Day 5: Nagasaki (Glover Garden)

After breakfast, we took the streetcar to Ouratenshudoshita stop to visit the historical foreign settlement sites of Nagasaki. The biggest and most famous attraction in this area is Glover’s Garden.

Despite the name, this is less of a formal garden and more a collection of historical houses. We really enjoyed it and it gave us a sense of the history of foreign trading in Nagasaki.

Glover Garden is situated on the southern slope of the Minamiyamate hillside and offers a superb and extensive view of Nagasaki Harbour. The gardens feature the former Glover Residence, which, in addition to the gardens, was donated to the city of Nagasaki in 1957 by the Nagasaki Shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and opened to the public. Eventually, six other Western-style residences from the Meiji era that had been built throughout the city were dismantled, moved, reconstructed and restored as important national cultural properties on this site of former foreign settlements. They joined the former Glover Residence, the former Ringer Residence (built for Frederick Ringer), and the former Alt Residence (built for William Alt) on the site.

Inside the gardens, one can tour the Thomas Blake Glover Residence, Japan’s oldest wooden Western-style residence. Through his trading businesses, Glover contributed much to Japan’s modernisation in shipbuilding, coal mining, and other fields. It was built by Hidenoshin Koyama of Amakusa island and completed in 1863. The house and garden evokes Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly and the house is sometimes called Madame Butterfly House. There is a statue of Puccini in the park.