Nagasaki

200 yen for adults, 100 yen for schoolchildren — roughly the price of a vending-machine coffee. Hours are 8:30am to 5:30pm year-round (closed December 29–31). It is worth it. The museum is restrained rather than graphic, with a clear chronological walk-through of the August 9, 1945 bombing and its aftermath. Plan 60–90 minutes. The adjoining Peace Park and Hypocenter Park are free and a 5-minute walk away — do them in one loop.

Tight but doable if your ship is in port a full day. Licensed boat tours leave from Nagasaki Port (a few minutes from Matsugae), run about 3 hours total including roughly 1 hour on the island, and cost 4,000–6,500 yen. Reserve in advance — they sell out, especially weekends. The catch: weather cancels landings on more than half of days in some months. If the swell is up you still get the cruise around the island and a partial refund, but no walking the ruins. Closed-toe shoes are mandatory, and most operators take cash only.

Bring yen. Japan is more cash-friendly than most cruise destinations and Nagasaki is no exception — small restaurants, the Atomic Bomb Museum ticket window, the tram, and most Hashima boat operators are cash-only or cash-preferred. Department stores, chain restaurants, and Glover Garden take cards. The reliable ATM for foreign cards is at any 7-Eleven; there's one near the cruise terminal. Pull 10,000–20,000 yen for the day and you won't be stuck.

Both are short walks from Matsugae and both reward 60–90 minutes. Glover Garden is the hillside compound of preserved Western merchant houses from Nagasaki's late-1800s opening — pretty views over the harbor, covered escalators up the slope so the climb is gentle. Dejima is the reconstructed Dutch trading post that was Japan's only window to the West for 200+ years; it's a flat 10-minute walk from the pier and feels like an open-air history museum. If you only have time for one, Glover Garden has the views, Dejima has the story.

Yes — and it's a 10-minute walk from the pier, no taxi needed. Shinchi Chinatown is small (one of three official Chinatowns in Japan, alongside Yokohama and Kobe), but the local specialty champon — a noodle soup with seafood, pork and vegetables that was invented here in the 1890s — is genuinely a Nagasaki dish, not a tourist invention. Expect 1,000–1,500 yen for a bowl. Skip the explicitly tourist-facing places on the main drag and pick a side street.