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theevilgenius
Joined: 10 Sep 2010
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 Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:16 am Post subject: Train tickets, Japan, Fukuoka and Beyond? |
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| So I'm going to Japan for Chuseok and was wondering does anyone have experience buying tickets, i.e. do I get them there or book online, how much and most importantly can you buy a ticket that let's you travel where you want for the four days or with a certain amount of stops, kind of like an inter-railing ticket in Europe! Any info would be brilliant! |
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Missihippi
Joined: 22 Oct 2007
Location: Gwangmyeong
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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After just having visited the Fukuoka/Nagasaki area i can tell you this:
-Most places don't accept credit card, even family mart!
-Generally, English signs seem to be less common than in Korea.
-Buses in that area generally ran about 1400 Yen (about 20,000 won) for an hour or two ride to the next town. You just show up at the bus station and put coins into a machine to buy a ticket. You can just tell them the city you want at the info desk and do some awkward handmotioning and they will tell you when the next bus is leaving to that city. In my experience there, the tickets didn't have a destination on them, just a price, and the driver collected them after you arrived.
-Nagasaki only warranted a day trip
-Fukuoka had the best nightlife in that area
-Everything is super expensive, definitely the most expensive country i've ever been to. |
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theevilgenius
Joined: 10 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Missihippi, would you recommend taking Yen with me or can you get it over there easily? |
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ThingsComeAround
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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| theevilgenius wrote: |
| Missihippi, would you recommend taking Yen with me or can you get it over there easily? |
GET IT HERE!
Selling KRW anywhere but Korea is a Bad BAD idea. |
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b-class rambler
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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| theevilgenius wrote: |
| Missihippi, would you recommend taking Yen with me or can you get it over there easily? |
Yen is indeed very much available in Japan. 
If you're wondering if it's better to change KRW to JPY in Korea or in Japan, then I'd completely agree with the poster above that it's always better to change KRW into anything else in Korea, and Japanese Yen is no different. In fact, it's as difficult, or more so, to change Won in Japan as anywhere else in spite of the proximity and the high proportion of Korean visitors there. If you're taking a ferry to Japan, a Korean boat will accept both currencies but a Japanese one will probably not accept Won. So, yes, definitely do any Won to Yen exchange here before you leave. I'd also recommend that if you end up with any Yen that you want to change back to Won after your trip that you do that back in Korea as you'll get a better rate for it than in Japan.
If, however, the source of your Yen was going to be money you have back in your own country then you could use an visa/cirrus etc ATM card from back home in Japan to get cash. A big BUT though....be warned that ATMs which accept foreign cards are even rarer in Japan than in Korea. Post offices ATMs are often the best bet, but many ATMs shut down bizarrely early in Japan. It's not uncommon to find ones that don't even work at all on Sundays and other public holidays.
Where were you intending to go by train? You can buy any oneway trip train tickets from the vending machines at the station. For any shinkansen or other express train journey you'll have a ticket for the journey plus also a ticket for the express supplement and need to retain both for inspection and to let you exit the ticket gate at your destination. If you can't figure out how to use the ticket machines, you could either
(a) just get the cheapest ticket and pay the difference to your actual destination to the conductor on the train or via the "fare adjustment" machine by the exit ticket gate when you arrive. The ticket will have the fare you paid and the station you bought it at on it and the exit gate will not let you out if you've gone beyond the fare zone you've paid for;
or (b) buy your ticket from the ticket counter or office at the station. You can pay by foreign credit card if you do this. If it's a shinkansen or other express journey you may be asked to specify if you want a shi-tei-seki (Reserved seat) or ji-yuu seki (unreserved). If you were going somewhere fairly close in Kyushu, you could be asked if you want to go by tokkyu (express) or futsuu (local train), the latter being obviously cheaper.
Generally speaking, places that accept credit cards in Japan are much more numerous than they used to be, but their use is still a lot less widespread than in Korea or our home countries. |
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