SE Asia and China Cruise—Day 14, Nagasaki

March 27, 2012—Nagasaki

Nagasaki—this is the one port that I really wanted to see on this cruise.  I was looking forward to being in Japan again, shopping, and (of course) having lunch.  Some of the other reasons I was looking forward to seeing Nagasaki was that I was born on the island of Kyushu, just about an hour’s train ride from Nagasaki, although I certainly don’t remember it since I left when I was only a few weeks old.  This was also the “birthplace” of both the Diamond and Sapphire Princess; both ships were built by Mitsubishi Industries in Nagasaki—the only two Princess ships built in Japan.

Immigration in Japan was much more complicated than any other place and it took us almost an hour to disembark and clear customs.  We had previously filled out and provided the immigration forms a couple of days ago, and the ship provided our landing cards to us the night before.  When disembarking, we were required to provide our cruise card, a copy of our passports, and our landing cards to the Japanese immigration.  While in the long line waiting to go through customs, there was a thermal imaging camera that apparently was surveying the passenger’s temperature, presumably to make sure we weren’t sick.  Then we had to provide fingerprints, and have our picture taken which used facial recognition.  Over 2,600 passengers (along with about half of the 1,100 crew that were allowed to disembark) were all trying to clear customs, so the lines and wait time were the worse I’ve ever seen.  Still, once we were through, we were in the heart of Nagasaki, Unlike in other ports where we had to dock at the container port, Nagasaki’s port was deep enough to allow the Diamond to dock in town. 

The weather was sunny and clear with no wind, so while it was a little cool early in the morning, the day quickly warmed up.  We left the terminal and crossed the street walking up hill a couple of blocks to Oura Church and Glover Garden.

Oura Church

My parents and I really wanted to see Glover Garden after having seen Madame Butterfly.  This was presumably the site where Puccini’s opera took place, and where Cho-cho-san (Madame Butterfly) lived and waited for her American naval officer to return.  The real Thomas Glover was from Scotland and came to Japan in 1859.  He established a company in Nagasaki, and made enormous contributions to the modernization of Japan.

The house and garden overlooked the harbor and we had a clear view of the Diamond Princess at her berth.  

We enjoyed walking through the gardens which were very beautiful.

After leaving Glover Garden, we wandered around finding a temple off on a side street.



Afterwards, we took the streetcar to the shopping district where we had lunch and did a little shopping.  It was really nice having a real Japanese lunch (as opposed to the “Americanized” Japanese food we normally get at home).  I did buy a few things even though Japan is much more expensive than any of the other ports we’d been to.

After shopping, we took the streetcar back to the port and walked around some more before finally boarding the ship.  This was one of the few times that I really wasn’t anxious to get back on board—someday I’d like to come back to Nagasaki when I could spend more time exploring the city and the port.

The all-aboard time was 5:30 with sailaway scheduled for 6:00 pm.  The city of Nagasaki and it’s people feel a special kinship with the Diamond Princess since she was built here and when it was time for her to leave, the city always gives her a special send-off.  My parents and I stood out on our balcony and watched as a high school band played music.  There were crowds of people lined up along the railing at the port.  Each time the band finished playing a song, the passengers on balconies and on the Promenade and Lido Decks clapped and cheered for the student band.

When we had arrived that morning, there was a large banner which said “Welcome Back Diamond Princess.”  When we were leaving, another large banner was displayed next to it which said “See you again in Nagasaki.” 

As the last song ended, the Diamond Princess sounded her horn several times, then pulled away from the dock.  The crowd on land all started waving, and the passengers on board all waved back.  This was the most touching display during a sailaway I had ever seen. 

Later, while talking with some of the crew on board, I was told that Nagasaki feels as though the Diamond was their ship since she was built there.  Paolo had told me that the engineers from the Mitsubishi plant always want to come on board just to see her again.  The people in Nagasaki really seemed to feel a special kinship with the Diamond and their warm welcome and wonderful send-off was heartwarming, and even brought a sense of sadness that we were leaving.  The Diamond would be back again on the next run, but we unfortunately, would not be on board her and watched as the ship turned and headed out of the harbor as the sun slowly sank in the distance.

That night we had dinner at Sabatini’s.  Both my mother and I had the calamari, my absolute favorite appetizer!  I also had the linguini with clams, and the veal.  My parents had the lobster three ways, which included a lobster tail, lobster risotto, and lobster bisque sauce.  While I enjoyed every bite, my parents definitely preferred the lunch in Nagasaki to the more gourmet-type food on board the ship. 

After dinner, I met Jutta again and we talked for a while.  I left around 11:30pm and went to the casino where I lost $20 before heading back to the cabin.  We only had two more days on board and I was already starting to hate the thought of leaving on disembarkation day.