Kagoshima, Japan

March 6, 2008

We have been traveling to several ports these last few days. Sorry that we are a little behind on the blog. We arrived in Kagoshima, Japan on February 29, 2008. This was the maiden stop at this port for the Pacific Princess. The dock area was brand new, just finished last September. Everything was very clean and organized. In the morning we decided to go into the city by ourselves. We went to the center of the city to an area with a beautiful shopping arcade and had a traditional Japanese lunch. Most of the local people did not speak English, but they provided a picture menu for ordering food items. They also provided passengers with little printed out notes to give to taxi drivers in order to get back to the port area.

In the afternoon we took a city tour that included an overlook view of the city, shopping, and a visit to a distillery where they made a sweet potato and rice wine. After the tour when we returned to the ship, the local people presented a drum dance as a send off for the ship. The weather temperature here had also dropped down to the mid 50s, so that was quite cool for all of us.

After we left there was one day at sea and then we arrived in Shanghai.