DAY 9: Nagasaki. 3rd April 2023

The second reason we decided on visiting Nagasaki involved James Bond. Surprise, surprise 😉

Nicknamed Gunkanjima, or Battleship Island, because of its shape, Hashima island has an eerie, sinister look, perfect for say, a villain’s lair in an action movie.

The inspiration for villain Raoul Silva’s deserted hideout in the 2012 James Bond movie “Skyfall,” the island features in a dramatic scene in the film, starring my second favourite Bond, Daniel Craig. The island’s industrial ruins loom slowly into view as Craig and yet another ill-fated Bond girl speed toward the island in a luxury boat.

In real life, our trip to the island was slighlty less dramatic.

Booking the boat trip and visit to Hashima island was not easy, with a poorly constructed and difficult to use website, however we did manage to book a few weeks ago and chose the ‘super premium’ seats in order to get comfortable seats with good views on the top deck of the modern boat which would take us the 40-minute trip across to the island. We arrived at the ‘Digital Museum’, the meeting point for the tour in good time, so we checked in and then promptly left to find an ATM to get some money, since most places here prefer to deal in cash. ATMs that take the brand of credit cards we have are not that common, but the 7-11 across from the museum conveniently had one. I grabbed some sushi while we were there, having only eaten a simple breakfast of supermarket-bought bread, yoghurt and a banana. Small convenience stores here still have a great range of ready-to-eat foods including a large variety of sandwiches and fresh sushi rolls.

The museum covered three levels and included many interesting and interactive displays explaining the history of the island. Gunkanjima (Hashima) was registered as a World Heritage Site in July 2015 as a significant site of the Industrial Revolution in Japan. The 6.3-hectare (16-acre) island, 15km from the centre of Nagasaki, was known for its undersea coal mine, established in 1887, which operated during the industrialisation of Japan. The island reached a peak population of 5,259 in 1959 when it had the highest population density in the world. In 1974, with the coal reserves nearing depletion, the mine was closed, and all of the residents departed soon after, leaving the island effectively abandoned for the following three decades.

Interest in the island re-emerged in the 2000s because of its undisturbed historic ruins, and it gradually became a tourist attraction. Some of the collapsed exterior walls have since been restored, and travel to Hashima was reopened to tourists in 2009.

The island is surrounded by treacherous waters and even a slightly rainy, cloudy, and/or windy day is enough to set off the waves and impede visibility. Consequently, cruise companies reserve the right to cancel tours due to bad weather — even on the day of the tour itself or while you’re aboard the boat. We were nervous about this, given we were flying out of Nagasaki the following day and wouldn’t get another opportunity, but it all worked in our favour and a warm (23c) day, with slight winds and beautiful sunshine greeted us as we boarded the boat.

The boat left Nagasaki Harbour right on the scheduled time of 10:30 and took us out to sea past lots of industrial sites including, much to Daves excitement, navy ship yards.

40 minutes later, including a stop off the far side of the island for photos, we were disembarking onto the island. There were only Japanese speaking guides today, but we did get a plastic sleeve folder containing lots of notes in English. We were guided around a walkway to see the abandoned buildings and ruins… all very interesting!

After about an hour on the island we reboarded the boat back to Nagasaki, enjoying the included juice and cake, and the lovely views across the water on this gorgeous sunny day.

We decided to walk the two km back to our hotel, stopping on the way to admire the now- diminishing cherry blossoms in the sea-side parks and then for some lunch at a wharf cafe. The cafe specialised in Italian (!!) so I had bacon and bean pasta, and Dave had a ‘hamburger’ (patty only) with rice wrapped in an omelette. Both were very tasty and the bill, including drinks, was less than $A30, I’m not sure you could get water views and lunch for that amount in Australia!

In order to ensure smooth operations, we decided to do a Recce and find the bus station for the following day’s transfer to Nagasaki airport. (Perfect Preparation and Planning Prevents Poor Performance). We first walked across the road from our hotel to the railway station where a polite young man at the local tourist information office not only described where to go but gave us a timetable in English and clear directions on how to get to the closest bus terminal. We followed the instructions, arriving at the depot which looked just like one in Australia and found our way to the ticket sales office, so that we would know just what to do when we came back tomorrow. An older man, perhaps in his 60’s or even 70’s, showed us what to do, even writing down the time of the bus he thought we should catch in order to get to the airport on time. What a gentleman!

Behind the bus depot building were many narrow streets containing lots of restaurants. After being rejected at a few because they were “Manshitsu” (fully booked) we then found one similar to last night. Similarly, it had lots of people in it, again indicating to us it would probably be quite good. The slightly frazzled waiter gave us an indication that it would take a little time because they were busy, but regardless, we settled in and perused the menu on the iPad we had been given to order on. The beauty of the electronic menu was that we could choose “English words” and I ordered both a Sashimi plate and a serve of lemon and garlic shrimp, while Dave ordered rice and a bowl of chips along with an orange juice (just for a change)!

After watching a streamed series of James Bond youtube clips on our hotel television it was time for sleep… the slight sun and wind burn making us feel like we were on a tropical holiday!