Japan
Nagasaki
Nagasaki is a busy and colourful city, but its unfortunate fate as the second atomic bomb target obscures its fascinating early history of contact with the Portuguese and Dutch. 

Ukrami, the epicentre of the atomic explosion, is today a prosperous, peaceful suburb which encompasses the chilling A-Bomb Museum, an evocative reminder of the horror of nuclear destruction; and the Hypocentre Park, which has a black stone column marking the exact point above which the bomb exploded plus relics and ruins from the blast. A bell in the turtle-shaped Fukusai-ji Zen Temple tolls at 11.02 am daily, the time of the explosion. One of the world's biggest Foucault Pendulums (a device which demonstrates the rotation of the earth) hangs inside the temple.

At the southern end of Nagasaki, a number of the former homes of the city's European residents have been reassembled in the hillside Glover Garden. Moving stairways, fountains and goldfish give it the air of a cultural Disneyland, but the houses are attractive and the views across Nagasaki are superb. 

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An hour north of Nagasaki is Huis ten Bosch, an astounding recreation of a Dutch town, complete with windmills, dykes, a replica of the Dutch royal family's residence, tulips and a cheese shop. Amazingly, this is also a residential development with housing for 10,000 people who want to live in a sanitised version of the Netherlands on the southernmost island of Japan.

Getting There:
About 1 hour 50 minutes from Tokyo Haneda Airport to Nagasaki Airport; about 1 hour 10 minutes from Kansai International Airport. About 7 hours from Tokyo Station via Hakata Station (by JR Shinkansen Line) to Nagasaki (by JR Line Limited Express). About 4 hours 25 minutes from Shin Osaka Station via Hakata Station (by JR Shinkansen Line) to Nagasaki (by JR Line Limited Express).

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