A self-guided audio tour of Kagoshima, the seat of the Shimazu lords of Satsuma, who held the domain from 1185 until 1868. It starts at Terukuni Shrine, established in 1863 to enshrine Shimazu Nariakira, and walks past the statues of the three Shimazu lords and the bronze Saigo Takamori to Tsurumaru Castle: the Goromon Gate, rebuilt in 2020, and the Reimeikan museum on the inner bailey. It reads the bullet marks on the walls of Saigo's private school, then climbs Shiroyama to Saigo Cave, his last refuge, the site of the Satsuma Army's headquarters in the rebellion of 1877, and the observation deck over the city, Kinko Bay and Sakurajima. By car or bus, not narrated, it reaches the Nanshu Cemetery, up 155 steps, where Saigo and others who died in the rebellion are buried, and at Iso the residence built in 1867 for the British engineers of Japan's first Western-style spinning mill, the Shoko Shuseikan, completed in 1865 as the machinery factory of Nariakira's industrial complex, the remains of the reverberatory furnace, and Sengan-en, the Shimazu villa and garden of 1658 that borrows Sakurajima and the bay as its scenery.
14 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 405 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 30 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Terukuni Shrine, Statues of the Three Shimazu Lords, Statue of Saigo Takamori, Goromon Gate of Tsurumaru Castle, Reimeikan and the Honmaru of Tsurumaru Castle, Private School Ruins and the Bullet-Marked Wall.
Saigo Cave, Satsuma Army Headquarters Site, Shiroyama Observation Deck.
Nanshu Cemetery, Former Kagoshima Spinning Mill Engineers' Residence, Shoko Shuseikan, Reverberatory Furnace Remains, Sengan-en and the Shimazu Villa.
The two-storey timber main gate of the Shimazu lords' residence, rebuilt in 2020 after 147 years.
The stone walls of Saigo Takamori's private military academy, still marked by the fighting.
The shallow cave on Shiroyama where Saigo Takamori sheltered and directed his army in the last days of the Satsuma Rebellion.
The burial place of Saigo Takamori and others who died in the Satsuma Rebellion, up 155 steps, facing Sakurajima.
The long stone machinery factory completed in 1865 for the Shuseikan, the industrial complex Shimazu Nariakira began.
The Shimazu family's seaside villa and garden, commissioned in 1658, using Sakurajima and Kinko Bay as borrowed scenery.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 14 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 14 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Kagoshima — Satsuma, Saigo and Sengan-en, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
14 narration points, including Terukuni Shrine, Reimeikan and the Honmaru of Tsurumaru Castle, Sengan-en and the Shimazu Villa, Statues of the Three Shimazu Lords and Statue of Saigo Takamori. That is about 16 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 14 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.