By bus
Various overnight bus services are available to Kagoshima from Osaka and Kobe ~¥10000 one way; ~¥21000 round-trip. Tickets for Osaka and Kyoto can be bought from Willer Express's English site (http://willerexpress.com) for around ¥7800 each way. Daytime and nighttime buses also run from Fukuoka yen 5400 one way; 4 hours and Oita. There are day buses from Kumamoto for about Â¥3600; 3 1/2 hours.
By ship
Kagoshima is one of Japan's most busy ferry terminals, with a plethora of ferries connecting mainland Japan to its southern islands. For the Okinawan archipelago there's several routes towards Naha which stops on different islands along the way. Operators include Matrix Line (http://www.marix-line.co.jp/) and A Line ferry (http://www.aline-ferry.com/) - expect the full journey towards Naha to take around 25 hours, although you can stop halfway through in the Amami Islands. Towards the world heritage site of Yakushima and the island of Tanegashima near Kyushu you can opt for either Orita Kisen (http://www.f2.dion.ne.jp/...) 4 hrs, yen 4000 or the Toppy (http://www.toppy.jp/) hydrofoils completing the journey in just under 2 hours yen 7000. Finaly for the Tokara Islands, the municipality (http://www.tokara.jp/acce...) operates 2 weekly ferries plying the route in around 7 hours Yen 6000.
By plane
Kagoshima's Airport is one hour away from Kagoshima's main train station by Bus ¥1200. JAL and ANA offer flights into Kagoshima from several major cities in Japan. Kagoshima Airport is also the starting point for many flights to Okinawa and the surrounding islands.