Kagoshima Travel Guide:10 Hidden Gems & Top Things to Do
If you’ve never been to Kagoshima, you are missing out. It’s one of the most unique cities here in Japan. On this video, we’re going to show you guys the 10 things you must do when you visit Kagoshima. Hey guys, welcome back and greetings from Kagoshima, one of our now favorite cities in Japan. The first time we came here by ferry and that was an experience. We were here for a very short time, so we made a video covering the local specialties of Kagoshima. If you’ve missed the ferry video as well as the Kagoshima local food video, make sure to check those videos out. The link is in the description below this one. Today, we’re going to be showing you the 10 things, uh, some places, uh, things to eat, things you must do when you are here in Kagoshima. I swear after watching this video, you are going to want to book a flight to this amazing city. We are standing the place that we can see, Sakurajima, the iconic volcano in Kagoshima. Of course, we going to be going there. What’s incredible is that this is located only 4 km away from the city center. So, our first stop is a peaceful walk along the Kotsuki River, which runs right through the center of Kagoshima City. This riverside trail is just 5 minutes walk from Kagoshimachu station. So, it’s super easy to get to. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things to do. Walk along this uh river bank. It’s really, really beautiful and peaceful. You also get to learn a little bit of history about the city of Kagoshima. There’s a museum in this park, Restoration of Maji era. You can learn about Kagoshima, but not only that, you can learn about Japanese history. We also definitely recommend checking out the Kagoshima Castle ruins. You can still see parts of the old moat and stone walls. And the highlight has to be the Goromon gate. It’s actually the biggest castle gate in all of Japan and really impressive up close. The lay built on the castle ground is now museum. You can learn the history of Kagoshima and also castle itself. And what we impressed was the teong in back in the day. You can see how lively it was. Yes, there used to be theaters there and people used to flock to Tong Khan. Of course, even today, people flock to Tamong Khan, but I don’t know, it it seemed more romantic and more interesting back then, you know? I I wish I could travel back in time. After the museum, we recommend you stop by the Chin Jukan Cafe, uh, where you can relax with some coffee and local Kagoshima black tea. You can also pick up some amazing ceramic pieces from Chin Jukan Kilm. They’ve been producing satsuma wear for 15 generations. Also, this place is right in the city center. So, it’s super convenient to get to. So, next we are heading to the Shiroyama Park, which is a small mountain located right behind the Kagoshima city center. This mountain just about 100 meter. Also, it’s easy to come by bus. You can see a spectacular view of Kagosima city. From here you can see not only the beautiful Kagoshima city, you can see a Sakurajima volcano right across the bay. It’s so beautiful. And if you have a chance, you can see the eruption of Sakurajima when we came last time. Yes, we saw it. It was amazing. And the Sakurajima mountain change its color seven times a day. So every time you come here you will see the different view of Sakraima. Crowd has gone. Look at that. That is Mount Sakajima. Shiryama park is not only for this view. This is a historic place. It was a site of the last battle of Satsuma Liberium on 1877 led by famous general Saigo Takamorei. In this park, there are many memorial places that you can learn about the history of Kagoshima. Next must stop on this list is Sangai and Garden. This is a must. You can get here pretty easily with the train. It’s only two stops from Kagoshima Chu station. This is a beautiful Japanese style garden and has been here for more than 350 years and was once the villa of the powerful Shimatsu clan who ruled Kagoshima for centuries. So inside of this sang first we are eating. If you come to Kagoshima you have to eat jammoi. Jambo doesn’t mean jumbo. Looks like mitarashi dango but it’s not. It’s moi. My drink is green tea. Kagoshima is very famous for green tea. M soft smooth moi. Soy sauce similar to jango. So after the jumbo mochi, we had to do some souvenir shopping. And actually, this is my second time going to