Leisure / Hobbies Spots in Kagoshima Area

  • Nanshu Farm: Kurobuta no Oka
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kanoya-shi Hamadacho 1250 Kirishimagaoka Park
  • Hotel Big Marine Amami
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Amami-shi Naze Nagahamacho 27-1
  • Akune Oshima Beach
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Akune Haru Chinai
    "Akune Oshima is an uninhabited island about 10 minutes by boat from the Akune Shin-ko port ferry terminal. The island, with a circumference of approximately four km, is home to a pine forest selected as one of the 100 best pine trees in Japan, as well as a forest of white oaks and other giant trees. With a campground and swimming beach, it is a mecca for marine sports and outdoor activities that attracts many tourists throughout the year. The beach with calm waves is a scenic beach recognized as one of the ""100 best 'comfortable' bathing beaches in Japan"". Wild deer sometimes come to the beach where green pines grow wild, which makes the beach a popular place to enjoy swimming surrounded by nature."
  • Maruike Park
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Aira-gun Yusuicho Koba 589
    "This park is located about a five-minute drive from the Kurino Interchange on the Kyushu Expressway. The park was developed around Maruike, a pond fed by massive amounts of spring water from the foothills of the Kirishima Mountains. It is equipped with a promenade, water fountains, and other facilities. The pond was selected as one of the Top 100 Famous Waters of Japan. Visitors can see flowers such as Yoshino cherry and moss phlox in the spring and fireflies in the summer. An event aimed at showing gratitude for the benefits that locals receive from Maruike Pond called ""Meisui Maruike Kansha no Yube"" is held in early September each year. Attendees are treated to the wondrous sight of nearly 1000 bamboo lanterns floating in the pond."
  • Field Art Kurinodake Log Camp Village
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Aira-gun Yusuicho Koba 6340-12
    The campground is located on a plateau at an altitude of about 700 m. The log house with a dining room and training room on the first floor can accommodate about 30 people, and can be used for company or student training. Nearby are a horseback-riding ranch and a paragliding base.
  • Homba Amami Oshima Tsumugi Dorozome Park
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Amami-shi Naze Itsubugachi 727
    "Amami Oshima pongee is one of Japan's most famous types of silk fabric as well as an important part of Amami Oshima's culture. The silk thread is dyed using a special technique called ""dorozome,"" which gives it a beautiful black luster. This park was built in order to preserve the fields from which the mud used in the dorozome dyeing process, which park visitors can watch. The park also offers dorozome classes in which participants can dye items such as T-shirts and handkerchiefs. The activity, which is guided by experienced dyers, is a great way to experience a part of the traditional culture of Amami Oshima."
  • Ogamiyama Park
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Amami-shi
    This park is located on Mt. Ogami, the symbol of Naze City, at the top of a promenade of uphill slopes and steps. It features a scenic plaza, a stone memorial commemorating the return of the islands to Japan, a playground, and more. Visitors can enjoy a sweeping view of downtown Naze City and Naze Bay. A stone memorial engraved with a poem and a bust of Horo Izumi, the father of the return of the Amami Islands to Japan, have been erected in the park's Memorial Plaza. There is no parking, so visitors must use one of the paid parking lots near the shopping arcade.
  • Amami Ocean Exhibition Hall
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Amami-shi Naze Koshuku Ohama 701-1
    "This aquarium and museum has a theme of ""the coexistence of the ocean and people."" Visitors can learn about the deep connection between the lifestyle of the people of the Amami Islands and the ocean from a wide range of exhibits. A large aquarium modeled after the underwater terrain of the ocean around the Amami Islands exhibits sea turtles, sharks, tropical fish unique to the islands, and more. A number of small aquariums offer an up-close view of shrimp, crab, and other familiar sea creatures. Another exhibit hall covers subjects such as the ecology of corals and coastal vegetation. Visitors can also try handcrafting an original item from coral, sand, seashells, and other materials."
  • Amami City Amami Museum
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Amami-shi Naze Nagahamacho 517
