Kagoshima

Getting Here and Around

The flight between Tokyo's Haneda Airport and Kagoshima Airport takes 1¾ hours. From Osaka the flight takes about 1 hour. The Airport Limousine picks up passengers every 10 minutes (until 9 pm) at Bus Stop No. 2 outside the Kagoshima Airport. From downtown, catch it in the terminal in the Nangoku Nissei Building, across the street from the East (Sakura-jima) Exit from JR Kagoshima Chuo Station. The 40-minute trip costs ¥1,200.

Frequent buses make the four-hour trip for ¥5,300 from Fukuoka (departing from Hakata Kotsu Bus Center and Tenjin Bus Center) to Kagoshima Chuo Station. Trains to the same station arrive on the JR Tsubame and Relay Tsubame Limited Express lines from Fukuokata's Hakata station and Kumamoto via Shin-Yatsushiro.

For the past hundred years the easiest way to get around Kagoshima has been by streetcar. A ¥160 fare will take you anywhere on the trusty old network. One-day travel passes for unlimited rides on streetcars and buses cost ¥600. You can buy one at the Kagoshima-Chuo Station Tourist Information Center, or on a streetcar or bus. Buses get around, but are run by five competing outfits on a complicated system.

JR Kyushu Bus runs a 6 hour, 10 minute-tour of the area for ¥4,000. It departs from Chuo Station Bus Stop East-9 at 8:50 am and includes the city and the volcano; however, guides speak only Japanese.

The Kagoshima-Chuo Station Tourist Information Center is on the second floor of the station's Sakura-jima Exit. An English-speaking person is on hand to arm you with maps and info or help you make hotel reservations.