Higashiyamate Dutch Slope District

Higashiyamate, together with neighbouring Minamiyamate, forms the old foreign settlement of Nagasaki, the hillside district where Western merchants, diplomats and missionaries made their homes after Japan reopened to foreign trade in the mid-nineteenth century. Its cobbled lanes are known collectively as the "Dutch Slopes" (Oranda-zaka)—a name that reflects the local habit, in that era, of calling all Westerners "Dutch," a hangover from the two centuries when the Netherlands was the only European nation permitted to trade with a secluded Japan. Climbing these stone-paved slopes, past preserved wooden Western-style houses looking out over the harbour, is one of the most atmospheric walks in the city.

When Nagasaki was opened as a treaty port in 1859, foreigners were granted this hillside quarter overlooking the water. They built clapboard and colonial-style houses with verandahs and shuttered windows, laid out stone-paved roads and drainage, and established schools, churches and consulates. The district became a little enclave of nineteenth-century international life, and although fire, war and time have thinned the original building stock, a number of the early Western residences survive, several of them preserved as small museums or open houses that you can enter to see how the foreign community lived.

The distinctive stone paving is itself part of the story. The slopes were cobbled with flat stones—said in local lore to include stone brought as ballast in the holds of trading ships—giving them a texture and appearance quite unlike an ordinary Japanese street. Worn smooth by generations of feet, shaded by trees and bordered by old walls, the Dutch Slopes have a gentle, faintly European melancholy that has made them a favourite subject for photographers and painters.

Higashiyamate sits directly alongside Nagasaki's most famous foreign-settlement sights, and the natural way to visit is as a connected walk. Just over the shoulder of the hill lie Glover Garden, the open-air museum of grand merchant mansions including the residence of the Scottish trader Thomas Glover, and Oura Church, the oldest surviving Christian church in Japan and a National Treasure. A sensible route climbs the Dutch Slopes of Higashiyamate for the views and the preserved houses, then crosses to Oura Church and descends through Glover Garden, tying the whole foreign-settlement story into a single memorable outing.

The reward for the climb—and it is a genuine climb, on steep cobbles that can be slippery when wet, so decent shoes are wise—is the view. From the upper lanes and the terraces of the preserved houses, Nagasaki's long, mountain-ringed harbour opens out below, the same anchorage that drew Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese and finally all the world's traders to this remarkable city. Morning light, before the day's haze builds, is the best time for photographs.

Access is easy: tram Line 5 runs to its terminus at Ishibashi, at the foot of the slopes, from where the cobbled lanes begin within a few minutes' walk. Allow an hour to wander the Dutch Slopes themselves, more if you combine them—as most visitors sensibly do—with Oura Church and Glover Garden into a half-day exploring the hillside where Nagasaki met the wider world.