Glover Hill, Nagasaki

Above is a picture of me taken outside one of the fine Victorian houses built by the first British expats in Nagasaki after Japan opened her borders during the mid 19th Century.

We got to Nagaski and our hotel there just after 2pm having caught the Kamome train at 12 from Fukuoka. We spent the morning in Fukuoka walking along the canal and drinking coffee. The train journey to Nagasaki was a good one with very striking scenery particularly of the cliffs and the sea. It was reminiscent of Cornwall in places.

Our hotel is at the foot of Glover Hill as explained above the Victorian expat enclave. Glover himself was the first Brit to arrive - he introduced the first steam train, asphalt road and brewery to Japan. The present day Japanese brewery Kirin is the successor of this first brewery and the Kirin dog is based on one of Glover's dog.

Glover was Scottish which means that the gardens have saltires flying and bag pipe music playing at certain points around the park. You can see more of the gardens and houses at my flickr page here
Glover Hill and its views across Nagasaki harbour are apparently the 3rd most romantic settings in Japan. It certainly was stunning and very relaxing. Above is a view from the hill across the harbour. Puccini made Glover Hill famous after staying there and setting Madam Butterfly in Nagasaki and Glover House.

On the way up to the Glover Hill gardens is a street with touristy shops and stalls. Along this street we saw lots of cats. Below is a picture of "Colin" (I named him this time following Jase's earlier theme with Dave the cat) He was enjoying himself in the afternoon sun. On our way back to the hotel at around 5 we went past more cats being made a fuss of by the local shop workers.
Tonight we treated ourselves to a 5 course meal in the hotel's French restaurant. The clam soup we had was divine!