this shop called Dill Peace. It’s my absolute favorite shop. They sell uh essential oils using a uh tree from Kagoshima. It’s like a native tree and it’s just such a beautiful aroma and it just relaxes me. So um I always come here. If you visit Sangayen, please visit Deal Peace and tell the nice lady that we sent you because uh she remembered me from the last time. so happy. She’s so sweet. So, right behind me is the former home of the Shimazu clan. The house is set right on the bay with the most incredible view of Sakurajima volcano. The place was built back in 1658, but what’s amazing is how well the house and gardens still capture the lifestyle of a feudal lord. Walking through the gardens is like stepping into another time. It’s so beautiful. M the many culture is mixed in this in this garden. Yes. Japanese, Chinese. I also like that there are tropical plants like uh you know dotted around this Japanese garden. It’s very very unique. I think we came to the end of this sangayan garden and the view is amazing. Yeah. I think this is like one of the highest point. This is like a lookout and from here you can see the view uh the bay. Natu Bay. The volcano. The volcano. Look at that. It’s so beautiful. This place is massive, by the way. So, really, uh, make sure you have, uh, energy and good walking shoes because there’s so much to see here. So, we came to O Cafe Restaurant in Sangar. The view is amazing. We are seating the counter seat. This, but this counter seating is faced to Sakura. Look at this. This beautiful cup. This is called satma ko grass. Very famous traditional the kagosima the graft. This one is called. Oh. So I got this thing here. Two drawers of food and one shelf of rice and dessert. Wow. You got sashimi. You have like assorted appetizers. You have like fried food. This is so beautiful. And Satoshi got what I got the last time. This is also really special. Khan go over this chicken stock. Oh, the color is a little bit brown. M. Beautiful chicken taste. It’s blended with the yuzu citrus taste nicely. This is really good plate. So guys, when you come to Sangen, you have to make some time to have some lunch here because the food here is really good. And this is your chance to savor various local cuisine. Sangayen definitely a must visit place when you visit Tagoshima. So obviously if you’re visiting Japan, many of you guys will want to do some shopping. So we recommend our next stop which is Ami Plaza. It’s literally connected to Kagoshima Chu station. In fact, it is the biggest shopping complex in the city. There are three main buildings. Ami Plaza, Amu Plaza Premium, and Amui. My favorite place is located on the basement floor of Amu Plaza. It’s a grocery area. Yes, it’s my favorite place, too. Of course, there are many souvenir shops. You can buy the local specialtities and it’s very good to buy your souvenir for your friends. And of course, because it’s a supermarket, there is a deli section, so you can try out some local specialties as well. All at very good prices. Now, if you’re hungry, don’t worry. You don’t have to leave the building either. You can get Kagoshima ramen at Zabon which is delicious. Uh you can also get Shirokuma which is Kagoshima’s shaved ice from Mujaki. We’ve been there before. We went to the main shop in Tongan. You have to try that. And the top of this building there is a ferris wheel and a there’s also movie theater as well. Oh yes yes yes. Yeah. Now we have not been on the ferris wheel because I hate them. But I heard that you can go on the ferris wheel and it’s especially beautiful at night. Oh, yeah. You get a really beautiful view of the city. And of course, you can see Sakura Jima. Yes, the volcano. That’s right. Anyway, make sure to visit this place, Ami Plaza. Next on this list is a visit to Sakura Jima. Sakurajima is an active volcano that’s located just 4 kilometers away from the city center. You can actually see this volcano from the city center. The first time we saw it, we were amazed. I thought Godzilla was going to come out. Like that’s how like big the volcano is. To get here, you just take a 15-minute ferry ride. And when you get on the ferry, if you have time, uh, please eat the udon noodles there. They actually serve udon noodles. You only have 15 minutes, so you have to eat pretty quickly. I got egg udon and Shimi ordered kake udon, the simple udon noodles. Yes. But mine had a