    This museum opened in 1987 as the first general museum in the Amami Islands. It conducts investigative research and the collection and preservation of artifacts in order to understand the nature, history, culture, and of the Amami Islands. The museum underwent a complete renovation in 2019. The ocean-themed first floor features exhibits on boats and fishing in the Amami Islands, live specimens of Amami Oshima's rare native wildlife, and more. The second floor features hands-on exhibits such as looms and sugar cane presses that teach visitors about the lifestyle of the Amami Islands. The museum also features outdoor exhibits including a relocated and restored traditional Amami home and elevated storehouse.
  • LIVE BOX MA・YASCO
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Amami-shi Naze Irifunecho 22-9
    "This bar is located down Yanigawa-dori Street, the biggest shopping district on Amami Oshima Island. The building, which faces Naze Port, is notable for its exposed concrete exterior. It attracts music-lovers from all over island and beyond. ""Mayasuko"" means ""Ryukyu scops owl"" in the local dialect. The bar was so-named in the hope that it ""be a space that will continue to stay open all night and bring luck, just like an owl."" The bar is equipped with guitars, basses, a piano, and microphones, giving it a music studio-like atmosphere. It holds events with musical guests from around the country on an irregular basis. The bar is best described as being like the clubroom of a school music club that attracts music-lovers from around the world."
  • Amami Nature Center
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Amami-shi Naze Wakocho 12-8
    This tour guide service offers eco tours such as birdwatching, night animal watching, and forest walking on Amami Oshima Island. Each tour is designed to minimize the ecological impact on the island's nature based on the nature observation experience of its guides and on investigative research. Their popular forest walking tours allow participants to explore places such as the virgin forests of Kinsakubaru, which will have you thinking you have traveled back in time to a primeval era, as well as Mt. Yuwan, the highest peak on the island. Tour plans aimed at observing the Amami rabbit, an endangered species found only on the islands of Amami Oshima Island and Tokunoshima Island, are growing increasingly popular. Please note that Amami rabbit sightings cannot be guaranteed due to its status as a protected species.
  • Hanaze Nature Park
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kimotsuki-gun Kinkocho Tashiro Kawahara 4264-1
    This expansive nature park is located upstream of the Ogawa River. It is best known for the approximately 60 meter-wide and two-kilometer-long riverbed of natural cobblestones made from welded tuff from the Ibusuki Caldera. Historical records indicate that the feudal lord Shimazu Nariakira once enjoyed a winding stream party here in the Edo period. The park is also famous for its cherry blossoms and wisteria flowers. The Hanaze Park Festival is held in April and the Yamannaka Music Fest is held in August at the park .
  • Okuhanaze Rainbow Park
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kimotsuki-gun Kinkocho Tashiro Fumoto 5138-529
    This popular fishing spot surrounded by clear streams and natural forests is located about a 35-minute drive from Nejime Port. People of all ages can enjoy fishing for unlimited rainbow trout here upstream of the Hanaze River from early spring to the fall (additional charges apply for catches over one kilogram). Guests can enjoy eating dishes made with the trout they just caught, somen nagashi (thin wheat noodles served down a trough of cold running water), and more while listening to the sound of the babbling brook at the adjacent Seseragikan.
  • Outdoor Yakushima Guide System
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kumage-gun Yakushimacho Anbo 2354-7
    "This tour guide service offers eco tours of the mountains, forests, rivers, and ocean of Yakushima Island. Tour participants can enjoy the nature of Yakushima Island, which has a climate that ranges from subtropical to cold-temperate. Tours are guided by the company's owner, who was born and raised on Yakushima Island. Having been spent a childhood amongst the island's nature, he is incredibly knowledgeable about the hidden charms of Yakushima Island above and beyond the usual tourist attractions like the Jomon Sugi cedar or Mt. Miyanoura. Their popular Shiratani Unsui Gorge Exploration Tours take participants on a half-day to day-long trip through a moss-covered world said to have served as the inspiration for the setting of the film ""The Princess Mononoke."" Participants can experience this mystical world while listening to lectures on subjects including the origin of the forests and about the ecology of moss."
  • Yakushima Comprehensive Nature Park
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kumage-gun Yakushimacho Miyanoura
    This nature park is located on the banks of the Miyanoura River. The roughly 80,000-square-meter park features a botanical garden, an outdoor stage, a rest house, and other facilities. The botanical garden, which is situated in the middle basin of the Miyanoura River, grows alpine plants and endemic species of Yakushima. Most notably, it grows and exhibits Yakushima rhododendron, one of the island's most exemplary species of flower. Seedlings of this rare plant are also available for purchase. Visitors with an advanced reservation can even enjoy bathing in the middle of a forest in the wood-fired Yunoko no Yu baths.
