The main recommendation for this hotel is the view of Mt Sakurajima. But you must be willing to pay the rather hefty $160 for basically the view. Therefore ask for a room with a view. The breakfast was plentiful but there were a lot of other guests, so it seemed rather soul-less and production line overall; and somewhat crowded when we were there. We slept well- I always do when near an active volcano for some reason e.g. under Mt Mayon in Luzon.
The volcano is rather active and the view across the water is good. Since the volcano is the main reason for visiting as a tourist, we thought it a good move to stay here- and it was. The hotel was good enough but nothing great except for the view. If I came back I would stay here actually as the visit to the volcano itself was somewhat underwhelming if you take the tourist bus which does not actually go around the volcano, or get very near.

After reading readers' reviews, we already knew that the location of this hotel was a bit away from the city center, but we decided to try this hotel anyway to relax after staying at the Swissotel Nankai Osaka for the previous 3 nights. What a contrast! Our room was on the far end of the hotel away from the elevator, and the view of Sakurajima was fantastic. It reminded me of Hawai'i whenever we were in the room. There was no sound at all from waves or ferries when the door was open. The decor was dated and antiquated, the bed was hard, and the raised bathroom was cramped, old, and didn't seem very clean. The toilet seat was an old model, the paper was thin and awful, and the toilet itself didn't seem very clean. In fact, this was my least favorite bathroom out of the 6 hotels we stayed at during our 2 week trip to Japan, but perhaps if I weren't really picky, it would have been okay.

I would highly recommend the breakfast buffet, which was not only delicious, but also convenient since there is nowhere else in the vicinity to eat at. You get a nice choice of Japanese or Western food, a fantastic view of Sakurajima, and 2 wonderful coffee machines, depending on if you want American coffee, hot coffee, a latte, or espresso. Since coffee is so expensive in Japan (about 300-400 yen for a little cup), this alone was worth the money for me!

A taxi from the train station was about 1700 yen. Once we got the luggage there, we ended up using the streetcar to get around (called Ro-men-den-sha in Japanese) when we went back into town. Once we waited at a bus stop for a bus about a block away from the hotel, but uncharacteristically for Japan, it never came. We gave up after 45 minutes and walked to the streetcar. The only problem is that the closest streetcar stop was about a brisk 20 min walk from the hotel, with not much of interest to look at along the way. You have to walk through several residential areas past tall apartment blocks and some tall business towers to get to the river, which you can then follow to the streetcar stop. Then, it's about 15 minutes to get to the shopping area (Tenmon) and the train station. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on taxis since we are able-bodied and prepared to walk a long way in Japan, but it wasn't fun to walk back to the hotel after a long day and dinner through dark, deserted streets for 20 minutes, especially if we were carrying groceries or souvenirs. On the last night we found a bus from the train station that let us off quite close to the hotel, only about 2 blocks away, so I would recommend trying that if you don't want to continuously spend a ton of money on taxis.

We took the ferry from the harbor (only 150 yen and departs every 15 mins) to Sakurajima and, once there, walked to the visitor's center and around the onsen. Nice place to grab a drink and a snack and relax; there's a long trough where you can take off your shoes and soak your feet in volcanic hot springs right next to the visitor's center. The Kagoshima Aquarium was absolutely fantastic; there was almost no one there. It is large, and they have a whale shark (jin-bei-zame) too! It is right next to the ferry to Sakurajima. Across the street from the Aquarium, there is an arcade with a bunch of restaurants/shops that looked good. We ended up walking back to the station, which was far (at least 30 brisk minutes, possibly 40-45) and eating at the AMU plaza attached, at one of the top floor restaurants. We had to try famous Kurobuta tonkatsu, which was indeed delicious.

By the way, the reason we went to Sakurajima and the Aquarium in the first place is because the trains to Ibusuki were all full by the time we got to the train station at 11 am. Ibusuki is where the famous Sunaburo sand baths are located. No idea why this is so incredibly popular among Japanese, but make sure you book the train to Ibusuki ahead of time, not the same day you want to go.

In short, the hotel was nice but the location made it difficult for me to want to stay there again. If I had a car, it would be a different story. It is just too inconvenient having a wait a long time for a bus, or walk a long way to the streetcar. I would stay closer to the train station, like the tokyu inn, or to Tenmonkan shopping district.

Good rooms with wonderful views across the bay. Only minus point is that it is a long way out of the centre of Kagoshima.

We chose this hotel since it was close to the "port" although you need to be sure which port you mean. Popping over to the volcano the other side true, for the Yakushima hydrofoil no, that's 2 miles away although it does not really matter. So arrived late-ish in the afternoon checked in, large front looking room with good views and free wired internet. Went out to get a taxi to the hydrofoil to organise tickets for the next day and that's when the fun began. Taxi driver went back in the hotel, I followed.... what typhoon ?. Umm that thing off the east coast that I had been looking at on the weather map was indeed a typhoon and nothing was sailing that day....

This is where the front desk stepped in, said no need to go to the hydrofoil we can book it for tomorrow. Question is whether they will be sailing, we think so... Booked tickets. The front desk then phoned up the car hire on Yakushima island to tell them which port
we were arriving at and at what time to be met the following day. Then pushing our luck we then asked them to phone the care hire in Ibusuki to tell them what time we would be arriving there. Issue too late for the office to be open but least we knew we could pick the car up the next day. We said we would get up at 5:30 to check whether the typhoon had passed and the hydrofoil was running. Morning came, they checked the screen on the website and all was good.

Full marks to the front desk and one particular individual that did all of this for us since we don't speak a word of Japanese. Now onto the rest.

The "Asian Fusion" restaurant which is the sea facing one, same area as the breakfast one was a bit of a disaster with the lights being off but turned on for us. The meal was cold and the waiter was lacklustre. Probably better to have gone out in retrospect.

The breakfast however was very good and the volcano decided to put up a puff which only I and the partner observed. So excellent views and the quality of the food and choice was good.

Some people as a recall said about noise from the port, I can only say they must have been eating magic mushrooms since you aren't going to get port noises though double glazing at this distance and why sleep with your window open ?...

In summary a good clean hotel, very helpful front desk staff, good breakfast but skip having dinner in least in the "Asian Fusion" restaurant, nice rooms, good view.