satsumake. Yes. the specialty of Kagoshima. Unfortunately, it is raining today and there is no view of the volcano. I swear like I I’ve been to Kagoshima four times and this is the first time I cannot see the volcano. So, crossing fingers that the rain clears, the sky clears and then we get a glimpse of the volcano. So, we came to Skomi Shrine. This shrine is located very close to the ferry terminal. It has 1,300 years history. In olden days, this shrine was destroyed by the lava of the Sakurajima and rebuilt here. This shrine is standing on lava. And right next to the shrine, there is a lookout. And if you go up there, you have a great view of Sakurajima volcano. And in this island, there is a convenient bus system for tourist, the named Sakurajima Island View. It runs every 30 minutes. It stops convenient places for tourists like visitor center and observatories. [Music] So now we are inside of the visitor center and we are learning about it the volcano and eruption. So Sakurajima is active volcano. How often does Sakurajima erupt? Look last year 46 eruption. It’s explosion eruption and this year 147 almost every two days. From here you can walk on lava. This is a lava trail. Of course this is natural lava. I like look at that. Wow. Wow. So wild. So this lava came from this volcano Sakarajima and it was about 100 years ago 1914. It’s quite new lava. This lava destroyed this area’s village and shrine but people are still living in this area. It it’s so beautiful. There’s like all these plants. There’s some areas where there are no plants. It’s just lava rocks and very wild like you say. And there are viewpoints where you can actually see the volcano. The next of vista center there is a hot springs for hoot. You can see uh the canal like canal. This is hot springs on. And I’m enjoying the hoot path. Ah the view is nice. The Kagoshima city view and the beautiful Kingan Bay. And over there that is Sakurajima volcano. I don’t know how you can do this. It is so hot today. I’m dying. Hot. Oh my god, this is hot. Yeah. Oh, what? It’s hot. Taking hot springs. It’s really nice. That’s the observatory. Yeah, that’s the observatory. Yeah. Um you can go to there by uh the bus, I think. Oh, really? Yeah, the the bus. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s go. Let’s go. So, one of the highlights is looking at the volcano from the Yunohira Observatory. This is the highest point that you can get to the volcano. It’s the closest actually. Yes, it’s very close. Yeah. 373 m in altitude. Of course, there are clouds uh on the volcano, but it’s really beautiful. Look at that. Look at the forest. It’s like a forest. Yes. It’s the first time for me to ride the island view bus. This is great. This goes around a loop and uh hits some of the highlights of Sakurajima Island and it’s useful especially if you don’t have a car. So I really recommend that. That is the crater there. That’s Sakurajima. Or is that the crater? I think that that that’s the uh the the part that’s always erupting. But here you have a beautiful view of Kingo Bay here. So amazing. And look at this vast forest. Wow, this is amazing. So, we mentioned Amu Plaza for shopping already, but the main commercial district in Kagoshima city center, I believe, is Tongan. Yes. And Tongan has everything. Uh, this is where you want to come if you want to do shopping. Uh, you want to eat. Mhm. Uh, what else? Eat Kakoshima ramen. uh walk around many many show guys I think there’s like at least seven or more maybe more I think more than 10 streets that’s true that’s true more than 10 streets yeah many of them maman pop shop yes that’s what I like about tongan like you will not find uniqlo uh there is muji but there’s no uniqlo here there’s no gu so um that’s what makes teongan quite interesting you can buy lots of local products of course you can find yama kataya the department store inside teongan as well. What’s a great point of this teongan shopping area is this arcade. The arcade length is almost 2 km. 2 km. Yeah. 2 km. I didn’t know that. No wonder I’m always so tired after. So it’s very good because in summer the Kagoshima sunshine is very strong. That is true. Sometimes it’s rain and sometimes ash comes from Sakurajima the volcano. Volcano. That is true. Yeah. You can prevent all of them. That’s true. Yes. Yes. Yes. So, you can shop and eat in comfort. By the way, the street food video in Kagoshima, which