Nagasaki was international well before Tokyo, Yokohama or Kobe appeared on the scene as Japan's trading places with foreign nations. The city's rich foreign heritage is apparent wherever you go in Nagasaki. The former "foreign settlements" in Nagasaki's Higashi-Yamate, Minami-Yamate, Oura and Dejima districts, established in 1859 when Japan was opened to the world after centuries of isolation, are places steeped in history. They tell the stories of those Western settlers, mainly merchants and diplomats and their families, who settled here and often became successful in business or influential in politics. Although this slope is called "Hollander Slope", it was not just Dutchmen who lived here but people from a great number of countries. There is a little museum in one of the buildings and another building houses a cafe. The cafe's terrace is a nice open-air place to sit down and have a coffee after a walk up the slopes.
Alena Eckelmann @alena.eckelmann
Founder of Kii Monogatari, my story and the story of the Kii Peninsula of Japan. Originally from East Germany, I came to Tokyo, via Berlin and London, in 2005. In summer 2011 I moved by choice to remote Kumano in the south of the Kii Peninsula where I live, work and play now, and explore every da...
