William Kumamoto New Port, which provides ferries to Nagasaki’s Shimabara peninsula, is too shallow for cruise ships. Yatsushiro Port handles large shipping container vessels but lacked facilities for tourists. This was rectified by a Kumamon-themed passenger facility funded by the national and prefectural governments and the US cruise ship company Royal Caribbean and completed, as bad timing might have it pandemically-speaking, in March 2020. Kumanichi reports on the port’s first usage by a cruise ship, the Nippon Maru, for Kagoshima and Yakushima, which departed on the 30th. While the line is designed to attract foreign tourists (elderly people love cruises!), this was entirely domestic. Given that Kumamoto Station is only ten minutes from Yatsushiro by Shinkansen (in itself an attraction), more tourists from abroad can be expected as pandemic restrictions are lifted. Below are links to the Kumanichi article and the Kumamoto Tourism Guide Website (Kumamon galore). https://kumanichi.com/articles/673357 https://kumamoto.guide/en/season/detail/88