Kagoshima Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bicycle

Bikes can be rented reasonably (per two hours/day ¥500/1500) at Kagoshima-Chūō station and returned at a number of participating hotels (¥300). JR pass holders get a 40% discount. Ask at the tourist information office for details.

Bus

Most long-distance buses leave from the Express Bus Center in the Nangoku Nissei Building, opposite Amu Plaza at Kagoshima-Chūō station. There are myriad highway bus stops, mostly found around Kagoshima-Chūō station and Yamakataya in Tenmonkan.

Typical services include Miyazaki (¥2700, 2¾ hours), Fukuoka (¥5300, four hours), Oita (¥5500, six hours) and overnight to Osaka (¥12, 000, 12 hours).

Hayashida buses to Ebino-kōgen (¥1550, two hours) depart from opposite Taka-Pla department store in Tenmonkan or JR Kagoshima-Chūō station.

Train

Most trains arrive and depart from Kagoshima-Chūō station. Additionally, the JR Kagoshima line heads north to Kumamoto (shinkansen, ¥5850, 75 minutes) and Fukuoka-Hakata (¥8920, four hours). Also stopping at Kagoshima station, the JR Nippō line goes to Miyazaki (tokkyū, ¥3790, two hours) and Beppu (¥9460, five hours).

Trains also run south from Kagoshima to the popular hot-spring resort of Ibusuki and continue partway around the Satsuma Peninsula (kaisoku, ¥970, 55 minutes).

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Boat

Ferries shuttle every 10 to 30 minutes across the bay to Sakurajima (¥150, 15 minutes). Jetfoils depart from Kita-futō (north wharf) to Yakushima (¥9000, three hours). Regular ferries to Yakushima depart from Minami-futō (south wharf; ¥5400, 13 hours).

From Kagoshima Shin-kō (Kagoshima New Port), Queen Coral Marix Line (225-1551) has ferries to Naha (Okinawa) via the Amami archipelago (¥14, 200, 24 hours).

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Air

Kagoshima’s airport has international connections with Shanghai and Seoul, as well as domestic flights to Tokyo (¥34, 700, 95 minutes), Osaka (¥24, 000, 70 minutes), Fukuoka (¥16, 700, 45 minutes) and other Kyūshū destinations. Kagoshima is also the major jumping-off point for flights to the Southwest Islands and Okinawa (¥23, 300, 85 minutes).

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