We will be on a cruise that stops for one day in Nagasaki.
Do we need to take the ship's excursion (which is expensive) or can we manage on our own? We will be at the port, which isn't at the center of Nagasaki.
I guess we will want to get to the Peace Memorial Park and the Atomic Bomb Museum.
Thanks for any advice and/or any other suggestions.

Sylvia

No, you don't need to take the ship's excursion. You can manage it on your own. The excursion would have the benefit of expediting your trip. But Nagasaki looks like it is quite manageable (I will know for sure a month from now).

You can get around town by streetcar and you can get a day pass for only 500 yen (US $4.72).

There is a nice movie about Nagasaki prefecture on the following page:

http://www.pref.nagasaki.jp/naisnet/en/movie/index.html

One shot is from a boat entering harbor.
Much of the movie is about Nagasaki city, but other places in it (Unzen, Shimabara, Goto) would be too far for your day visit.

http://www.ngs-kenkanren.com/eng/
http://www.pref.nagasaki.jp/naisnet/en/
http://www.frommers.com/destinations...947010002.html

You might consider having a dinner called <i>shippoku</i>.

We just returned from a similar cruise. We, too, did Nagasaki on our own. Like the previous poster said, we purchased a day pass on the street car and visited the Peace Park, the Atomic Bomb Museum, plus Glover Gardens. The day was very enjoyable plus much cheaper than the ship's excursion.

Thank you both so much. This gave me the confidence to go on our own.
And mrwunrfl, those websites are great! We'll travel with plenty of information.

Have either of you been to Pusan or Kuantan? Those are two other stops on our cruise that I'm a little concerned about. The larger cities we will certainly do on our own.

Sylvia in Philly

Sorry for the delay in answering. Our cruise also stopped in Pusan. There was not much to do there. We walked around the town and the fish market. It might be a good place to take a tour.