Kanazawa or Nagasaki?

Neither is a beach city, but Nagasaki makes a swim slightly easier. Takahama on the Nomo coast is a clean sandy bay facing the open sea, and Iojima's small resort beach is just a ferry ride from the harbour, with a season running into early September.

Kanazawa's long, plain sands at Uchinada and Chirihama are close by, yet they only really work in July and August and turn windswept and grey for the rest of the year.

Kanazawa is the richer food city. Omicho Market's seafood bowls, winter snow crab, nodoguro and jibuni duck stew run from simple counters to kaiseki tables, and its tea-ceremony past brings wagashi and serious Kaga sake.

Nagasaki's cooking is more distinctive than refined: champon, sara udon, castella and the shippoku banquet carry the city's Chinese and European past. It is easy and satisfying to eat there, but the range is narrower and fine dining is scarce.

Both cities hold two or three days of first-rate sights, but they speak to very different interests. Kanazawa escaped wartime bombing, so its appeal is the intact Edo-period townscape: Kenroku-en, the castle walls, Higashi Chaya's teahouses and Nagamachi's samurai lanes, with contemporary art at the 21st Century Museum.

Nagasaki is about history of a heavier kind: the Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park, Dejima's Dutch trading post, Glover Garden and Oura Cathedral, plus Chinese temples and Chinatown. One is beauty and craft; the other is memory and encounter.

Evenings are quiet in both, built around izakaya and small bars rather than clubs. Kanazawa's Katamachi and Kigura-machi lean towards sake and whisky bars, with a few in old wooden houses by the river. Nagasaki's Shianbashi has more karaoke and regulars-only snack bars, and many visitors trade a bar crawl for the night view from Mount Inasa.

The outdoors is close in quality but different in shape. Nagasaki's is part of the city itself: a steep green harbour bowl, the ropeway up Mount Inasa, and the volcanic peaks and steaming hells of Unzen about two hours off.

Kanazawa's city nature is gentler, river paths along the Sai and Asano and low wooded hills, with the alpine country of Mount Hakusan and the Noto coast further out and mostly needing a car. Its snowy winters bring skiing, which Nagasaki lacks.

Kanazawa has the stronger list of outings. Shirakawa-go's thatched gassho farmhouses lie an hour and a quarter away by bus, Gokayama and Takayama follow, and the Shinkansen brings Takaoka's Zuiryu-ji within half an hour, with Eihei-ji and the Kaga spa towns also in reach.

Nagasaki's headline is the boat out to Hashima's concrete ruins, which depends on the weather. Shimabara, Unzen, Huis Ten Bosch and the porcelain towns of Arita and Imari round it out, but several are long days.

Both are safe, clean and easy with children, and the difference lies in the details. Kanazawa offers the playful 21st Century Museum and the ninja temple's trick doors, but its gardens and teahouses can feel slow to the young.

Nagasaki has more built-in fun, with trams, the Inasa ropeway, the Penguin Aquarium and Huis Ten Bosch, yet its stairway streets are hard work with a pushchair and the bomb museum needs care with younger children.

Nagasaki is the easier city to get around. Its flat-fare trams run along the valley floor past nearly every sight, so a car is pointless; the effort comes only when you leave the trams for the hillside steps.

Kanazawa's sights sit within a walkable 2km band on level streets, but there is no tram or metro, and the loop buses can be slow and crowded. Snow makes winter walking harder, though bike-share helps the rest of the year.

Kanazawa is much the better place to shop. Nearly all of Japan's gold leaf comes from here, and the chaya districts and the prefectural craft centre sell Kutani porcelain, Kaga yuzen silk, Ohi tea bowls and lacquer from serious makers, with Tatemachi and Korinbo for fashion.

Nagasaki's Hamanomachi arcade covers everyday needs, and the worthwhile buys are castella, glassware and porcelain from Hasami, Mikawachi and Arita.

Costs are much alike, with spotless business hotels and cheap lunches in both. Nagasaki's spending builds up around the Hashima boats, the ropeway and sashimi evenings, while in Kanazawa it is kaiseki dinners, snow crab and ryokan stays in the spa towns, plus Shinkansen and Shirakawa-go fares.

Kanazawa has far more to see on stage. Noh plays regularly at the prefectural theatre, geisha dance and shamisen can be seen in the chaya districts, and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa gives a full chamber season beside the station.

Nagasaki's great performances are festivals rather than a programme: Kunchi at Suwa Shrine every October and the Lantern Festival around Chinese New Year. Outside those dates there is little to plan an evening around.

For bathing and calm, Kanazawa has the advantage. Yuwaku Onsen is half an hour into the hills, the Kaga spa towns are about an hour away, and many hotels have their own hot-spring baths for a daily soak.

Nagasaki's real onsen, Obama's seaside footbath and the mountain spa of Unzen, are on the Shimabara peninsula and best done overnight. In the city itself, quiet hillside temples and harbour walks set the slower pace.