Fukuoka Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Long-distance buses (English information 733-3333) depart from the Kōtsū bus centre near JR Hakata station and also from the Tenjin bus centre. Destinations include Tokyo (¥15, 000, 14½ hours), Osaka (¥10, 000, 9½ hours), Nagoya (¥10, 500, 11 hours) and many other places around Kyūshū.

Train

JR Hakata station (English information 471-8111, JR English info-line 03-3423-0111) is the western terminus of the 1175km-long Tokyo–Osaka–Hakata shinkansen. There are services to/from Tokyo (¥21, 720, five to six hours), Osaka (¥14, 590, 2½ to three hours) and Hiroshima (¥8700, 1½ hours). Prices are slightly higher for the Nozomi shinkansen.

JR lines also fan out from Hakata to other parts of Kyūshū. The Nippō line runs through Beppu and Miyazaki; the Kagoshima line runs through Hakata, Kumamoto and Kagoshima; and both the Nagasaki and Sasebo lines run from Hakata to Saga and Sasebo or to Nagasaki. The newest shinkansen line in Kyūshū runs from Shin-Yatsushiro to Kagoshima (¥6350, one hour); eventually it will extend up to Hakata. You can also travel by subway and JR train to Karatsu and continue from there to Nagasaki by train.

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Boat

Ferry services from Hakata connect to Okinawa and other islands off Kyūshū. An international high-speed hydrofoil service run by JR Kyūshū called Biitoru (say ‘beetle’; in Japan 092-281-2315, in Korea 051-442-6111; www.jrbeetle.co.jp/english) connects Fukuoka with Busan in Korea (¥13, 000, three hours, four daily). The Camellia line (in Japan 092-262-2323, in Korea 051-466-7799; www.camellia-line.co.jp in Japanese & Korean) has a regular ferry service from Fukuoka to Busan (¥9000, six hours, daily at noon). In Fukuoka, the Beetle and the Camellia depart from Fukuoka Port International Terminal via bus 11, 19 or 50 from JR Hakata station (¥220), or bus 80 from Tenjin (Solaria Stage-mae; ¥180). From Busan, both the Beetle (Won 9000, three hours, four daily) and the Camellia (Won 80, 000, overnight) depart from the International Ferry Port, approximately 200m from Jungang-dong subway station.

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Air

Fukuoka is a major international gateway with flights to and from many major cities in Japan and Asia. Domestic flights go to Tokyo (¥27, 900, 1½ hours, Haneda airport/Narita International Airport 45/four flights daily). Other domestic routes include Osaka (¥16, 200, one hour, six flights daily) and Okinawa (Naha, ¥20, 300, 1½ hours, 12 flights daily). ANA and JAL are the two most common carriers, and both have offices here.

Japan’s only independent cut-rate carrier, Skymark (736-3131, in Tokyo 03-3433-7026) flies to Tokyo’s Haneda airport (¥15, 000, nine flights daily).

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