Day 4 Gunkanjima

Today we had a nice breakfast at the hotel. Highlights in the breakfast selection included grilled horse mackerel, siu mais, steamed gyozas and even mini saraudon bowls (皿うどん).

We bought a day pass for the streetcar, and caught the No 1, followed by No 5 cars to Ourakaigandori (大浦海岸通り), which is close to Nagasaki Port, and we queued up for the cruise boat to Gunkanjima.

We were told that the seas were rough today and the boat may not be able to land on the island, but the captain will make a decision once we reach there.

The tour commentary was in Japanese, which I barely understood. An English audio guide via a headset was available, but I didn’t really bother listening to it as my unit was only functioning intermittently. I am afraid I got into some trouble with the staff as I kept getting up to take photos and they kept asking me to sit down. We left Nagasaki port, and the commentary focused on describing the historical sites around Nagasaki (such as the crane, the dock and the guest house), as well as the Mitsubishi plant.

We passed through two bridges, one is the beautiful Megame Ohashi or Megamio Bridge (女神大橋), the other is Iojimao bridge (伊王島大橋).

We eventually reached Gunkanjima, and the boat circumnavigated across the island whilst everyone took photos and videos. Eventually, the waves magically settled down and the captain decided to attempt a landing. We got off the boat, and walked to the southern tip of the island along a concrete pathway.

Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) was originally called Hashima and lies around 4.5km west of the Nagasaki peninsula, 2.5km southwest of the Mitsubishi Mining Company’s main coalmine on the island of Takashima, and 19km southwest of Nagasaki harbor. It is a tiny island with a seabed coalmine. It measures 480m north to south and 160m east to west, with a circumference of 1,200m and an area of 63,000m2. The island is surrounded by a sea wall, and has multi-storey reinforced concrete apartments, giving it the appearance of the warship Tosa. For this reason it has become known as “Gunkanjima” (Battleship Island). After the mine was closed, the island was deserted and fell silent for many years.

In recent years, the island has gained notoriety as it was featured in the James Bond film Skyfall. As a result, boatloads of tourists visit it everyday.

Gunkanjima is beautiful in a sort of haunting eerie way and I took lots of photos. I didn’t really like the enforced gaiety of the commentary from the tour guides and I would have preferred a more contemplative and reflective tone.

We didn’t spend that long on the island but there wasn’t much to see anyway as they did not allow us to veer off the pathway. I would have liked to explore the abandoned living quarters in the north of the island but I understand it’s a safety issue and they don’t really want thousands of tourists trampling all over the place.

The boat eventually returned back to the port, and I discovered my pocket Wi Fi battery has drained completely, so we were forced to navigate without Apple Maps.