Hamanomachi Arcade

Hamanomachi is the commercial heart of downtown Nagasaki, a network of covered shopping arcades that has been the city's principal retail district for generations. Centred on Hamamachi and the intersecting Kanko-dori, the arcades form a roofed, pedestrianised grid of several hundred metres, sheltering shoppers from Nagasaki's frequent rain and summer heat alike. For a first-time visitor it is the natural downtown anchor: almost every tram line converges nearby, and from Hamanomachi you can reach Chinatown, the Nakashima River stone bridges, Shianbashi's nightlife and the Dutch Slope within a short, mostly covered walk.

The district's history mirrors Nagasaki's own. As the only port open to foreign trade during Japan's long period of national seclusion, Nagasaki was for centuries an unusually cosmopolitan city, and the streets around Hamanomachi grew up as the merchant quarter that handled the wealth flowing through the port. The arcade in its modern covered form dates from the post-war decades, but the commercial pulse it channels is far older, and the area still mixes long-established local businesses with the department stores and chain shops of a regional capital.

Walking the arcade today, you pass a thorough cross-section of Japanese urban retail: fashion boutiques and shoe shops, drugstores and cosmetics counters, bookshops, cafes, a hundred-yen store or two, and—more characterfully—old confectioners selling Nagasaki's famous castella sponge cake, Chinese-influenced sweets, and the local hybrid foods that reflect the city's trading past. The Hamaya department store and the Yumesaito and Belna complexes give the district its retail weight, while narrow side lanes peel off toward smaller izakaya, ramen shops and champon restaurants.

Hamanomachi's real value to the traveller is as a hub rather than a destination in itself. Because it is covered and central, it is the obvious place to base an afternoon of downtown exploring, especially given Nagasaki's rainy reputation. From its edges you step almost immediately into Shinchi Chinatown, Japan's oldest, with its ornate gates and champon noodle houses; a couple of minutes the other way brings you to the Nakashima River, where a string of old stone bridges—including the famous double-arched Megane "Spectacles" Bridge—crosses the water. Kanko-dori, the tram-lined avenue that bisects the arcade, carries you toward Suwa Shrine and the temple district of Teramachi to the north, or down toward Dejima and the harbour to the south.

In the evening the arcade stays lively as workers finish for the day and the restaurants fill; the adjacent Shianbashi quarter then takes over as the city's after-dark playground. Seasonal events animate the district too—during the Nagasaki Lantern Festival in late winter the whole downtown, including the arcades and nearby Chinatown, is hung with thousands of glowing Chinese lanterns, and Hamanomachi becomes a river of light and crowds.

Practically, the arcade could not be easier to reach: the Kanko-dori and Shianbashi tram stops sit right at its entrances, served by several of Nagasaki's charming old streetcars for a flat, cheap fare. Come to shop, to eat, or simply to orient yourself; spend an hour browsing and sampling castella, then use Hamanomachi as the dry, central springboard from which to strike out to Nagasaki's more famous sights.