Today we took a one day tour of Kyoto. We joined the bus at the Hotel Okura which was only half a block's walk from our hotel.We visited Nijo Castle, Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion) and the Imperial Palace before a Japanese Style lunch at the Kyoto Handicraft Centre.After lunch, we visited Heian Jingu Shrine, Sanjusangendo Temple and Kiyomizu dera Temple for a panoramic view of Kyoto and the surrounding hills.

This morning we disembarked at Yokohama and caught a taxi to Shin Yokohama Station. From here, we took a Shinkansen to Kyoto Station and then a taxi to our hotel, the Kyoto Royal Hotel and Spa. We were able to leave our bags, but it was too early to check in to the room, so we killed a few hours walking the local area.We found the river, the City Hall and a couple of long narrow market streets before it was time to check in. The room was a little disappointing...

Today, was a day at sea headed towards our final destination, Yokohama. We spent the day doing the laundry, repacking our belongings and relaxing.

We arrived in Osaka about 2:00pm and were given a great welcome. First, there was a water jet display from a fire fighting vessel as we approached the dock and secondly, there was another high school band playing on the pier. Given that it was Saturday, I was very impressed by the students' enthusiastic performance.Our tour took us to the beautiful Osaka Castle which is surrounded by incredible rock lined moats. The walk in was through large stands of Cherry...

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 ai...