{"id":11392,"date":"2026-04-16T00:15:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11392"},"modified":"2026-04-16T03:44:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:44:54","slug":"japan-2026-day-1-nagasaki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11392","title":{"rendered":"Japan 2026: Day 1 (Nagasaki)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post will be edited after I go out for dinner, but it\u2019s about 3:30pm and I\u2019m back in the hotel relaxing for a bit. Hey, it\u2019s my vacation, I can do what I want.<\/p>\n

Nagasaki is much better without sciatica. I\u2019ve been here twice before, once with my mom and sister about 20 years ago (man I\u2019m old) and once three-ish years ago, right before the new section of the station shopping mall opened up. It was the year the Japanese COVID travel restrictrions lifted. In any case, I got sciatica on the trip and going up slopes and climbing stairs was particularly painful. Nagasaki has a lot of small steep hills and pedestrian overpasses with stairs.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t a buffet. I also remember it being way more crowded since there weren\u2019t as many breakfast options then. Either way, breakfast today was really good and honestly I wasn\u2019t hungry when I had lunch.<\/p>\n

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They even had a couple of desserts but I just took a picture because I was full.<\/p>\n

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I actually put in my contacts today and then I couldn\u2019t find my reading glasses that I swear I packed. Off I went to CanDo, a 100 yen shop, and the ladies laughed because they wore reading glasses too and probably have done the exact same thing.<\/p>\n

After that I went to the tourist information counter at the station. 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.<\/p>\n

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It was actually not far from the back of the train station.<\/p>\n

After that I wanted to find the mall we ate at during my first trip to Nagasaki. It was a long time ago and there was nothing at the train station back then. Now there\u2019s a giant complex of stores.<\/p>\n

I was expecting a run-down department store like I\u2019ve been to in a lot of smaller Japanese towns, but it was renewed quite recently. Very clean and nice and much further from the station than I remember. It was pouring rain back the first time we went.<\/p>\n

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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\u2019t stop telling me to go there and so I did. Turns out I went there on my first trip to Nagasaki and I remember the entryway.<\/p>\n

I was still full from breakfast so I got the basic set.<\/p>\n

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Ha. Here it is with the lids off. It was very tasty and I\u2019m saying that as someone who wasn\u2019t even hungry at the time.<\/p>\n

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Then it was off to Chinatown. I gave you the literal translation earlier because Chinatown is two blocks long, in an ell. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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By that time it was only about 12:30pm and I had run out of things on my short to-see list. I decided to visit the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture which is also quite new. On the way I saw this restaurant that was full of businessmen and took a picture of the plastic food display mainly for my sister who hates onions. Every dish seemed to have a ton of spring onions in it. (The joke probably isn\u2019t worth it, but you\u2019re not paying to view these pictures so whatever.)<\/p>\n

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Near the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture was the Santo Domingo Church Museum which was free but I really couldn\u2019t be bothered to go. The NMHC (I\u2019m not typing it all out again) was interesting, half being history and the other half being a reproduction of historic government offices.<\/p>\n

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The reproduction area required you to remove your shoes because there were tatami rooms you could enter to see what the government offices looked like.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s it for except for dinner. I\u2019ll add that later (the half-dozen people who read this probably won\u2019t notice because you\u2019re in Portland and it\u2019s after midnight and you should all all be asleep.)<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

I was paying my bills on my computer, one reason I bring my computer, and I had to scribble some notes using the hotel room pen. It had a surprisingly nice feel to it but it had some interesting writing rather than a logo:<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s not Photoshop, just a weird reflection.<\/p>\n

I tried booking my \u201cShinkansen\u201d ticket online (the mini Shinkansen that goes from Nagasaki to Takeo Onsen) and the payment page said I had to go pick up the ticket in person so I just went downstairs to the Midori-no-madoguchi. That\u2019s one of the benefits of staying at the station. The ticket office was surprisingly empty and they told me I just hit it at the right time. They\u2019re usually quite packed. I remember having to take a number the last time I was there.<\/p>\n

It was dinnertime but I wasn\u2019t hungry yet so I went shopping. I\u2019m not a great shopper unless there\u2019s something I\u2019m looking for. I checked out the new water-based gel ink pens since I saw several ads on Instagram but couldn\u2019t decide on anything. I also looked for some better reading glasses but they were \u00a54000! I\u2019ll stick with the cheapies. Then I looked around the restaurant floor of the new mall building thinking it was very familiar just to realize it\u2019s the same one where I had breakfast. It\u2019s weird approaching it from a different direction. I also realized I\u2019d been there before when all the restaurants were open. There is only one open restaurant at brreakfast time.<\/p>\n

I usually ask the front desk of the hotel what the area food specialty is and they suggested toruko rice (Turkish rice, which has nothing to do with Turkey) at \u201cNicky Austin\u201d in the train station restaurant area (not the train station mall restaurant area). I ordered the one that was marked \u201cichiban ninki\u201d (most popular) because they have over a hundred different combos.<\/p>\n

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Needed a touch more salt but it was good.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another picture that\u2019s mainly for my sister.<\/p>\n

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She said she couldn\u2019t find flavored WIlkinson during her last trip to Japan in the fall and so far I\u2019ve had good luck. Usually it\u2019s just lemon but in Nagasaki I\u2019ve been finding all sorts of flavors. It\u2019s like LaCroix but better and the flavor is minimal. Just like LaCroix the flavor does make a difference.<\/p>\n

Anyway, that\u2019s it for day 1. It\u2019s only 7pm but I\u2019m no longer a drinker so I\u2019m just going to hole up in my room and hope my jet lag doesn\u2019t get to me tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post will be edited after I go out for dinner, but it\u2019s about 3:30pm and I\u2019m back in the hotel relaxing for a bit. Hey, it\u2019s my vacation, I can do what I want. Nagasaki is much better without sciatica. I\u2019ve been here twice before, once with my mom and sister about 20 years ago (man I\u2019m old) and once three-ish years ago, right before the new section of the station shopping mall opened up. It was the year the Japanese COVID travel restrictrions lifted. In any case, I got sciatica on the trip and going up slopes and climbing stairs was particularly painful. Nagasaki has a lot of … Continue reading Japan 2026: Day 1 (Nagasaki)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11398,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11392\/revisions\/11398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}