:: Kagoshima Main Line – From Satsumasendai to Kagoshima
More than half of my 7-night, 8-day trip has passed. It’s day five. So far, I’d ridden the Hisatsu Orange Railway south, through Izumi(出水) and Akune(阿久根), down to Satsumasendai(薩摩川内).
Today is the day I leave Satsumasendai and finally head into Kagoshima City(鹿児島市).
From Sendai Station(川内駅), it’s about 50 minutes on the Kagoshima Main Line, and the fare is 1,090 yen. You can also take the Kyushu Shinkansen on this stretch. It takes 12 minutes and costs 1,960 yen.
The fare difference isn’t big, but the time difference is, so the Shinkansen is the more sensible choice. But today, I wanted to take the Kagoshima Main Line. I guess I wanted to keep feeling the afterglow of riding the Hisatsu Orange Railway?
I’d heard the Shinkansen goes through tunnel after tunnel, while the Kagoshima Main Line lets you see the scenery. So for a relaxed traveler like me, it actually seems like the better choice.
Oh, there’s one thing to watch out for. The Shinkansen ends at Kagoshima-Chuo Station(鹿児島中央駅), but the Kagoshima Main Line goes past Kagoshima-Chuo Station all the way to Kagoshima Station(鹿児島駅). So check carefully where you get off. There are two stations with Kagoshima in the name.
:: The Place I Always Choose in Kagoshima, SHIROYAMA HOTEL kagoshima
This time again, my hotel in Kagoshima was SHIROYAMA HOTEL kagoshima. It’s the first hotel I check when I plan a trip to Kagoshima. It’s an expensive hotel, but single rooms on weekdays can be booked fairly cheaply, so you have to check early.
Shiroyama Hotel, as the name says, is a hotel on top of Mt. Shiroyama(城山). Right next to it is Shiroyama Park Observatory(城山公園展望台), but you can look down over the city from the hotel too, so there’s no real need to go to the observatory.
Anyway, since Shiroyama Hotel is up on the mountain, you have to take the shuttle bus. There used to be a stop in front of the west exit of Kagoshima-Chuo Station, but it’s gone now. So you have to go to the Kagoshima Chuo bus terminal.
After getting off the train at Kagoshima-Chuo Station, it’s a little easier if you take the underground passage from the plaza in front of the station. If you arrived in Kagoshima by airport bus, you’ll probably be right at the bus terminal.
The terminal has a separate boarding area for the shuttle bus to Shiroyama Hotel. You can check the shuttle bus timetable on the hotel website. The shuttle bus takes about 20 minutes to reach the hotel.
Check-in is from 3 p.m., and I got to the hotel before noon. First, I left my bags at the lobby, and asked the concierge to book a restaurant I’d be visiting a few days later.
This is what’s good about expensive hotels. You can ask the concierge for help with a lot of parts of your trip. Plenty of 3-star business hotels have helped me too, but at a hotel I stayed at not long ago, they said they couldn’t help with restaurant reservations, and I had a hard time.
One of Shiroyama Hotel’s appeals is its low-priced single rooms. Prices go up a bit on weekends, so I usually plan my Kagoshima trips for weekdays.
The bed is big, and there’s enough free space, including the desk. You can leave your suitcase open in a corner and live out of it with no problem. The bedding is clean and comfortable. There’s an onsen, so I don’t use the bathroom much, but it’s plenty big.
Literally, I think this is a hotel with nothing inconvenient about it at all. Oh, there is one drawback, which I’ll talk about later.
:: One of the Big Reasons for My Kagoshima Trips, Satsuma-no-Yu Onsen
After checking in, the first thing I always do is go to the onsen. Shiroyama Hotel has an amazing onsen called Satsuma-no-Yu(さつま乃湯). The facilities are good, and it’s spacious and clean. It’s free for hotel guests, which is a great point, but above all, the view is really wonderful.
When you soak in the warm water and look out at Sakurajima and the sea in the distance, you can feel as relaxed and happy as it gets.
And on the way out of the onsen, if you have a glass of draft beer at the souvenir shop right in front, the last piece of happiness falls into place.
Oh, and it seems this onsen came first nationwide and first in Kyushu in several categories of the 2025 Onsen General Election. When I came to this hotel last year, I took part in the vote too. So I guess I contributed to this ranking, just a tiny bit?
:: One Inconvenience at Shiroyama Hotel
Because the hotel is on a mountain, there’s one inconvenience. To get into town, you have to take a bus or a taxi.
As I mentioned earlier, Shiroyama Hotel runs a shuttle bus that stops at places like the bus terminal in front of Kagoshima-Chuo Station and the downtown area of Tenmonkan(天文館). It leaves the hotel on the hour and at half past, so the times are easy to remember.
But when you’re in a hurry, like when you need to make a restaurant reservation on time, or late at night when the shuttle isn’t running, you sometimes have to take a taxi. There often aren’t taxis waiting in front of the hotel, so if you tell the staff, they’ll call one for you.
Still, the shuttle runs every 30 minutes, which isn’t that long, and the arrival times at each stop are pretty consistent, so I don’t think it’s much of a burden.
:: Last Day of the Trip, remm KAGOSHIMA, a Hotel That Makes Things Easy After Checkout
And there’s one hotel I newly found on this trip. My flight back to Korea was at 7 p.m. That meant even after checking out, I had to spend half a day in Kagoshima city.
After checking out of Shiroyama Hotel, I’d have to walk around town with a big suitcase. And if I left it at the hotel lobby, going back up and down to get it would be even more trouble.
So for the last day, I looked for a hotel in town. A hotel where I could leave my bags at the lobby after checking out and walk around Kagoshima without any hassle.
The hotel that showed up on my radar was remm KAGOSHIMA.
It’s a 3-star hotel, on the main street in the busy Tenmonkan area. A hotel in front of a downtown district, so I didn’t expect much. I just thought it’d be fine as long as I could sleep and wash up.
But this hotel was much better than I expected. The room was spacious, and the shower was clean. The staff were friendly, and there was even a Korean staff member.
Plus, the rate was on the cheaper side for a 3-star hotel. It helped cut down the overall cost of the trip.
And most importantly, the location is great. The building is right in front of the airport bus stop for Kagoshima Airport, so getting on the airport bus is really easy.
On the last day of the trip, I actually left my bags in the lobby after checking out, had lunch, and did some shopping. Then I came back to the lobby, sorted out my bags, and sat and waited a long while until the bus left. Even though I’d already checked out, I could still spend time in the lobby.
So I thought it’s a hotel that really helps with the time between checkout and catching the bus.
:: Not Sponsored by Anyone
Oh, this looks like one of those posts introducing a hotel after getting sponsored, but it’s definitely not.
As someone who has traveled to Kagoshima many times, I’m just sincerely introducing hotels that are good, or that make trip planning easier.
Shiroyama Hotel is truly a hotel I love, and the remm hotel was a big help for getting around on the last day.
