Kamo no Ogusu

**Walk right round the base.** The buttressed root mass and the hollow inside it are the reason the numbers are what they are, and they are only legible from close up and from behind. **Twenty minutes, so combine it.** The old town of Kamo around the shrine has preserved streets, a stone-walled samurai quarter and a couple of small museums, which turns a single tree into a half-day. **It is free and always open.** No ticket, no gate, no schedule. **Fifteen minutes from the expressway.** Aira sits between Kagoshima city and Kirishima, which makes this an easy stop when driving between them or to the airport. **Do not climb on the roots.** The tree is a Special Natural Monument and the root plate is what is being protected. Stay on the paving.