Kobe or Nagasaki?

Neither city is a beach destination, and the swimming is much the same in both: a short summer season from July into early September, warm water, and jellyfish towards the end. What differs is how much effort it takes. Kobe's Suma is a long, busy sandy beach about fifteen minutes from the centre by train, so a swim fits easily into an afternoon.

Nagasaki's waterfront is all docks, so you have to go further. Takahama, a clean open-sea bay, is about an hour away by bus, and the small resort beach on Iojima is a short ferry ride from the harbour. Either one takes half a day.

Kobe has the wider range. You can have Kobe beef grilled at a teppanyaki counter, eat your way through a baking and pastry tradition that goes back to the foreign merchants, and taste sake in the Nada breweries. That covers everything from a bakery breakfast to a celebration dinner.

Nagasaki's food is more unusual but narrower. Champon, sara udon, castella and the shippoku banquet show its Chinese, Portuguese and Dutch past, and the local fish is excellent, but there is little fine dining. Both cities have a Chinatown for steamed buns.

Both cities kept a hillside of Western merchant houses from the treaty-port years, but they mean different things in each. In Kobe the ijinkan of Kitano are the heart of the sightseeing. They are scattered along steep residential lanes, with the ancient Ikuta Shrine and the earthquake memorials down by the bay making up most of the rest. Its Chinatown, Nankinmachi, is somewhere to eat rather than somewhere to explore.

In Nagasaki, Glover Garden's houses are grouped on a single slope above the harbour, and they are only one late chapter. The Chinese community left a whole older quarter behind it: the Ming-style Sofukuji, the Confucian shrine, and the temples of Teramachi around the stone Meganebashi bridge. Kobe has nothing like that, and it is why Nagasaki gives a sightseer more days of real substance.

Both are places for a long evening of izakaya and small counter bars rather than dancing, and Kobe has the slight edge. The lanes north of Sannomiya are full of whisky and cocktail bars, and when you want a late, loud night, Osaka is twenty minutes away by train.

Nagasaki's Shianbashi is older and more inward-looking. Its snack bars are built around regulars, and the streets empty well before midnight on most weeknights. Many visitors spend the evening on Mount Inasa for the night view instead.

Kobe has mountains right behind the streets. Trails leave from near Shin-Kobe station past the Nunobiki waterfalls into the Rokko range, serious walkers can follow the ridge traverse, the Suma Alps give a shorter, rugged climb, and ropeways go up to the views over the bay.

Nagasaki's green hills wrap around its harbour, and the view from Mount Inasa at night is among the best in Japan. Its bigger landscapes are further away, though: the steaming volcanic peaks of Unzen are about two hours off, and the wooded islands of Kujukushima are near Sasebo.

Day trips are Kobe's greatest advantage. Himeji Castle, Osaka, Kyoto and Nara are all within about an hour by train, and the shinkansen brings Okayama, Kurashiki and even Hiroshima and Miyajima within reach. A week based here can cover much of western Japan.

Nagasaki's outings are fewer and longer: the boat to the concrete ruins of Hashima, Shimabara's castle and samurai street, Huis Ten Bosch, and the porcelain towns of Arita and Imari. They are distinctive, but most take the whole day, and whether the boat can land on Hashima depends on the weather.

Kobe is the easier family city by a clear margin, mainly because there is more to do and it is all close together. Kobe Animal Kingdom on Port Island puts children among birds and animals indoors, which helps on a hot or wet day. The cable cars up Rokko end at a pasture farm and play areas, and Universal Studios Japan is about an hour away. Baby rooms and child menus are standard.

Nagasaki suits a shorter stay with children. The trams and the Inasa ropeway are fun to ride, the aquarium's penguins waddle out onto their own small beach, and Dejima's miniature town and Glover Garden's moving walkways keep children interested. Its big day out, the rides, canals and light shows of Huis Ten Bosch, means travelling north towards Sasebo. Beyond that, the list of things for children runs out sooner than in Kobe.

Kobe is the easier city to move around in. It is a long, thin strip with JR, Hankyu, Hanshin, the subway and the driverless Port Liner running side by side, all on one IC card. Chinatown, the harbour and the arcades are within walking distance of Sannomiya, and only Kitano involves a steady climb.

Nagasaki's flat-fare tram is charming and simple, linking the station, the Peace Park, Dejima and Oura along the valley floor. Away from that valley floor, though, most journeys turn into long flights of steps that buses can't reach.

Kobe is clearly the better of the two for shopping, because it has a real fashion side and Nagasaki does not. The old foreign settlement around the Daimaru gives it a polished, upmarket quarter, and its specialities are worth seeking out: pearls from a long-standing trade, leather shoes from Nagata, and boxed Western-style cakes. Still, it fills an afternoon or two rather than a whole trip, and keen shoppers go to Osaka for depth.

Nagasaki's shops mostly serve the people who live there, with the Hamanomachi arcade and a mall by the station, and fashion barely features. Where it does well is gifts. Castella from its old bakeries, local glassware and porcelain from Hasami, Mikawachi and nearby Arita make more distinctive souvenirs than its modest streets suggest.

The two cost much the same. Both have clean, compact business hotels and everyday meals that are good value. Where they differ is in what pushes the bill up: in Kobe it is a Kobe beef dinner, shinkansen day trips and a night in an Arima ryokan.

In Nagasaki the extra spending goes on the Hashima boat, the ropeway and evenings of sake and sashimi. Its cheap tram and modest entry fees keep an ordinary day of sightseeing light on the wallet.

Kobe has far more live performance on any given night. Small jazz clubs with resident trios are spread around Sannomiya and Kitano, the Kobe Jazz Street festival fills Kitano each autumn, and the Hyogo Performing Arts Center has its own orchestra. The Takarazuka Revue performs about forty minutes away.

Nagasaki's highlights are festivals: the Kunchi at Suwa Shrine every October and the Lantern Festival around Chinese New Year, both with dragon dances. They are well worth timing a trip around, but at other times there is little to plan for.

Kobe is clearly the better place to rest, because bathing is part of the city itself. At Arima you can try two very different waters, one reddish-brown with iron and one clear and fizzy, at the public bathhouses without booking anything, or settle into a ryokan with a private bath and a kaiseki dinner. Between soaks, the residential lanes of Kitano and the tea rooms and gardens along the foothills show a calmer side than the busy centre suggests.

Nagasaki has little in town beyond a few spring facilities and hotel baths. The onsen towns on the Shimabara peninsula, though, offer a choice of setting that Arima cannot: Obama's scalding springs and long footbath on the shore, or Unzen's mountain air among volcanic vents, which goes well with a hike up Mount Fugen. Back in the city, the harbour sets an easy pace.