Caroline Kennedy presented Emperor Akihito with her credentials to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan on Tuesday, following a traditional procession aired live on national television.

Thousands of onlookers cheered the ambassador — the first female ambassador from the U.S. — as she rode up to the Imperial Palace in a horse-drawn carriage, a custom for newly arrived ambassadors.

Kennedy, whose father President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago this week, has drawn stardom attention. Her father, who fought in the Pacific during WWII, had planned to be the first sitting president to visit the country before his death.

[CNN]