Trip Report: Kagoshima (2 days in December)

Hi everyone! Big thanks to everyone in this subreddit, especially the mods and helpful frequent travelers who ask questions, and also all the positive people.

I went to Japan for a month in December, but most of the places I went have been discussed exhaustively on this sub — there’s no shortage of really great advice on what to do and how to do it in basically everywhere in the country. But, there are a few places I went on my trip where there’s just a little bit less information, so I thought I’d share what Kagoshima was like, since I really liked it.

About Me: this was Japan Trip #4 since 2017, the shortest of which was three weeks, and I started learning Japanese (slowly) about five years ago. Obviously I really like being in Japan, and I tend to have fun even if I don’t have much of an itinerary, and I plan to return many times and even buy a house one day. So, I don’t really have great itineraries and I’m not a great planner, but I can help a little bit if anyone is wondering “hey should I go here? is it worth it? is it cool?” I hope it helps someone many months from now who types “Kagoshima” into the search bar.

Anyway **Kagoshima** \- 5/5 stars highly recommend. For the unfamiliar, Kagoshima is located on the southern tip of Kyushu, and the main attraction is the big, active volcano (Sakurajima) just outside of town. It’s really pretty and dominates the coastal view in a really cool way. I think people often come here in order to visit Yakushima’s forests (the island south of Kyushu with all the cedar that earned the coveted “three circles” on Japan Guide) but I just stayed in the city.

**Getting here -** Super easy if you have a JR Pass. Just hop on a Shinkansen from any Kyushu Shinkansen station. On this particular trip, I went from Yufuin to Kurume via local train (shoutout the [Yufuin No Mori](https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/train/yufuin_no_mori.html), for anyone who likes sightseeing trains this **is** covered by the JR Pass and was not crowded in December) and then to Kagoshima. It’s an hour and a half from Hakata Station (Fukuoka) to Kagoshima-Chuo Station. Very easy and worthwhile day trip. Without a JR Pass, Google says it’s roughly 10,000 yen one-way.

You can walk from Kagoshima Chuo to Tenmonkan, where I stayed. I took the tram when I got there, which was actually less convenient than just walking (I discovered this when I walked back to the station from the Airbnb the day I left).

**Lodging -** I stayed in an Airbnb in Tenmonkan, the main shopping area in town. It was $35 per night for a small apartment with two twin beds (I stayed by myself), a small kitchen and shower, and a washing machine (critical for me, I do laundry). I ate yakiniku on back-to-back nights because I am a savage, and both were easily within walking distance of the apartment (like barely 5-10 minutes walk, no train/tram). There were *tons* of shops on the streets around where I stayed, but I did no shopping so I can only speak to the variety not the quality.

**What I did -** Day 1 I checked in and then played basketball with the Airbnb host at a local junior high school gym. Day 2 I went to Sakurajima via ferry, went to Senganen, went out to dinner. On the day I left, I stopped in Kumamoto on the way back to Hakata.

Visiting Sakurajima was really fun. You take a ferry from the Kagoshima ferry port (easily walkable from Tenmonkan, maybe 10 minutes on foot, and very pleasant if the weather is nice, which it usually is). The ferry boarding experience was oddly unregulated (at first I thought it was closed) — it’s not like there were *no* staff or ticket takers or anything, but compared to the Miyajima Ferry, where it felt like there was a Japanese staff member every 40 feet telling me which side to walk on, which gate to board, and when and how to exit, there were very few staffers. I’m assuming that during other times of the year it must be more crowded, but it was an oddly isolated experience. Anyway, if the ferry is similarly not crowded, you can get great pictures of the island as you approach and of the city behind you.

There are lots of walking paths around the island near the ferry port, as well as some slightly more challenging hikes up on the volcano itself. You can’t get that close to the summit / volcanic mouth (for obvious reasons) so I don’t think it would be super satisfying for an advanced-level climber/hiker, but for my novice ass it was quite comfortable. I met a friendly guy from Czech and we walked around together and went to the observatory. (He and I were both tall and were asked for pictures from students on field trips — ngl that made me feel good about myself.) The views were awesome — the city skyline across the bay, the volcano stretching up behind you, the beach and the forest between the two … highly recommend, very fun day overall.

My host and new basketball friends did tell me that the volcanic ash tends to blow out (away from the city) in winter, but in (toward the city) in summer. So winter, when the weather is comparatively warmer than the rest of Japan and the ash is not as prevalent, is a great time to go. I didn’t notice any ash at all the whole time, but Tenmonkan (the main shopping area) is almost completely covered, because the ash gets pretty bad in the summer.

There is a cool Japanese garden ([Senganen](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4602.html)) on the Kagoshima side of the bay, which is very pretty. It looks exactly like the photos on Japan Guide, so if you look at those pictures and think “that looks cool”, then you’ll probably like it. It’s a lot smaller and less spacious than something like [Korakuen](https://www.okayama-japan.jp/en/spot/91) or [Kenrokuen](https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4200.html), but because the layout is a little more longitudinal (as opposed to a big square), it kind of feels like you don’t know what you might see next in each part of the garden. I am not thoughtful nor a great photographer and I am also kind of impatient, and I still managed to enjoy it, so those of you who are into gardens would probably really like it.

I did not go to the Sakurajima observatory in town, but I asked my new Czech friend about it (he had been earlier in the day) and he said “it basically looks like the view we have now” (we were at the garden). I didn’t feel like I missed much, since I had gotten many great views already.

**Eating -**

Dinner #1 – I did my best to reverse engineer where I ate from the picture I took, but Google Maps just has it as a parking lot. I’ll update this later if I find it.

Dinner #2 – [Gyu Do!](https://goo.gl/maps/DWQAmQtDzi1W1Exv7) \- 4.2 stars and $$$ on Google Maps. Good presentation, helpful staff (this is hard for me to judge bc although my Japanese is pretty bad, I can get by with no English support or menus at restaurants — however, I’m pretty sure they spoke a little English), made a reservation online (in English) earlier in the day, got there when they opened. Presentation was great but honestly the less-heralded, cheaper yakiniku I had for Dinner #1 was just as good.

**Verdict -**

**I had a great time and 10/10 would do it again**. However, I think the ideal amount of time for someone who is really trying to maximize their experience in Japan would be as a **day trip from Fukuoka**.

Thanks for reading! I hope to do some small writeups on other cities in the future, but I’m not sure how well this one will be received. I hope it’s helpful and I appreciate all the travelers here.