A cloudy and cool day greets us as we awake on our way to Kagoshima.  Normal morning routine, then quick like a bunny off the ship to get in the shuttle line – we don’t even bother with the welcome ceremony today.  Even though we really have nothing planned for today but a couple of museums and lunch, we still don’t want to get caught in shuttle line hell – so out we go, around the corner of the port building to the shuttle stop.  Again, one of the first on and the first shuttle out of the pier. 

We’re in town a little before 10 and on our way through the city, passing the hospital with the “Doctor Car” out front – easy way to say Ambulance, we suppose!  Through town, past Chou park where we missed the HoHo bus by a minute on our last visit and then across the street to the Cultural Center and Community Center square, where we were hoping to get more pictures of the little Akita dog that was placed there across from the Saigo Takamori statue (he loved his Akita pups).  But weirdly, the dog statue is gone.  Saigo is still there.  The statue of Komatsu Tatewaki (the local scholar who made great contributions to the Meiji Restoration) is there – and some other random statue – but no puppy.  Bummer.

Oh well – off to the Kagoshima City Art Museum, right across the street.  Housed in a massive building, the museum itself is rather small but has a great collection – Matisse, Warhol, lots of others – and an equally good special exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s prints.  Kusama is considered one of the most important living artists to come from Japan. The exhibition focuses on her print work, which is abstract expressionism.  She has had mental health issues since a child – and is quite open about discussing them – which is how she started drawing. She began with pumpkins (she loves pumpkins) and continued on drawing the hallucinations she had as a way of dealing with them. Trained in Kyoto, she made her debut in New York in 1958, embracing the hippie culture and pop-art scene, and making a name for herself.  The prints here are all visually engaging and mostly fun and puzzle-like with their use of interconnecting backgrounds. Again, no photos – so the brochure will have to do!

Oh – and they have a dog statue in the lobby of which we can take pictures! I mistakenly was thinking it was the akita pup from outside on the square, but when we looked at the signage – no – it was actually Hachi, the loyal dog who waited at the train station every single day for its owner to return.  There is a movie about the dog and owner – the ship just showed it (we did not see it because it was on a port day, of course!) but still.  Sad, sweet, poignant.  Probably still won’t watch the movie. 

Next up, the Reimeikan Museum of Culture located on the site of the Kagoshima Castle ruins. Built for the commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the Meiji era, we enter through the reconstructed Goroman Gate, and proceed up to the more modern museum building.  Inside the covered entrance way, there are displays and explanations of the careful reconstruction of the gate and how the layers of materials were used to replicate the authentic gate.  Plus one of those cool roof tiles used to chase off demons or what have you and an ubiquitous Shiusarako fish tail. This museum is as massive as the building in which it is housed!  Again – no pictures in places, we think, so we snap where we can and where no one yells at us (or just doesn’t see us!).  The entryway contains a geographic and historical look at the location of Kagoshima, moving you through time with huge dioramas and historical artifacts. There is a great diorama of a mid-century street scene with people shopping and walking along.  There was also a really interesting exhibit on swords – with all sorts of detail about the length, makeup and wrapping of a the traditional Japanese Katana.  And then a whole room about the festivals held for fishing and crop protection.  All extremely interesting and worth the visit.

Culture done – it’s time for lunch.  Traveling through the streets of Kagoshima, looking at all the different – old and new – architecture and finding yet another manhole cover, we make our way toward the area known as “gourmet street” only to find it was mostly bars and nothing much was open. 

Fortunately we were right near a large shopping arcade and area with restaurants, so we researched a bit and found a restaurant that looked good. But as things will be in Japan, the translation on the map in English didn’t help us with the name on the building in Japanese (the translations weren’t really working) and we ended up at another place because who the hell knows what the names of these places are!  We think the restaurant we wanted was actually upstairs, but at this point, we are hungry and don’t want to mess around anymore.  Ground floor restaurant done.

Only we don’t quite know how to actually get a table.  A bunch of people are waiting, and we sort of figure out we need to get a ticket from the machine by the door.  Luckily a sweet girl manning the take out counter helped us. We had to enter the number in your party then take the numbered slip that the machine spit out.  We then sat on one of the provided benches and waited as a woman came out and yelled the next number with a table available.  Of course she’s yelling in Japanese. We have 53. Who the hell knows what that sounds like?  Again, the sweet take out counter girl helped – and just as I was translating 53 to hear what it sounded like, the lady called us.  Phew.  We’re in!

It’s a popular place this whatever the name of the place is.  And the food was delicious.  Excellent Udon noodles (hot, thank you very much) with tempura shrimp for me and a chicken for Ed. So good!  And what an experience. Totally fun!!!

Kagoshima explorations done. Shuttle to the ship.  Hop aboard, we’re happy campers taking pictures of Mt. Sakurajima across the water.  No real eruption for us today – just a little bit of smoke – still makes for excellent photos and wonderful end to our port day.

The farewell performance is wonderful – even if they are all dressed up for Halloween, oh what we have wrought on the world!  Besides that though, the performers are amazing with their drums.  Drumming from the ground, Precision drumming , how do they synchronize so well?  Drumming, drumming and more drumming – finishing with a sort of drumming circle where everyone takes their turn in perfect synchronization . Great show.  We love watching them all – and the most adorable little 5 or 6 year old with the huge camera down there with his dad (who also has a camera) taking pictures.  So adorable!

During all this time, we have been chatting with a lovely couple from Canada, Byron and Kelly, who recently moved back there after 19 years in France.  Wow!  So interesting.  They are lovely to chat with and we have fun watching the drummers – but also the staff because we are obviously missing people.  They are pacing back and forth by the gangway, running into the port building to double check for passengers, but nothing.  Eventually a cab arrives – driving right up to the ship in front of the performers – with the 4 people who are extraordinarily late.  Three hop out and head to the gangway pointing at the cab like it was his fault. One guy stays in the cab and he is obviously arguing about the charge.  Come on buddy! You got an entire ship of 1800 people waiting on you while you try to negotiate down this guy?  The senior staff actually goes over there and finally the guy gets aboard and the lines finally start to be released.  Phew. 

And then we are off, sailing away with Sakurajima fading off into the distance. 

Evening activities commence with dinner tonight in Canaletto.  Excellent as always. Veal chop for me. Sea bass for Ed. Hazelnut tart take home for tomorrow!   Dinner takes long enough that we don’t make the show – but it is the magician, missing him doesn’t bother us.  Grabbing drinks from Arvin at the Lido bar, we immediately retreat to our cabin to hide. It is Orange night!  Yikes, the bar crawl, the party.  Nah.  Our balcony is calling us….along with a cute little special treat we find on our bed:  Mini Stroopwafels.  Sweet!  Our favorite!  We’ve never had those onboard before – nice touch to end a very good day.