Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine and Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine

   From the sea, Hashima looks like a battleship: a small rocky island off Nagasaki surrounded by high concrete walls, crowded with tall, empty apartment blocks. The Japanese call it Gunkanjima, battleship island, and it is the most famous ruin of Japan's industrial age. Mitsubishi mined coal here from undersea seams from the late nineteenth century, and as the mine grew the island was extended with land reclaimed from the sea and built up with concrete housing, schools, a hospital and shops. At its peak it was one of the most densely populated places on Earth. When the mine closed in 1974, everyone left within weeks, and the island has been slowly crumbling ever since.

   Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine is where the day begins. Next is Glover House and Office.

2. 2. Glover House and Office

   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.

   Read the complete Glover House and Office write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Glover House and Office comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Shitsu Village in Sotome.

3. 3. Shitsu Village in Sotome

   Sotome is a stretch of rugged coast north of Nagasaki, where steep hills drop into the East China Sea, and the village of Shitsu clings to its slopes. During the centuries when Christianity was banned in Japan, the farmers and fishermen of this remote area kept their faith in secret, passing down prayers and rituals from generation to generation, hiding their devotion behind Buddhist and Shinto practices. When the ban was lifted in 1873, many of them returned to the Catholic Church. The Shitsu church, built in 1882 under the direction of the French missionary Marc Marie de Rotz, stands on a hill above the sea, a simple white building with a low profile designed to resist the strong winds. De Rotz was more than a priest: he taught the villagers to make bread, pasta and textiles, built a clinic and a workshop, and his legacy is still honoured locally. The village and church are part of the UNESCO listing of the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region.

   Read the complete Shitsu Village in Sotome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 52 km into the recorded legs you reach Shitsu Village in Sotome. Next is Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte.

4. 4. Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte

   Nagasaki's harbour is a long, narrow inlet surrounded by steep hills, and on its western shore the Mitsubishi shipyard has been building ships since the late nineteenth century. The yard was one of the engines of Japan's rapid industrialisation in the Meiji era, when the country transformed itself from a feudal society into an industrial power in a few decades. Several of its historic structures are part of the UNESCO listing of the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, inscribed in 2015. The Former Pattern Shop, a red-brick building from 1898 where wooden patterns were made for casting metal parts, now houses a museum of the yard's history. The Giant Cantilever Crane, installed in 1909 and made in Scotland, is still in working order, and it dominates the waterfront. The yard built many famous ships, including the battleship Musashi, one of the largest warships ever constructed.

   Read the complete Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Nagasaki Shipyard/ Mitsubishi Former Patte, about halfway. Next is back through Shitsu Village in Sotome.

5. 5. back through Shitsu Village in Sotome

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Shitsu Village in Sotome write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Shitsu Village in Sotome sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Glover House and Office.

6. 6. back through Glover House and Office

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Glover House and Office write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Glover House and Office comes up about 141 km into the recorded legs. Next is Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine.

7. 7. Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Takashima Coal Mine/ Hashima Coal Mine closes the day.