In this section I'll cover our last six ports in Japan and then I'll move on to the three ports in Taiwan.

Nagasaki is a city of 400,000 on the  island of Kyushu, Japan

We had a two stay in Nagasaki but unfortunately the weather was on the rainy side so we were limited in our explorations.  As I'm sure most of you know Nagasaki was the site of the second atomic bomb that killed 70,000 people and that sealed the fate of Japan.  The history of Nagasaki is interesting in that during Japan's period of isolation in the 16th and 17th century Nagasaki was the only gateway with the west with Dutch trading partners.  After having seen the horrors of the Hiroshima bombing we decided to skip the Nagasaki bombing site and instead opted for a pleasant place to visit.  Glover Garden was a short walk from the ship.  Its an open-air museum featuring Western-style residences of 19th-century merchants and great city views.  Fortunately it was spared any damage from the bombings and most of the building are original from the early 1800s.  From top to bottom, left to right - Urakami Catherdal on walk to garden, entrance area of Glover Garden, sign describing dock house (dormitory) and dock house, murals and water sculpture, Glover House and bust of Thomas Glover, Japanese garden and outdoor cafe, and finally Nagasaki Harbor and the VVR Odyssey's smoke stack.

Kagoshima is a city of 600,000 onthe southern tip of Kyushu.