Kagoshima is Kyushu’s southernmost major city and Japan’s friendliest city. The city is often compared with its Italian sister city Naples due to a similarly mild climate, palm tree-lined streets, relatively hot-tempered inhabitants and rumbling Mount Sakurajima. Visitors enjoy the warm welcome, but also wandering the palm-lined streets and enjoying the mild climate.
In this small city’s mix of classic Japanese architecture and modern high-rise structures, Kagoshima also has a notable spattering of Art Deco buildings, which celebrate this architectural period’s optimism and hope.
Beyond the building tops, you will see Mount Sakurajima, an active volcano on an island just three miles away. It dominates the skyline here with regular smokes. Enjoy a visit at one of the observation points for dramatic views that is easy to get there by ferry.
There are other good volcano-viewing spots such as the mountain-top Shiroyama park’s look-out point and Sengan-en Garden, a coastal garden that includes ponds, streams, shrines and a bamboo grove.
This city is rich in history as the former seat of one of Japan’s most powerful feudal clans, the Shimazu, who played a central role in the Meiji Restoration. The city serves as a base for a variety of attractive day trips, such as to the Kirishima Mountains and the Satsuma Peninsula, and as the stepping stone to island destinations further south, including Yakushima and Amami Oshima.