Rainy day things to do in Kagoshima with kids 3 spots
Kagoshima faces Sakurajima, a volcano that smokes across the bay in full view of the city. At Ibusuki you get buried to the neck in sand the ground heats from below, and ferries cross to the volcano itself.
Kagoshima City Aquarium (Io World)
An aquarium of 800 species from Kinko Bay to the Nansei Islands, whale shark included.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
Kagoshima Municipal Science Hall
A science museum about the Sakurajima volcano and space, with a 280-seat planetarium.
Stroller OK · Nursing room · Changing table · checked Aug ’26
The cafe that invented shirokuma shaved ice in 1947, now serving over ten kinds.
Elevator · checked Aug ’26
The main exhibits are indoors: the main building runs from the seal tank on floor 1 to the Kuroshio Tank on floor 2, the Kagoshima deep-sea corner on floor 3, and the sawshark tank on floor 4. Outside are the dolphin channel exhibit, where dolphins swim in the waterway beside the aquarium, and the lawn where you can eat a packed lunch.
It is indoors. Everything is inside one six-story building: the 280-seat Space Theater on the 5th floor shows planetarium programs and dome cinema, and on the 3rd floor you ride the Sakurajima Sky Cycle, a pedal-powered plane that flies over Sakurajima.
You get there by walking about 150 m straight through the covered arcade from the Tenmonkan-dori streetcar stop, then eat on the 52-seat first floor or take the elevator up to the second.