I made, was in this area. Every shop is in this area, very close. It’s a street food paradise. That’s true. Also, you can find my favorite tea shop called Tea Wave right here. Don’t miss it. When you’re walking around Tamong Khan, you will definitely not miss this massive building. Architecturally stunning. This is Yamakataya. This is Kagoshima’s premier department store. It was founded in 1751, so it has a very long history. The current building was built between 1917 and 1950, preserving elements of its original atmosphere. What we like at this department store is the restaurant. The department restaurant called Yamakataya Shuko. Yeah, it used to be a very common that’s a department owned restaurant, but now it’s rare and here it’s still alive and it’s very popular. The most popular dish is yaki soba, but it’s not your typical yaki soba that you know of. This is deep fried noodles topped with a gravy uh filled with vegetables and pork and you pour this black vinegar, local black vinegar you pour over it and you eat it. is so delicious. In fact, I think 80% of the customers eat this. Yes. Yes. This is your one-stop shop to buy local products such as satsumag, which is a deep fried fish cake, local green tea, which I actually purchased. And outside of this building, there is a baked potato shop. It’s a super popular. This is satsumo or baked sweet potato. And like Satoshi says, you can buy it right outside of Yamakata. In fact, this is run by Yamakataya. And look at this. It’s perfectly cooked. And this is actually originally from Kagoshima, which is why it’s called Satsuma emo. Satsuma is the old name of Kagoshima. Emmo means potato in Japanese. Satimo. M. That is so creamy and so natural sweet. Love it. The next thing you have to do in Kagoshima, and this might be the most important one is to eat the local food. There’s so much for you to try here. For example, black pork, tonkatu or sabu. Oh, yes. We both love the black pork tonkatu. Black pork is called kura here. Yes, it’s sweet. Can’t you can’t believe it’s sweet pork. Yeah, I feel it’s sweeter and juicier here than when you have the tonkatu here. It’s so different from the one on the mainland. Mhm. And jambo mochi. It’s a very unique way to eat mochi. Oh my gosh, I love that. Our favorite shop is called Hiataya. We’ve been there before. If you’ve missed our what to eat in Kagoshima video, please check that out because we uh featured that spot on that video. But um oh my god, Jamboi. Love, love, love. It’s different from mitarashi dango. It’s different from a showy dango. It’s just really good. The kukam made with mountain yam sugar and rice flour. It’s a very delicate dessert. Squishy but fluffy. Tastes a little bit the mountain yam. It’s unlike other desserts in Japan. Our recommendation store is akashia. This is a traditional sweet that’s very very difficult to find outside of Kagoshima. We cannot find it anywhere in Tokyo. And shuma. It’s a kagosima specialy. Oh yeah. This is so nice. Yeah. It’s a shape ice. with the special sauce using condensed milk, sweet and but of course it’s cold and the texture is different and lots of fruits or toppings on top. Right. And always a a face of a white bear. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a fun dessert. It’s really good. Of course, there’s the local green tea which is different from the tea you have in Kyoto. Uh you have satsumo which is sweet potato. Um, but last but not least is satsuma a which is these deep fried fish paste. And it is on another level. It I don’t know why we have satsumag in Tokyo, but it’s different here. Maybe because it’s one of their traditional foods that they just put more uh care into it. Uh they use it in various dishes. Uh we’re here at Agit Patea and this place is good because it’s located right in the center of the city, right in Tokan actually. And you can take away a freshly deep fried satsumag. This is unusual. This is onion and pepper. This is parallel leaf. And this is corn. Oh, by the way, we forgot to mention kibago, which is a local fish here. You can only eat it here in Kagoshima because it’s pretty perishable. So, we ate it sashimi style. It was delicious. So clean and fresh. And um all the various dishes made with the local black pork. Really, really good. Next place I highly recommend. It’s a little bit out of the tourist radar, but it’s centrally located in Kagoshima city center. This