Japan’s first contact with the Western world was in 1543 with the arrival of the Portuguese. They were soon followed by Christian missionaries, who by 1580 had converted an astonishing 150,000 Japanese to Christianity. Alarmed at Europe’s growing influence, the Tokugawa shogun banned Christianity in the early 1600s and then shut all Japan’s ports to foreign trade. Thus began a remarkable 250-year period of self-imposed isolation, during which the country was virtually closed to the outside world. No Japanese were allowed to leave the country and, with the exception of a single small enclave in southern Japan, no foreigners were allowed to enter, upon pain of death.
Only after 1854, when Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived with his fleet of “black ships” and demanded trading rights, did a designated handful of Japan’s ports open to foreign fleets. Today, Hakodate, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki are among Japan’s most famous historic ports and its most cosmopolitan cities, with turn-of-the-19th-century Western-style neighborhoods that give a glimpse of what life was like for those early international settlers.
Because of their intertwined histories with foreigners, who also brought their own cuisines and culture, these port towns have long been popular with Japanese visitors seeking an exotic experience. I also find them among the most attractive of Japan’s seaside cities. Perhaps because of this, they are favorite ports of call for Japan’s burgeoning cruise-ship industry, though they’re also easily reached by train.
Hakodate
Hakodate has always had the atmosphere of a frontier outpost, due in no small part to its location on the sparsely populated and least developed island of Hokkaido, which with its vast wilderness reminds me of Alaska. One of Japan’s first ports to open to international trade following Japan’s isolation, Hakodate quickly became a major draw for U.S. whaling ships, followed in 1859 by traders from the U.S., Britain, France and Russia. They built Western-style clapboard homes, embassies, churches and administrative buildings, many of which still line the wide, sloping streets of Motomachi, making the neighborhood a popular shooting location for Japanese films. Waterfront brick warehouses now house restaurants and shops, while clanking streetcars add to Hakodate’s old-fashioned ambiance.
But what I especially like about Hakodate is that it has both an evening and a morning famous attraction, making it a great stopover on your way to Hokkaido’s natural splendors. Although you can visit Mount Hakodate during the day, I especially like going at night. At 1,100 feet high and accessible from the city center in just three minutes via cable car, the peak offers what Japanese consistently rank as one of the country’s most beautiful night views, with city lights shimmering like spilled diamonds on black velvet. The next morning, I recommend heading straight to Hakodate’s famous market, located next to Hakodate Station and famous for its seasonal huge crabs and seafood rice bowl breakfasts. For more on what to see and do, see my post, A Hakodate Stopover.
Nagasaki
At the other end of Japan, on the southern island of Kyushu, is Nagasaki, which might just be Japan’s most beautiful city. It’s a town of gently rolling hills rising from the harbor, of houses perched on terraced slopes, and distinctive neighborhoods. Part of the city’s charm lies in its long history as an international port, beginning in 1571 when it was favored by Portuguese and Dutch sailors and Chinese merchants. But what sets Nagasaki apart from other port towns is that even during Japan’s isolationist policy, a limited number of Dutch and Chinese were allowed by remain, giving Nagasaki a very small window to the world. For a remarkable 218 years, Dutch were confined to Dejima, a tiny man-made island. No more than 15 Dutchmen were in residence at any one time, but it must have been a rather lonely existence, today brought to life with 15 resurrected structures and finds from archaeological digs.
After Nagasaki reopened its port in the 19th century, foreigners settled on a hill overlooking the busy harbor, today called Glover Garden and featuring nine homes and other buildings from the Meiji Period(1868-1912) open to the public. Chinese influences are also everywhere, including Nagasaki’s own Chinatown, the colorful Confucius Shrine (the only Confucian mausoleum outside China built by Chinese; in fact, the land on which it stands belongs to China) and famous dishes like shippoku (a feast with Chinese, European and Japanese influences) and a noodle dish called champon. Like Hakodate, it also has its own famous nighttime view, atop the 1,090-foot Mount Inasa. The deserted, eerie Hashima island, once a thriving coal-mining town nicknamed Gunkanjima (Battleship Island), is open for guided tours and is one of 23 sights and objects that make up the World Heritage Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining. In fact, it was the huge importation of Western industry and knowhow that brought many of those 19th-century merchants, businessmen, engineers and other professionals to Japan (for more information on Japan’s World Heritage Sites, see my post Japan’s Top world Heritage Sites).
