Hello Kitty Shopping Adventure Episode 6: Nagasaki

Two months after my short trip to Hiroshima, I was once again on the road, er, in the air, this time heading to the other prefecture that dealt with the atomic bomb during the second world war: Nagasaki.

This trip was not the first time I visited Nagasaki City. The first time was during Silver Week in 2015, and my second visit was in winter of 2017. On both occasions I also toured Fukuoka and Kumamoto, so I was able to see the Kumamoto Castle before and after it was destroyed in the 2016 earthquake.

Anyway, back to Nagasaki. For this trip I planned not only to revisit some of my favorite places like the Dejima Wharf and have a repeat of some of the experiences I truly enjoyed like eating shippoku ryori and riding their trams, but to visit the sightseeing spots that I had to forego during my previous visits, like the Oura Cathedral and the Glover Garden.

In terms of Gotochi Kitty shopping, this trip is different from the other shopping sprees I did, since the items had to be bought even before heading to my hotel. Unlike in my other trips where I managed to stow my luggage at my hotel before I went out shopping, this time I had to immediately shop at the Nagasaki Airport upon arrival because this airport is almost an hour away from the city center and more importantly, I would no longer return here to depart for my next destination.

I arrived at Nagasaki a little past 6 PM on a Saturday, and spent more than 2 hours going through and filling cart after cart with lots of exclusive Hello Kitty Nagasaki and miffy Huis Ten Bosch 30th anniversary items. I was one of the last customers to check out before they closed their shops for that day, hehe.

As a result I arrived at my hotel quite late already (at half past 9 PM), and really tired. Which is why my temper ran off the roof when I learned upon check in that my hotel didn’t have in-room dining service (I stayed at a hotel that is part of a large chain and known to offer in-room dining at their other establishments in and outside of Japan). So, the tired, hungry, and angry me quickly went up to my room as soon as I had my keys, stowed my luggage and the airport purchases, and dashed out to get my late dinner. Thankfully, a Gusto restaurant a few steps away was still open. I would have wanted something different to eat but I settled for an all-too-familiar taste and resigned to waiting for the next morning to get a much nicer meal.

At least my room had a view.

I woke up the next day feeling well rested despite what happened the night before and was able to have a nice buffet breakfast (turns out, my stay came with breakfast) before heading out to Oura Cathedral. While at the restaurant, I was pleasantly surprised to see this small, unassuming souvenir shop right next to the hotel which turned out to be the shop that was recommended to me by the hotel staff for Gotochi Kitty items. 

So, I am guessing you already know what I did immediately after breakfast.

The stop at the Hinomaru souvenir shop was the last Gotochi shopping I did in Nagasaki. The rest of my stay was spent on those places I intended to visit, and taking photos of those spots with my generic pink Starbucks tumbler in them.

I was scheduled to board the express train to Hakata in Fukuoka at noon the following Tuesday, but the typhoon that made landfall in the Kyushu region the night before caused the trip to be delayed by nearly 4 hours.  

Upon arrival at Hakata Station, I decided to apply the same technique I did in Nagasaki: Gotochi Kitty shopping before heading to my hotel. More on that here.

Hi City-Cost Readers! If you have friends from outside of Japan who are interested in exclusive Hello Kitty Japan items, please invite them to check out TokuDeals at https://www.tokudeals.com/ and https://linkpop.com/tokudeals. They are also on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.