opening doors into the restaurant now, and it had opened up more dining options for me. Previously I used to feel like I might be intruding, or that I wasn't sure if it was even opened to public etc.

So it seems to be a set lunch shop, and indeed, you could order from the menu the different set lunches they offered. Their specialty was the Nagasaki Beef.

And this was displayed almost in every place and corner of the shop! Lol.

It was slightly after lunch time, and the shop wasn't that crowded. We were shown to a private dining room. I often wonder if this was deliberate because we were foreigners, or that the service was just good in a restaurant, lol. I can understand that sometimes it was easier for the restaurant to put their foreign guest at a certain area to serve them better.

The lunch menu that we ordered, two sets please!

I guess this was a yakiniku place? But I kept thinking it was so Korean. Us waiting for our food to be served and being super happy that we got a private room to dine in. The appetiser was a single strawberry, lol. It does sweeten the deal of the lunch menu!

Here are all the food served at once. It looked like a lot, but actually, it wasn't very filling. I meant that in the most positive way, it was a very healthy meal! And the beef was of course delicious! I love yakiniku! Mainly caused I love my meat (not restricted to beef) more on the raw side. I find it juicier. So in a yakiniku restaurant, it meant that I could cook it the way I like it :)

After lunch we wander back to the museum, and on the way there, we saw some cool buildings. I especially like this Portuguese inspired hotel that looked so classy from the outside. Nagasaki felt like such a mixed bag, influenced by so many foreign culture. The Chinatown was rather small though as compared to say, Yokohama Chinatown. Anyway, back to the Gunkanjima Digital Museum we went to continue on our learning of the unique island in the next post!