Nagasaki City and Shimabara Peninsular Sightseeing Tour

I like to visit this location first on my Nagasaki and Shimabara Peninsular full day tours as it is a beautiful location and sets the tone for what a great day we have in store for us to come.

The Spectacle Bridge in Isahaya is a double arch stone bridge spanning a pond at Isahaya Park, which is one of the main sightseeing places of the area. The bridge is twice the size of the famous Spectacles Bridge in Nagasaki City and has many temples and shrines as well as walking trails that you could easily spend 1 or 2 hours here soaking up the ambiance, however most stops are around the 20 to 25 minutes.

The Unique Bus Stops in that you see here in the photos are part of the Nagasaki Prefecture`s character and adds to her personality unlike any other attraction. I nearly always include this site on my Private Nagasaki Tours because everyone comes away with a pic and a smile on their face.

I always drive across the Isahaya Bay Dike Road on my Private Nagasaki Tours as its a beautiful straight road, has amazing scenery and gives everyone a chance to stretch their legs and have the all important bathroom break.

Sometimes I am in awe when i am driving down the hill from the mountain and the Shimabara Castle suddenly appears in the foreground. A real Castle that operated over 400 years ago and still remains today albeit a restored type but really portrays the history and the real life setting of what life was like in Japan in the 17th century.

Today only the moat and stone walls remain from the original structure. In 1980, a memorial museum was opened in honor of Seibo Kitamura, a noted sculptor and designer of the famous Peace Statue at the Peace Park in Nagasaki City. In 2006, the Shimabara Castle was listed one of the 100 finest Castles in Japan by the Japan Castle Foundation.

Samurai Street commemorates the old samurai section of Shimabara City on the Shimabara Peninsular. This famous street is lined with stone walls and a spring water canal running down its center. Three samurai houses have been restored and opened as exhibits to the public to restore the image and the traditions of this old Samurai town.

It is an extremely picturesque setting and perfect for a great photo shoot as images of feudal Japan came racing back into your consciousness from many of those movies and books you have read from your youth.

Today the carp streams are kept for sightseeing and aesthetic reasons as well as the fact that they look so cool! However in the past and particularly during times of war and famine they were kept as an alternative food source. Although it can be said that Carp are not a particularly good eating fish, I guess when one is hungry one should not be too picky about their food source. Luckily for the carp, nowadays the channels are used only for sightseeing purposes, so the fish should grow up big and strong and hopefully colorful to satisfy the hoards of tourists that come to see them.

The Volcano Damaged Houses were a direct result of the Unzen explosion and there has been several major eruptions in its history. The volcano erupted most recently from 1990 to 1995, sending pyroclastic flows (superheated clouds of volcanic gas and ash) down toward the towns below. While most people were safely evacuated, 43 journalists, scientists and their taxi drivers were killed. The eruptions also destroyed buildings on the outskirts of Shimabara City.

This is the place where high-temperature hot springs and steams spurt out of the ground and is called "Unzen Jigoku” (Unzen Hell) because of the sulfur content and the fact that sulfur steam is rising constantly into the air from the ground and the boiling spring water. Because of the sulfur, plants cannot grow here and the atmosphere is dense with steam which makes you think as if it is a scene right out of hell but don't worry within minutes of leaving the area the sulfur smell will have dissipated from your clothes and your pores.

The Obama Footbath is the highlight location on the Tour Nagasaki`s Full Day Shimabara Peninsular and Nagasaki City Highlights Itinerary. Just imagine, the location right on the waters edge. The picturesque seaside views combined with the healthy steamed vegetables, various snacks, alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages as well as the chance to soak these weary feet in the 40 degree celcius footbaths equals a magical and mind boggling experience that stimulates all the senses.

The original target for the bomb was the city of Kokura but obscuring clouds necessitated changing course to the alternative target, Nagasaki. However because of poor visibility due to cloud cover the bomb missed its intended detonation point which was the Mitsubishi Shipyards and exploded over the suburban area of Urakami, in effect killing mostly women and children and not the factory manufacturing area of War Machinery. In many ways it is this misfortune that will label Nagasaki forever in history!

It is a very sobering place and definitely not for the faint hearted as the stories, exhibits and pictures are extremely graphic. There hasn't been a time when i haven't seen someone crying out loud and or emotionally uncontrollable. This museum definitely isn't every one's cup of tea. However, it is important to remember history and not to forget about the past as this is the way we don't make the same mistakes of the past. So, in that sense the museum can be a great place to come together and never let this happen again for the benefit of mankind.

Mount Inasayama in Nagasaki City is a 333 meter high mountain in close proximity to the city center. Yama in Japanese means Mountain and Inasa Mountain is the King of all the peaks in Nagasaki. It is for this reason that you should make this location a priority destination.