Thomas Blake Glover arrived in Nagasaki in 1859 as a young Scot in his early twenties, and within a decade he had become one of the most influential foreigners in Japan. His house stands on Minamiyamate hill above the harbour, built in the early 1860s, and it is the oldest surviving Western-style building in the country. It has wide verandas, a stone-flagged garden and a view of the bay that must have been a sales tool in itself. Glover traded tea and ships and, more controversially, guns and warships, supplying the domains that overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate. He also helped smuggle young Choshu samurai out of Japan to study in London, and later worked with Mitsubishi on shipbuilding. Some historians say he brought the Industrial Revolution to Japan through the back door.
The house is now part of Glover Garden, a hillside park with other old foreign residences, and it forms part of the Meiji industrial sites on the World Heritage list. The grounds are laid out as a gentle uphill stroll, with ponds, flower beds and views over Mitsubishi's shipyards across the water. A short walk away is Oura Church, the oldest surviving Gothic-style wooden church in Japan, which is also where the so-called hidden Christians revealed themselves to a French priest in 1865 after more than two centuries of secret worship.
Nagasaki is not a place for fast riding. The streets near the garden are steep and tight, cars park half on the pavement and the trams grind along the main road, so come by bike if you can manage hills and leave it at the bottom if you cannot. The city is large enough for any fuel, food or repair, and you will find parking more of a challenge than petrol.
The legend of Madame Butterfly is associated with the garden, because the opera is set in Nagasaki and tourist guides like to connect it to Glover's Japanese wife. Treat that as folklore, not fact. What is factual is the harbour view, still among the finest in Japan.
Visit in spring for the azaleas, in autumn for the clear air, or at dusk when the harbour lights come on.