Osaka to Kagoshima: Fly or Shinkansen?
Planning a trip in November '25. The first 11 days (part 1) will be Tokyo-Nagano/Toyama-Kyoto. After that we'll have 9 days (part 2) to explore Kyushu, Chugoku, and the Mt. Fuji area before a 5pm flight out of Tokyo (Narita) on day 10 of part 2.
Since we will be in Kyoto to finish part 1, I'm trying to decide if it would be better to fly from Osaka to Kagoshima or to take a Shinkansen from Kyoto.
Factors:
-Total travel time via air from our Kyoto hotel to the Kaagoshima airport looks to be about 5 hours (1h drive, 2h airport time, 1.5h flight, .5h cushion).
-Travel time according to Google maps from the Kyoto hotel to Kagoshimachuo Station via Shinkansen service is between 5 & 5.5 hours, plus .5h cushion, so approximately 6 hours.
-The cost is pretty similar when checking Google flights vs the JR Fare Calculator, so shouldn't be a major consideration
-We plan to explore Kyushu via car for 3 or 4 days and we can rent it the airport or a train station equally easily
-Don't have hotels booked yet in Kyushu
-Plan to take the train back from Kyushu to Tokyo on the way home, stopping along the way. (We'll have 5 days for this portion and haven't yet figured out the distribution but will probably work in some combination of Hiroshima, Okayama, Kobe, Mt. Fuji.)
So the only real difference seems to be the 1 hour (approximately) travel difference between plane vs train, plus maybe personal preference for travel method? Or am I missing something? I'm interested to hear what others would choose in this situation. Thanks
Google Maps is not the best thing to use for travel routes. Use a proper route finder such as JapanTravel by NaviTime, then you’ll know by taking the Shinkansen from Kyoto to Shin Osaka and transferring to a direct Shinkansen Sakura or Mizuho will just take 4.5 hours to Kagoshima Chuo. This is faster and so much easier than flying from Osaka.
I take the Shinkansen to Kyushu often and never consider flying.
In Kagoshima, look into the Solaria Nishitetsu Hotel right in front of Kagoshima Chuo Station. It’s a great hotel and if you book a Sakurajima side room, you’ll get a fantastic view. Highly recommend it.
Thanks for the reference to JapanTravel by NaviTime, it looks like that will be a useful site.
Using our hotel as a starting point (The Westin Miyako Kyoto) it seems as if the routes that include flights are all around 4 1/2 h whereas the Shinkansen routes range from 4h45m to 5 1/2 h. For me this is essentially the same so I'm not going to worry much about an extra hour or less.
Given cost and time as non-factors, why do you consider the train options as much easier? Security to go through? Complexity of airport vs train station?
From the Westin Miyako.
By train: Take a taxi to Kyoto Station, hop on the Shinkansen, change trains at Shin Osaka and you’ll be at Kagoshima Chuo Station.
By flying: A taxi to Kyoto Station. Take the bus/train to the airport, check in, go through security, take the flight, get luggage, and take the bus from the airport to the city.
If you think flying is easier, go right ahead.
The shinkansen is a high-quality service that I think should rank among the top experiences in Japan. And train travel has less environmental impact than air travel.
You might also check to see if one of the JR Kyushu regional rail passes might save you money on your travels in Kyushu. You can explore rail passes at https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2357.html .
The more I think about it, I think I'm actually trying to come up with reasons not to fly. If it offered a big savings in either time or money that would make a difference. Since it doesn't look like it does in this case, it seems the better choice is to take the train and enjoy a hopefully more relaxed experience.
Thanks for the feedback.
Here's a YouTube video about the 10th anniversary of the shinkansen segment between Hakata and Kagoshima:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOGPTFmovA
Kagoshima Airport is not in Kagoshima City but is in Kirishima. Takes about one hour bus ride or drive to Kagoshima city centre.
Agree with above that shinkansen would be better. If you sent your luggage ahead to the next hotel, it would make the trip easier. Hotel front desk can arrange that for you.
A note about domestic flying in Japan. There's no need to get to the airport more than 1 hour ahead of time. Check-in and security are quite fast.
Flight benefits:
--assuming no delays, about one hour faster faster door-to-door (including city to/from airport transfer times at both ends).
--likely lower cost by 8,000 to 10,000 per person
Shinkansen benefits:
--more comfortable, relaxing and less stressful
--better scenery
