Kagoshima sits at the southern tip of the Kyushu Shinkansen. From Hakata (Fukuoka) it is one hour and twenty minutes by the fastest Mizuho trains, and three hours forty minutes from Shin-Osaka with a single change at Hakata. The terminal is Kagoshima-Chuo, on the western side of the city; the tram and city-loop buses leave from the square outside the station.
Kagoshima Airport is in Kirishima, an hour north of the city by limousine bus. Direct flights run to Tokyo (Haneda and Narita), Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Naha, and a handful of short-hop international routes serve Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei. From the airport, the bus to Kagoshima-Chuo is roughly 1,400 yen one way.
Ferries leave from Kagoshima New Port to Tanegashima, Yakushima and the Tokara and Amami island chains, and the high-speed jetfoil to Yakushima takes under three hours.