Kyushu · Day Tour
A city that lives beneath an active volcano and sweeps the ash off the pavement.
From
¥49,500 per person
approx. US$313
Free cancellation up to 48 hours before
Instant confirmation
A private Kagoshima tour with a local guide and transport included. Sakurajima across the bay, the Shiroyama lookout, the Shimazu family villa at Sengan-en, the Tenmonkan district and the Meiji Restoration museum. Kagoshima is where Japan's modernisation was largely set in motion.
Sakurajima erupts regularly and the ash falls on the city when the wind turns. Residents keep bags for it and the forecast includes ash direction. Living with an active volcano four kilometres away has shaped how the place thinks about itself, and it is the first thing your guide will explain.
The Shimazu family, who ruled this domain for seven centuries, built their villa on the shore facing Sakurajima and used the volcano and the bay as the garden's borrowed scenery. It is the most audacious piece of garden design in Japan. The estate also holds the remains of an industrial works the family built in the 1850s to make their own iron and glass.
Satsuma was the domain that, with Choshu, brought down the shogunate and drove Japan's modernisation. It smuggled nineteen young men to Britain in 1865 in defiance of the ban on foreign travel; several came back to run the new government. The Meiji Restoration Museum tells this, and the Shiroyama hill above the city is where the last samurai rebellion ended.
The covered arcades in the centre, where you eat. Satsuma-age is fried fish cake, sweeter here than elsewhere; kurobuta pork is the local breed; and Kagoshima drinks sweet potato shochu rather than sake. Your guide orders.
Meet your guide at Marine Port Kagoshima Square.
The city and the volcano, from above.
The Shimazu villa, and Sakurajima as its garden.
Satsuma-age, kurobuta and shochu.
The domain that remade Japan.
Marine Port Kagoshima Square, Chuokoshinmachi, Kagoshima. Your guide will contact you on WhatsApp beforehand.
Your English-speaking guide and transportation during the tour are included. Entrance fees and meals are paid as you go, and by convention you also cover your guide's. Bring cash.
Yes, by ferry from the city, in about fifteen minutes. It adds a few hours. Tell us when you book.
It is monitored constantly and access is restricted by zone. The city functions normally around it.
Yes. It starts at the port and is timed around your ship.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start time. Bookings are confirmed instantly.
Kyushu · Day Tour
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Kyushu · Day Tour
6 hours · From ¥30,000