  • Yakushima Diving Service Mori-to-Umi
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kumage-gun Yakushimacho Miyanoura 2473-294
    This diving service located about a 15-minute drive from Yakushima Airport. It offers easy-going and laid back diving tours with a focus on enjoying fish watching and underwater photography in the seas of Yakushima Island. The guide who leads each tour sees his role as an interpreter of nature. He says that diving was his passion before it was his job, so he continues to dive the seas of Yakushima Island every day regardless of whether he has any guests. The company's selling point is the broad knowledge and easy-to-understand commentary of a guide whose hobbies are wildlife observation and undersea photography.
  • Yakushima Guide Association
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kumage-gun Yakushimacho Koseda 1436-56
    This tour guide service has been offering eco tours on Yakushima Island since 1989. Its objective is to contribute to be the development of Yakushima Island through a tourism business that protects the island's nature and culture while leveraging its rich resources. The tours are guided by a professional staff devoted to acquiring the knowledge needed to guide tours without damaging the natural environment. They are popular for allowing participants to viscerally experience the importance of the coexistence of humanity and plants by being connected to nature through the five senses. The company offers a full selection of rental equipment including trekking shoes and rainwear.
  • Yakushima Nature Planning FIELD
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kumage-gun Yakushimacho Mugio 318-9
    This tour guide service received the Special Prize (the Environment Minister's Prize) at the 12th Ecotourism Awards. Its original eco tours offer a chance to experience the nature, history, and culture of Yakushima Island. Each of their professional staff guides has completed two years of nature guide training in order to master skills and knowledge including lecture skills, guide skills, and the ability to read the weather. The company is able to provide eco tours that meet the customer's schedules, physical ability level, and other preferences. Their half-day Shiratani Unsui Gorge and Yayoi Sugi Cedar tours allow participants to enjoy being soothed as they explore the famous moss-covered valley at a relaxed pace.
  • Yakushima Botanical Research Park
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kumage-gun Yakushimacho Mugio 896-1
    This botanical garden is located in the Mugio District on southeastern Yakushima Island. Its vast grounds feature an herb garden, a tropical fruit orchard, a butterfly conservatory, and other facilities. It offers visitors a rare chance to view tropical fruits. The garden's observatory offers a commanding view of the coastal Toroki Falls and Mt. Mocchomu. There is also a shop that sells fresh-squeezed fruit juices made with domestic fruit including fruit harvested in the garden.
  • Yakushima Field Information Center
    Leisure / Hobbies
    Kagoshima Kumage-gun Yakushimacho Onoaida 673-14
    "This tour guide service offers eco tours with a theme of ""conversing with the environment and the water."" Activities include Canoeing (River Kayaking) down the Anbo River, trekking in the backwoods of Yakusugi Land, and playfully exploring tide pools during the low tide. Their Anbo River canoeing tours are especially popular. Participants can chose the course that suits their schedule and physical ability from a range of options including a short two-hour course and a full day course. Although 80% of tour participants are beginners, the company's instructors provide them with all the support they need to assure they have an enjoyable experience. Most conveniently, the company accepts last-minute bookings made the day before or the day of the tour."

Kagoshima Areas

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Over 100 active volcanoes across Kagoshima make it one of the Japan's most exciting prefectures. The prefectural capital, Kagoshima city, looks out to one of the prefecture’s most spectacular volcanoes, Sakurajima, an island of its own that can be visited and seen close up or admired from afar, with the promise of breathtaking sunsets complete with frequent puffs of smoke and ash. Down the Satsuma Peninsula, the most southerly part of mainland Japan, waterfalls, sand onsen, and fascinating history await, while Kagoshima's abundance of satsuma imo (sweet potato) provide a wholesome snack as well as one of Japan's favourite drinks - shochu.

Kagoshima Photo Album

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