Nagasaki Catholic Church & Pilgrimage Sites - Half Day Tour

From UN peace work to JNTO projects—your Nagasaki expert guide with heart. Hi, I’m Yuki — a Nagasaki-born guide and storyteller, passionate about connecting people, history, and culture through heartfelt storytelling. With over 20 years of experience in tourism and cultural exchange — from assisting peace projects at the United Nations to promoting Japan and Nagasaki through projects with the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) and the Nagasaki Prefectural Government — I offer travelers an insightful, authentic, and deeply personal experience of Nagasaki and beyond. My goal as a guide is to help you experience Nagasaki not just as a destination, but as a living story — a city that has overcome tragedy, embraced diversity, and continues to inspire peace and creativity. I grew up around 500 meters away from the hypocenter of the atomic bombing and attended an elementary school that survived the atomic bombing. As such it had a very unique peace education program. We learned directly from survivors, sang songs, and performed plays about peace every month. Those early experiences inspired my lifelong passion to share Nagasaki’s story — not only of loss, but also of resilience, coexistence, and hope. At college, I majored in cross-cultural studies and historical Nagasaki studies, exploring the city’s role as Japan’s only open international port during its isolation period and how cultural exchange shaped its open-minded spirit. After graduation, I moved to New York and spent seven years studying international relations and working with NGOs and the United Nations, supporting atomic bomb survivors and collaborating with peace advocates, governments, and artists who shared a vision of a more compassionate world. Returning to Japan, I worked at the Atomic Bomb Museum as a secretariat staff for international conferences, supporting global dialogues on peace. I then joined the Nagasaki Prefectural Government’s tourism division, where I promoted Nagasaki’s World Heritage sites, created multilingual tourism materials, and invited and guided VIP guests, travel experts, food professionals, film directors, and international media representatives such as Lonely Planet and National Geographic. Later, at JNTO, I was responsible for evaluating more than 2,000 unique travel experiences throughout Japan for a national project introducing “100 Experiences in Japan.” I provided advice to national and local governments and the travel industry, and conducted training sessions for tour guides on how to share their regional stories effectively with international visitors. Now, after years of global and national experience, I’m back home in Nagasaki — doing what I love most: guiding travelers through this beautiful city filled with history, faith, art, and heart. Nagasaki is a place of remarkable contrasts: influenced by many cultures yet deeply Japanese,scarred marked by history yet full of warmth and creativity. I would love to take you beyond the guidebooks — to the hidden stories, local flavors, and unforgettable encounters that make Nagasaki so special. Let’s explore the soul of Nagasaki together, and create moments that connect you deeply to Japan.