Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution by Zoë Sheng
"I'm getting too old for this s**t", Danny Glover said when arriving at the Glover Garden. And I thought the same having to suddenly ascend from the tram station on the Glover Skywalk to reach the entrance of the garden. The main reason I walked quickly was because it was already 5pm, the church and garden close at 6 and you never know about the last admission times for these places. So I quickly looked at the Oura church. It is Japan's oldest church and part of the Hidden Christian WHS, one of those few places where you have two separate inscriptions 100m apart from each other and yes, you can see the church from the gardens for those interested in trivia. As it is more of a museum regarding Christianity in Japan I quickly moved on the still reach the Glover Garden in time. Luckily this was the last day it was open until 9:30pm! So the summer times are maybe very different, especially because of a harvest celebrations (Nagasaki Kunchi) still ongoing. Many students were in the park and staying late is actually better to see the town/port from the viewpoint and the illumination of the gardens. All the houses are open, with the Glover House being the best place to see old furniture and some facts about his time in Japan. I didn't know that he was the inspiration for the Kirin beer logo, or so they say. For Westerners they have seen many houses better than this but in Japan this is the oldest Western house and part of the Meiji industrial revolution. Glover was one of the first to come over and start a business and it helped grew the country to the power it became, and the rest is, as they say, history.
There are heaps of sites for this inscription. I mainly focused on this because of the lack of time in Nagasaki as the typhoon delayed the trip for other destinations already. Many tours go to Hashima which was so controversial and delayed the inscription, with the Japanese tourism still not making any mention of the use of forced laborers as part of its history. Having seen a lot of old mines and factories around the world I did not want to seek out any of these, although the Mitsubishi Nagasaki dock is also an included site if you want to stroll down there and have a closer look.