But Nagasaki is probably most known for being the second city destroyed by an atomic bomb. Its victims and that fateful day are memorialized at Peace Park with its many sculptures and monuments and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum
Yokohama
In contrast to Nagasaki and Kobe, both of which have long histories as seaports, Yokohama is a relatively young city and port. It was just a fishing village of 100 houses when it was declared an international port in 1859, chosen for its remote location far from the Tokaido, the main inland road running between Tokyo and Kyoto, and therefore seen as an easier way to confine foreigners. But Yokohama quickly developed from a backwater to one of Japan’s largest and most prosperous international ports, home to social clubs and sports teams, churches and businesses offering Western goods and services, including Japan’s first bakery, photo studio, beer brewery, cinema, daily newspaper, public restroom and ice cream. As Tokyo’s main port, Yokohama grew by such leaps and bounds that Japan’s first railroad was laid to connect the two cities, bringing curious Tokyoites for a look at foreigners, their lifestyles and Western goods.
Today, Japanese tourists still come to Japan’s second-largest city to soak up its cosmopolitan atmosphere, including the Bluff with its many foreign residents and Motomachi shopping street. Minato Mirai 21 is a huge waterfront urban development with museums, hotels, shopping centers, restaurants, an amusement park, and a hot-spring bath with water trucked in from Izu Peninsula. A 30-minute walk brings you to Yamashita Park, Japan’s first seaside park and created after the huge 1923 earthquake that destroyed much of Tokyo and Yokohama. Yokohama also boasts Japan’s largest Chinatown, but my favorite thing to see is Sankei-en Garden. It was laid out only in 1906 by a local millionaire who made his fortune exporting silk, but it’s beautiful nonetheless, with historic buildings interspersed among pathways, ponds and blooming plants.
Kobe
Kobe is blessed with the calm waters of the Seto Inland Sea and has a naturally protected harbor, giving it an important role in sea transportation since ancient times and as an international port since the late 1860s. Squeezed between mountains and the coast, Kobe stretches 18 miles along the Seto Inland Sea, giving it an intimate relationship with its working harbor, glimpsed from many parts of the city and still it’s raison e’d’être. Kobe is also multicultural, with foreigners from more than 120 countries residing in this city of 1.5 million inhabitants, bringing with them a wide range of ethnic restaurants in addition to its famous Kobe beef. The top tourist destination for Japanese is the hillside neighborhood called Kitano-cho, home to about 20 Western-style homes built more than 100 years ago, most open to the public with period furniture and with lovely views of the sea from verandas and bay windows. Gardeners won’t want to miss Kobe Nunobiki Herb Garden & Ropeway, and yes, you do take an aerial lift to reach Japan’s largest herb garden, located high above the city and offering great views and grounds planted with sage, mint, roses, Japanese plants and more.
By now you’re probably not surprised that Kobe, too, has a Chinatown, but it’s also home to many sake breweries and Arima Onsen with its hot-spring baths. Of the city’s many museums, top on my list is the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution Museum, which describes the horror of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake that took more than 6,400 lives in and around Kobe. With its information also on disaster management and mitigation and documentary about the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake in Tohoku, there’s no museum in the country quite like this one. But no visit to Kobe would be complete without enjoying Kobe’s great nightlife scene, compact and with a wide range of English-style pubs, bars, expat hangouts and nightclubs.
For information on Japan’s other ports of call for cruise ships, see my article at cruisecritic.com, First Visit to Japan or One of Many, a Country-Intensive Cruise Offers a Deep Dive.
