This post will be edited after I go out for dinner, but it’s about 3:30pm and I’m back in the hotel relaxing for a bit. Hey, it’s my vacation, I can do what I want.

Nagasaki is much better without sciatica. I’ve been here twice before, once with my mom and sister about 20 years ago (man I’m old) and once a few years ago, right before the big shopping mall opened back up. I think it was the year the Japanese COVID travel restrictrions lifted but now I’m questioning myself. In any case, I got sciatica on the trip and Nagasaki has a lot of small steep hills and stairs and going up those was incredibly painful.

Breakfast was in the hotel and I remember it being better. Then again, it was right after the COVID shutdown and I think there wasn’t a buffet. I also remember it being way more crowded since there weren’t as many options back then. Either way, it was really good and honestly I wasn’t hungry when I had lunch (more on that later).

They even had a couple of desserts but I just took a picture because I was full.

I actually put in my contacts today and then I couldn’t find my reading glasses. Off I went to CanDo, the 100 yen shop, and the ladies laughed at me because they wore reading glasses too and have done the exact same thing. I’ve noticed that fewer Japanese people wear glasses so I’m guessing they’re all wearing contacts too.

After that I went to the information counter and, as usual, they were surprised that I wanted to walk around instead of taking transit. The first thing I did, of course, was get lost. I did find this great view of the harbor.

It was actually not far from the back of the train station.

After that I wanted to find the mall we ate at during my first trip to Nagasaki. Like I said, it was a long time ago and there was nothing at the train station back then. Now there’s a giant complex of stores.

I was expecting a run-down department store like I’ve been to in a lot of northern Japanese towns, but it was all renewed quite recently. Very clean and nice and much further from the station than I remember. It was pouring rain back then.

Then it was off to walk to Chinatown (or more literally translated China Street). On the way I was going to a shopping arcade to check out the chawanmushi shop where I think they invented the dish. In any case my sister wouldn’t stop telling me to go there and so I did. Turns out I was there on my first trip to Nagasaki!

I was still full from breakfast so I got the basic set.

Ha. Here it is with the lids off. It was very tasty and I’m saying that as someone who wasn’t even hungry at the time.

Then it was off to Chinatown. I gave you the literal translation earlier because Chinatown is two blocks long, in an ell. It’s tiny. I was hoping to try some street food but it was mosly pork buns and Nagasaki pork buns and you can get those at the station. Plus I was stuffed from the chawanmushi.

By that time it was only about 12:30pm and I had run out of things on my short list. I decided to visit the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture which was also quite new. On the way I saw this restaurant that was full of businessmen and took a picture mainly for my sister who hates onions. Every dish seemed to have a ton of spring onions in it. (The joke probably isn’t worth it, but you’re not paying for these pictures so whatever.)

Near the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture was the Santo Domingo Church Museum which was free but I really couldn’t be bothered to look at it. The NMHC (I’m not typing it all out again) was interesting, half being history and the other half being a reproduction of government offices.

The reproduction required you to remove your shoes and had tatami rooms you could walk into.

That’s it for except for dinner. I’ll add that later (the half-dozen people who read this probably won’t notice because you’re in Portland and it’s after midnight and you should all all be asleep.)

—–

I didn’t make it to Japan in fall of 2025 because I was feeling poor. Being retired and having no job means my income is less which is usually fine, but covering all my medical bills was making me nuts. I didn’t spend any more on medical bills than a usual year but my financial advisor wasn’t trickling out enough money to me on a regular basis to cover it all. Plus, one of my doors was rotting and I had to pay for that (which was months later but that’s another story). Anyway, it’s spring of 2026 and I’m back in Japan!

First day was kind of a doozy: 26 ½ hours from when I got up to now. Got up at 4 AM to catch a flight from PDX to SEA, and then the long flight from SEA to HND. I got my flights on Expedia and my sister wondered why it was so expensive. Turns out I got the Comfort++ seats (or whatever they call the class between comfort plus and business) where the food was served with tablecloths and was better than what I usually get. They provided headphones, not just earbuds, but I like to use my noise cancelling headset. The plugs were all moved around though and I ended up using the provided headsets. That means I carried my bulky headphones for nothing.

Watched a few movies, like I usually do. First Anaconda with Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Plenty of dumb fun. After that I watched Zootopia 2. Then I tried watching No Other Choice which is supposed to be a black comedy but I found no humor in it. Maybe I’m not cut out for Korean movies. It was also hideously long and I could only stomach half of it. I switched to watching Shrek which I’ve never actually seen, and after being scarred (ha) by the Korean movie I stuck to watching episodes of High Potential since I’m not caught up on the current season.

The long slog from the plane to immigration started out the same as usual.

But then there was a choke point. I didn’t see any Chinese tourists but holy crap there were a lot of tourists coming into the country.

It took a while but like the friendly guys in the seats next to me said, “It’s way faster than Disneyland.”

I had a five hour layover before my flight to Nagasaki and there was a lot to do in the airport (at least for me). First, shipping off all of the gifts for friends and family, checking in my bag for the flight from HND to NGS, and then getting dinner since I wasn’t getting into Nagasaki proper until 10-ish. I went to my usual casual cafe and got my usual Napolitan spaghetti (ketchup spaghetti). I love the stuff. Probably too sweet for most Americans.

The view from the cafe isn’t bad, either.

Up to that point I was feeling great. I usually start fading after eating dinner, even though it was pretty light. The flight started boarding about 6:30pm and they were really quick about it. The plane was mostly empty and it took a couple of hours to get to Nagasaki airport. It’s small. I only saw two other planes on the field and one was a commuter plane. From there the bus takes about 50 minutes to get to Nagasaki station and I checked in before 10pm PDT, 26 hours after leaving. I hit a combini before I went to bed (had to make sure to hydrate) and also got a korokke (beef croquette) as my late-night snack. WIlkinson is fizzy water and Pocari Sweat is a sports drink.

That’s it for my first travel day!