Photo: NevinThompson (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walk through Nagasaki told as one connected port. It begins at the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank beside the Matsugae cruise terminal and climbs to Oura Cathedral, where Hidden Christians from Urakami revealed their faith to Father Petitjean in 1865, then through Glover Garden: the house built in 1863 for the Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover, the Ringer and Alt houses and the Mitsubishi dock house. Across the hillside come the Confucius Shrine, the Higashi-yamate Western Houses and the Dutch Slope, then Tojin Yashiki, the walled Chinese quarter of 1688 and 1689, and Dejima, the artificial island through which Western science, goods and information entered Japan for 218 years. Through Shinchi Chinatown the walk reaches the Chinese temples of Sofuku-ji and Kofuku-ji, the 1634 stone arches of Meganebashi, Sakamoto Ryoma's Kameyama Shachu and the 277 steps of Suwa Shrine. It ends at the Tateyama Air-raid Shelter, from which relief was directed after the atomic bombing, and on Nishizaka Hill, where twenty-six Christians were executed in 1597.
19 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 193 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 31 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Oura Cathedral, Glover House, Former Ringer House, Former Alt House, Former Mitsubishi No. 2 Dock House.
Confucius Shrine, Higashi-yamate Western Houses, Dutch Slope, Tojin Yashiki, the Chinese Quarter, Dejima, Shinchi Chinatown.
Sofuku-ji, Meganebashi, Kofuku-ji, Kameyama Shachu, Suwa Shrine, Tateyama Air-raid Shelter, Nagasaki Twenty-Six Martyrs Monument.
The church dedicated to the Twenty-Six Martyrs and facing Nishizaka, where Hidden Christians from Urakami revealed their faith on March 17, 1865.
Thomas Blake Glover's 1863 house above the harbor, a hub for trade and for the arms that helped bring about the Meiji Restoration.
The fan-shaped artificial island where Dutch trade was kept under Japanese supervision for 218 years, with reconstructed Edo-period buildings.
The Obaku temple founded in 1629 by Chinese residents from Fuzhou, whose main hall was cut in China and raised here in 1646.
The stone two-arch bridge of 1634 whose reflection in the Nakashima River forms the spectacles that give it its name.
The prefectural air defense headquarters, 2.7 kilometers from the hypocenter, from which relief was directed after the atomic bombing.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 19 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 19 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Nagasaki — Dejima, Glover Garden and the Old Port, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
19 narration points, including Glover House, Higashi-yamate Western Houses, Dutch Slope, Dejima and Shinchi Chinatown. That is about 30 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 19 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.