The Boat Out
From Nagasaki harbour, the tour boat takes about 40 minutes out to Gunkanjima, officially Hashima. Landings depend on the sea, and they’re cancelled a lot. We got lucky: calm water, blue sky, and the landing was on.
On the Island
Hashima was a coal mine under the sea. From the late 1800s, the company kept building it up with sea walls and landfill, until it was a tiny island packed with concrete apartment blocks, a school, a hospital and a cinema. In 1959, over 5,000 people lived here, one of the most crowded places on earth. When the mine closed in 1974, everyone left within a few months, and nobody has lived here since.
You can only walk along a fenced path on the south side, with guides explaining each ruin. The buildings are crumbling into the sea, slowly.
It was blazing hot, with no shade at all, since it’s basically a big concrete slab in the sea. Minmin’s hat did a lot of work that day.
Around the Island
Back on the boat, it sails all the way round the island. From the side, with its high sea walls and the blocks stacked up like a ship’s superstructure, you see why it’s called Battleship Island.
Back to Hakata
Back in Nagasaki, then the Kamome and the Relay Kamome back to Hakata, with a Rilakkuma stop at the station. Dinner was motsunabe, Hakata’s hotpot of beef offal in a soy or miso broth, topped with a mountain of chives.
Tomorrow: the green train to Yufuin.
Information About Gunkanjima
An abandoned coal-mining island about 40 minutes by boat from Nagasaki harbour, UNESCO-listed since 2015. Several companies run tours with a landing and a loop around the island.
PS: Landings depend on the waves, and they get cancelled often. Book for your first free day in Nagasaki, so you can try again if the sea says no.