In the wee hours of the morning, we entered the long gulf leading to Kagoshima and made our first sighting of Japan. In the moonlight, we could even make out the shape of a volcano at the head of the gulf.

Kagoshima had a nice wharf with a large area of reclaimed land that has been turned into parks and gardens.

Our tour was up into the mountains south of Kagoshima, where we visited the small town of Chiran. Here we visited the Kamikaze Museum, which had a few aircraft as well as displays of memorabilia left by the Kamikaze Pilots.

Next, we visited the Samurai Houses, a group of seven authentic houses, hundreds of years old, which still belonged to descendants of the original Samurai and featured beautiful Japanese Gardens.

Before the ship departed from Kagoshima, we were treated to a wonderful performance by the Kamimura Gakuen High School Band and they continued playing as the ship pulled away from the dock.