Nagasaki is the ultimate urban hiking destination
nagasaki is probably most known as being the last city to ever be nuked in an act of war second to Hiroshima if you remember your history the nukes were in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor where a total of 3,581 Americans were killed or injured i’m not sure if you believe in an eye for an eye but that number is 100 times less than a total killed or injured by both the nukes in Nagasaki and Hiroshima so it sounds more like a very vengeful arm leg body and every strand of hair for an eye anyways a lot of tourism in Nagasaki is focused on a nuclear attack but Nagasaki is also one of the greatest urban hiking destinations I’ve ever been to for two reasons first it is known as the city of slopes due to its hilly terrain and many streets and buildings built on an incline now normally I’m not a big fan of constantly walking up and down streets to get around a city such as in Hong Kong but the aesthetic of Nagasaki made the experience so much more pleasant where the streets of Hong Kong are literally a concrete jungle with no trees in sight metal barriers everywhere and traffic constantly zooming by you Nagasaki was extremely peaceful with scenic views everywhere and strangely no other people in sight not even locals there were a couple times I hiked up to some hilltop parks where I was able to get some amazing sunset views all to myself i am in Nagasaki Japan in a little park called Dano Yyama Park and about to enjoy the very nice sunset as you can see uh this park is very small very compact and cozy you see we got exercise equipment uh some playground equipment if you want to bring your kids some benches there you see a cherry blossom tree over there um there’s even more cherry blossom trees up there more viewpoints back there and just a really relaxed chill place um perfect place perfect time to catch the sunset and the really interesting thing is as you can see there’s no other people here i’m the only one uh in this park but I really don’t know where you can catch a better sunset view in Nagasaki i mean look at this look how h how high up I’m I I’m I am look at all those buildings down there look at that sun about to set over the mountains the ocean the hills the buildings everything is perfect and the second reason Nagasaki is the ultimate urban hiking destination is a Nakashima River which runs straight through the middle of the city it reminded me of the Chongi Chon stream in Soul which used to be an elevated motorway before it was demolished and turned into a very nice very scenic urban river trail except in Nagasaki nothing was demolished so the River Trail has more of a historical charm such as the Megani Bridge which is the oldest stone arch bridge in Japan built in 1634 but it also has some quirky modern elements such as a heart-shaped stone which is a popular photo spot and they got a nice walkway here so it’s nice as in they provide a walkway but it’s not uh super nice in the sense that it’s not completely smooth uh there is some ruggedness to it some unevenness to it which actually adds to the uh quoteunquote hiking experience so um really really nice you can see we got the cherry blossoms uh bloom in here it’s just a really nice way to have a hike through the city enjoy nature while at the same time being within the vicinity of all your typical city amenities and you can see the water super clear super clean not smelly and it’s just really nice with the cherry blossom pedals blowing in the wind falling into the stream um so and also you can see there’s no people around and further downstream of the stream you can see that there’s a lot uh of wildlife in the water so a lot of nice big fish there you can see the water is pretty clear pretty clean um even the pigeons look clean you can see this pigeon here is not the usual kind of mangled uh feathered pigeon you see in these cities and even some turtles there as you can see very uh you know chill looking turtles so are you a fan of visiting places with no people let me know in the comments thanks for watching see you next time
If you want to get away from the crowds in Japan, check out Nagasaki for some of the best urban hiking around.
AloJapan.com