is Manchcho. It’s an old neighborhood with retro charm. Many of the Shawa era buildings remain, but they have been renovated with brand new shops. So, it’s a mix of old and new. And I love this area. Mhm. First floor, there are lots of lots of small shops. The atmosphere of this town is very old but cozy, modern and fashionable shops. Some places I recommend. So if you are looking to eat salad or vegetables or vegan food, I recommend this shop right here. There is also a nuts specialty store, Negi Ramen Shop. There’s another ramen shop that’s only open for like a few hours during the day. And lots of coffee shops. Lot of coffee shops. Really nice coffee shops. So yeah, if you’re looking for something different, definitely check Maison Cho out. It’s definitely my favorite place in Kagoshima. One of my favorite places in Kagoshima. So how do you guys feel now? Did watching this video make you want to buy a ticket to Kakoshima? I hope so. This is my fourth time here, but I would come back again. Yeah, definitely. I want to come again. But I have to say I do want to come back when it’s cooler because it was too hot. And I think it was overexhaustion and the heat that made me get sick for a few days here. I think this time the heat contributed uh to my exhaustion. But even during the summertime, I think if you just take it at your own pace, I think Kagoshima is a great place. During walking at Tongam area, the arcade will protect you. Oh, that’s right. covered. Yes. So, so true. So, anyway, really hope you enjoyed this one. As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments down below. Please smash that like button and subscribe for more videos like this one. Once again, the links to our previous Kagoshima videos are in the description below this one. Also, upcoming next week uh should be Kagoshima’s street video that Satoshi made by himself. That’s going to be a really good one. So, stay tuned. Thank you for watching. See you in the next one. Bye bye. [Music]
Welcome to Kagoshima — Japan’s southern gem where samurai history, active volcanoes, and amazing local food come together! 🌋
In this video, we’ll show you 10 must-do things in Kagoshima, including:
✅Exploring Sengan-en, a beautiful samurai residence with a stunning view of Sakurajima volcano.
✅Visiting Sakurajima, one of Japan’s most famous active volcanoes.
✅Strolling through Tenmonkan, Kagoshima’s lively shopping and food district.
✅Tasting local specialties like kurobuta (black pork), shirokuma shaved ice, and Satsuma-age.
Whether you’re into history, culture, nature, or food, Kagoshima has something for everyone.
After watching this video, you might just want to book your ticket! 🎫✈️
🗾 Watch till the end for our favorite hidden gem in the city!
Our Previous Kagoshima Videos
Kagoshima Must Try Foods https://youtu.be/rGnCpeYIMHc
Going Kagoshima by Ferry https://youtu.be/7Z7PgiN1NA0
***Places We Visited in This Video***
Kotsuki River
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1VKHoxM3zKNPXQbG6?g_st=ipc
Kagoshima Castle Ruins
https://maps.app.goo.gl/XboVMM7TGbgML31B6?g_st=ipc
Shiroyama Park
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dNYdZySxejTrAHn28?g_st=ipc
Sengan-en
https://maps.app.goo.gl/kGucVVHTs5Lfs2g99?g_st=ipc
AMU PLAZA
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4fy1UHFghfPqgjrZ6?g_st=ipc
Sakurajima
Sakurajima Ferry
https://maps.app.goo.gl/GLuPNWxzmAFjyNfKA?g_st=ipc
Tsukiyomi Shrine
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xVjYGMxWMrt2znJw8?g_st=ipc
Sakurajima Visitor Center
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xDPhB6KLLqZJPQbs8?g_st=ipc
Yogan Nagisa Trail
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HtzZbTKzRoAKy7SR9?g_st=ipc
Yogan Nagisa Park Footbath
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3wShQ1qGYMuefhS58?g_st=ipc
Yunohira Observatory
https://maps.app.goo.gl/dpbGtyWkV5PyTWip7?g_st=ipc
Tenmonkan
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4tuZ9nTMgz1jg1hu5?g_st=ipc
Yamakataya
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VkG3J6hjGbRSNUEX6?g_st=ipc
Meizancho
https://maps.app.goo.gl/SQ8hhHdBpFP9fS4H7?g_st=ipc
**Visit Kagoshima City Tourism Guide**
https://www.kagoshima-yokanavi.jp/en
(Here, you can learn about convenient transportation options and how to use them for getting around Sakurajima and sightseeing in Kagoshima City.)
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