Kagoshima / Mt. Sakurajima

Top Things to do

• Sengan-en

  4.5

  1228 Reviews

  Kagoshima Pref. Kagoshimashi Yoshinochou 9700-1

  "This residence and Sengan-en Garden of the Shimazu Clan was built in 1658, by Shimazu Mitsuhisa, the 19th head of the clan. It was well-loved by Shimazu Nariakira, the 28th head of the clan, and visitors to this beautiful garden where Atsu-hime and Saigo Takamori also visited can enjoy the same magnificent views of Kinko Bay and Mt. Sakurajima as they enjoyed. The garden is approximately five hectares in size, with different flowers blooming with the changing of the seasons and various festivities which take place conveying the traditions of the samurai to the present. There are also a wide range of restaurants and shops where visitors can enjoy Satsuma's local cuisine while sightseeing. The entire garden was registered as a World Cultural Heritage Site and named a ""Site of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution"" in 2015 and was also a filming location of the 2018 drama series, Segodon."

• Museum of the Meiji Restoration

  4.0

  423 Reviews

  Kagoshima Pref. Kagoshimashi Kajiyachou 23-1

  Satsuma (now western Kagoshima Prefecture) was the birthplace of Saigo Takamori, Okubo Toshimichi, and numerous other heroes of the Meiji Restoration. The Museum of the Meiji Restoration uses a variety of means to present the history of Satsuma and Japan during that momentous time. The centerpiece of the museum is the historic dramas shown in the Meiji Restoration Experience Hall on the basement floor. In the “Road to the Restoration,” life-sized robotic models of figures such as Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi and multiple projection screens are used to present a stunning drama. In the “Satsuma Students, Go West” exhibit, the story of the students sent to study overseas in England in defiance of the national government is presented.

• Tontoro

  4.0

  401 Reviews

  Kagoshima Pref. Kagoshimashi Yamanokuchichou 9-41

  A popular ramen restaurant that is also one of Kagoshima's best located in the Temmonkan-dori shopping arcade. As its name implies in Japanese, the restaurant's specialty Tontoro Ramen is topped with pork that practically melts in your mouth. The broth, made with pork bones, chicken bones, and seafood, is surprisingly light, making it popular with the shop's women customers as well. The rice with roasted pork is also popular and includes a heaping helping of chashu roast pork made with neck meat, a rare delicacy of which only a small amount can be obtained from one animal. A three-minute walk from Takamibaba Station on the municipal tram.

• Kagomma Furusato Yataimura

  4.0

  311 Reviews

  Kagoshima Pref. Kagoshimashi Chuouchou 6-4

  A new food theme park a five-minute walk from Kagoshima-Chuo Station which was just opened in 2012. The park is home to 25 yatai (food stands) offering the unique flavors of Kagoshima, including local dishes, kushiage (deep fried skewers), seafood, eels, and tonkotsu (pork bone broth) ramen, as well as a shochu (Japanese white liquor) bar which doubles as an information center. The park is dedicated to local production for local consumption, reasonable prices, and hospitality; the friendly Kagoshima dialect with which patrons are greeted is also sure to make you smile.

• Yunohira Observation Point

  4.0

  270 Reviews

  Kagoshima Pref. Kagoshimashi Sakurajimakoikechou 1025

  A viewing site called the closest to the caldera located at the fourth station on Sakurajima 373 meters above sea level. Depending on the activity of the volcano, visitors can see smoke billowing out, as well as the Taisho Lava Field spreading out before their eyes. The observation point is the highest point on Sakurajima which general visitors may enter and can be traveled to by car. The viewing area is open any time and is a popular spot to visit at night when a great panorama of Kagoshima’s nightscape is visible. Approximately 15 minutes by car from Sakurajima Port.

• Sakurajima Visitor Center

  4.0

  215 Reviews

  Kagoshima Kagoshima-shi Sakurajimayokoyamacho 1722-29

  This visitor center for Sakurajima is located in Kirishima Kinkowan National Park (Sakurajima). The center features informational exhibits about the history of the volcano's eruptions as well as the nature on the island. It is popular for allowing visitors to experience the living Sakurajima through its high-definition theater, dioramas, computers, and other media. Exhibits include volcanic projectiles of various sizes from actual eruptions, a cross-sectional model of the volcano's layers, live camera footage of its Showa crater, and real time seismograph data, and up-to-date numbers of past eruptions. There is also a museum shop where visitors can purchase souvenirs such as the island's special products as well as volcanic ash and rocks.

• Kurokami Buried Torii

  4.0

  203 Reviews

  Kagoshima Pref. Kagoshimashi Kurokamichou

  The 1914 eruption of Sakurajima resulted in great amounts of volcanic ash and pumice being erupted over eight thousand meters into the air, burying the entire Kurokami area. This torii gate belonging to Haragosha-jinja Shrine is said to have originally stood three meters high; today, only the top one meter remains unburied. The residents considered exhuming the torii, but the village mayor decided to leave them as is as a reminder of the eruption for future generations. The gate was designated a prefectural Cultural Property in 1958.

• Grilled Eel Sueyoshi

  4.0

  158 Reviews

  Kagoshima Pref. Kagoshimashi Higashisengokuchou 14-10

  This long-established eel specialty restaurant is located in Kagoshima City, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Tenmonkan Street in the downtown area. The restaurant uses the eels from Osumi Peninsula, which are special even among Kagoshima’s abundance of eel farms, due to the care taken in raising them with the spring water from the Shirasu Plateau. Soaked in a secret sauce that had been handed down for around 80 years, the restaurant’s prized eels are grilled over a charcoal fire. Popular menu items include the “Unadon” and “Unaju,” which are bursting with the delicious taste of the eels. A square of colored paper on which the children’s author, Hatoju Muku wrote “Sueyoshi has the best eel in Japan” is displayed here.

• Museum Shoko Shuseikan

  4.0

  161 Reviews

  Kagoshima Pref. Kagoshimashi Yoshinochou 9698-1

  This is a museum adjacent to Sengan-en. The collection hall is a group of factories that the Satsuma lord Shimazu Nariakira built for industrial development at the end of the Tokugawa period. The museum building was originally completed in 1865 as a machine factory. Currently it is utilized as a place to communicate the history of industrialization of the Shimazu family and Satsuma clan. In addition to the buildings, some of the exhibits are nationally designated Important Cultural Properties.