West Nagasaki · Goto IslandsNo.1218★★Open in map →
Goto Islands
The ferry terminal on Fukue is the single door into the Goto archipelago off western Nagasaki, and the boats out to the smaller islands leave from the same hall. The churches that made these islands a World Heritage site start from here.
- FromNagasaki Station
- ~1 hr 25 min by jetfoilJetfoil from Nagasaki Port
- Get off atFukue Port Terminal (Kyushu Shosen jetfoil)
- From there
- Goto Islands
The sweet spot
These islands are well known in Japan, and the churches appear on most Nagasaki itineraries. What thins the crowd is the crossing: open water each way turns a casual stop into a planned trip. The World Heritage interiors also ask for advance notice, so the people who get inside them are the people who decided to.
Where it is
Open Nagasaki in the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Fukue Port Terminalthe arrival hall, holding the tourist information desk and the counters for the inter-island boats
- Ishida Castle sitethe Goto clan's shoreline castle, once ringed on three sides by the sea, now a high school and a garden
- Dozaki Churcha brick church on the northeast shore of Fukue, its interior now a museum of the island's Christian history
- Former Gorin Church on Hisakaa wooden chapel on the east coast of Hisaka, reached by boat and listed as an Important Cultural Property
- Egami Church on Narua small wooden church in a wooded hollow, the centrepiece of one World Heritage component
How to actually get there
- Nagasaki Station → Ohato tram stop (Nagasaki Electric Tramway), then a short walk to Nagasaki Port Terminal.
- Nagasaki Port Terminal → Fukue Port Terminal (Kyushu Shosen jetfoil about 1 hr 25 min, or ferry about 3 hr 10 min).
- Collect the ticket at the window before boarding, and confirm the day's last return sailing once you land at Fukue.
- From Fukue Port Terminal, take an island bus or a rental car out to Dozaki, or an inter-island boat to Hisaka or Naru.
- Jetfoil from Nagasaki Port, via the Ohato tram stop
- Nagasaki Station →(Nagasaki Electric Tramway to Ohato, then a short walk)→ Nagasaki Port Terminal, then the Kyushu Shosen jetfoil to Fukue Port, about 1 hr 25 min. The slower ferry on the same route takes about 3 hr 10 min. Tickets booked online or by phone still have to be issued at the terminal window before boarding, so arrive with time in hand.
- Return crossing to Nagasaki
- The same jetfoil and ferry run back to Nagasaki Port from Fukue Port Terminal. Sailings are few compared with a rail line and the timetable shifts with the season, so check the day's last departure at the counter when you arrive rather than when you leave.
About the place
The Goto archipelago lies in the East China Sea, off the western edge of Nagasaki Prefecture. Five islands carry almost all of its land — Fukue, Hisaka, Naru, Wakamatsu and Nakadori — and local usage splits them into a lower group and an upper group. More than fifty Catholic churches stand across the chain. Fukue is the largest island, and Fukue Port Terminal is where arrivals land. The jetfoil from Nagasaki ties up here, and so do the ferries out to Hisaka, Naru and the smaller islands. Ticket windows, the tourist information desk and the souvenir counters are all in the one building.
How to enjoy it
The jetfoil crossing runs about an hour and twenty-five minutes each way, which makes a same-day return possible but tight; one night on Fukue turns the church circuit from a sprint into a day. Arrange the church visit and the inter-island boat in the same sitting, because the World Heritage interiors are opened only for visitors who have contacted the information centre beforehand. Jetfoils are the first sailings cancelled in rough weather, so keep a ferry or a flight in reserve.
Background & history
Christianity was banned in Japan for more than two centuries, and believers on the Nagasaki mainland kept their faith out of sight. From 1797, when the Goto domain agreed with the Omura domain to take in settlers, hidden Christians from the Sotome coast crossed to these islands and cleared land on the margins of existing villages. After the ban lifted they built churches on those sites. Four of the twelve components of the Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki Region World Heritage listing are in this archipelago.
Before you go
- Cash
- Boat tickets are sold at the terminal counters, and jetfoil seats can be reserved online in advance — reserved tickets are still collected at the window before boarding. The terminal holds a convenience store, souvenir shops and coin lockers, so it is the last easy place to stock up before the smaller islands.
- Good to know
- Jetfoils are suspended first when the sea is rough and the ferry can follow, so a windy forecast is a real risk to the schedule. Church interiors are closed during Mass, weddings and funerals, and photography inside them is not permitted.
- Another way
- By air, Oriental Air Bridge and ANA reach Goto Tsubaki Airport from Nagasaki in about 30 minutes and from Fukuoka in about 40. From Fukuoka there is also the Nomo Shosen overnight ferry out of Hakata Port, roughly 8 hr 30 min by way of Naru.
- After you get off
- The terminal is itself the arrival point. Ticket windows and the tourist information desk are on the ground floor, the ferry boarding deck and a lookout are on the floor above, and the jetfoil pier is a short walk out of the ground-floor exit.