Drinking in Kagoshima means imo-jochu — sweet-potato shochu — almost by default. The prefecture produces over a hundred distilleries' worth of it, and any bar or izakaya will pour you a flight to compare. Drink it with hot water (oyu-wari) in winter, on the rocks in summer, and accept that the first sip is meant to taste of earth.
The drinking district is the warren of lanes between the Tenmonkan arcades and the Kotsuki river. Standing bars (tachinomi), tiny shochu bars with twenty bottles and four stools, and basement-level snack bars line the side streets. Locals drift between two or three places in an evening — pay as you go, no tipping, follow the smoke and the lanterns.