Busses to Ebino Kogen

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out some bus connections to Ebino Kogen in the end of April. There are some forum threads regarding public transportation in this area, but they are all at least a few years old and the links to the bus timetables are all dead.

I managed to figure out these might be the options to get from Kagoshima city to Ebino Kogen, but I'm not sure if they are totally correct:

- taking a train from Kagoshima station to Kirishima Jingu station and then taking a bus to Ebino Kogen
- taking a train from Kagoshima station to Kagoshima airport, then a bus to Kirishima Iwasaki hotel and then another bus to Ebino Kogen
- taking a train from Kagoshima station to Kirishima Onsen station, then a bus to Maruo Onsen and then another bus to Ebino Kogen

Are all these options still available? I would be really grateful if someone could provide some links to timetables in English or just write the hours when these busses are leaving.

Thanks in advance!

Also trying to figure this out. Here is a bus schedule, but sorry it is in Japanese.

https://www.city-kirishima.jp/kirikan/kanko/leisure/documents/rosenzu....

I can manage to read some Japanese. There are 3 buses heading from Maruo Onsen (looks like Iwasaki Hotel is on the route) to Ebino Kogen at 830am, 1030am, and 1230pm. There is only one return bus from Ebino Kogen at 4pm. Bus ride is 30min. Good luck!

Actually, the 1230pm bus from Maruo Onsen to Ebino Kogen also goes back to Maruo Onsen, but it goes via Takachiho-gawara, making it 1hr ride. So 13:00 at Ebino Kogen, 13:29 at Takachiho-gawara, and 14:02 at Maruo Onsen.

Thanks for your help, Warren! I've managed to translate other info from the timetable you've provided, so now we're good to go :)

Hi there Tiz! I myself am planning a trip to Ebino Kogen in July and would really appreciate it if you could share the information you've figured out. Also since you're trip is much earlier than mine, wondering if you could share how smoothly the journey there went (late buses, cancelled buses etc.) Thank you!

Sure, I will post the timetables and let you know about our experience once we finish our trip.

We�fve just finished with our trip to Kirishima national park, and it all worked out as planned. The buses were all on time. There are few different ways to reach Ebino-Kogen campground from Kagoshima city, but since we had the JR pass, we chose the one that included trains for the most part of the journey.

Our journey to Ebino-Kogen was:

Kagoshima-Chuo station to Hayato station, from 9:59 till 10:31 (JR pass)
Hayato station to Kirishima Onsen, from 10:35 till 11:06 (JR pass)
Kirishima Onsen to Maruo, from 11:57 till 12:22 (bus, 440 yen)
Maruo to Ebino-Kogen, from 12:30 till 12:56 (bus, 420 yen)

Our journey back to Kagoshima city was:

Ebino-Kogen to Maruo; from 13:00 till 14:02 (bus, 760 yen - this one goes via Takachiho Gawara, so it�fs a bit longer and more expensive than the direct line from Maruo to Ebino-Kogen!)
Maruo to Kirishima Onsen; from 14:56 till 15:20 (bus, 440 yen)
Kirishima Onsen to Kagoshima-Chuo station; from 15:32 till 16:44 (JR pass)

As mentioned, you can arrange your journey in many different ways, as there are buses going around many of the towns and villages in this area. If you wish to use other routes, I suggest you use the pdf with bus schedules, provided by Warren in the second post of this thread. It�fs in Japanese, but I used Google translate and it actually worked pretty well :)

Hi Tiz! Thank you so much for your help! :)
Did you stay the night in Ebino Kogen? I'm planning a day trip there do you thin this would be hard to do? :)

Yes, we stayed the night at the campground, but I think it's totally possible to just do a day trip if you catch the 8:30 or 10:30 bus from Maruo to Ebino-Kogen, do a hike around the surrounding volcanoes and then catch a bus back at 16:00. There are several hikes around the area, some really short ones (around 30 min) and some longer ones (up to 5 hours, I think).

Note that some of the trails around Ebino Kogen are again closed due to a volcanic no-entry zone as of May 9: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4627.html