Mount Kaimon

Drive south through Ibusuki and the mountain keeps appearing at the end of the road: a lone cone, 924 meters high, rising straight out of farmland and sea. It is a double volcano, a lava dome sitting on a stratovolcano, and its last eruption is recorded in 885. The climb starts at Kaimon Sanroku Fureai Park on the north side, about 20 minutes on foot from JR Kaimon Station, and the trail does something unusual: it circles the mountain in a spiral, so you walk all the way round the cone on the way up. It is about 5 km and roughly 3 hours to the summit, by the prefecture's tourism guide. The lower half is shaded forest with few views; the sea and the coast open up only higher on the spiral, where the ground turns rocky. From the top on a clear day you can pick out Kirishima, Sakurajima and Lake Ikeda to the north and Yakushima to the south. Trains on the Ibusuki Makurazaki Line are infrequent, so check the return times before you set off. The view of the whole cone is best from below: nearby Nagasakibana cape and the fields around Nishi-Oyama Station are the usual spots.