Hashima (Gunkanjima)
The haunting abandoned island known as "Battleship Island" — a former undersea coal mine that once housed 5,000 people in the world's highest population density. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Location
Location available to Pro members
Upgrade to ProPro Spot
Upgrade to Pro to access local tips, secret timing, and insider highlights for this spot.
Upgrade to Pro — $4.99/moLocal Tips
Landing is not guaranteed even on booked tours — rough seas cancel access several times per week. Book the earliest departure for the best chance of good conditions. The Nagasaki UNESCO Digital Museum gives the full history in detail if landing is cancelled. Highly recommended either way.
Add to your AI itinerary
Let AI build a multi-day trip around this spot.
Advertisement
More in Nagasaki
Dejima Dutch Trading Post
For 200 years during Japan's isolation period, this tiny fan-shaped artificial island was the only point of contact between Japan and the Western world. Dutch traders lived here under strict conditions; their books, clocks, and scientific instruments slowly changed Japan. The island has been meticulously reconstructed to its 1820s appearance, complete with furnished warehouses, a VOC flag, and Dutch gardens.
Glover Garden
An open-air hilltop museum of Western-style residences built by Meiji-era foreign merchants. Thomas Glover's stone villa (1863) is Japan's oldest surviving Western-style house, with sweeping harbor views.
Goto Islands
An archipelago of 140 islands where 30,000 "hidden Christians" (kakure kirishitan) secretly maintained their faith for 250 years under the death penalty. The UNESCO-listed churches, set in fishing villages against a backdrop of spectacularly clear emerald sea, represent one of the world's most extraordinary stories of religious perseverance.