Korean Job Discussion Forums

[air76]

Hey....has anyone rented a car in Fukuoka? Can you recommend a good company to go through?

[matthews_world]

Where are you going that you would need a car?

Public transport is quite easy and efficient in Fukuoka.

For outbound travel try JRail. 7 day pass for 260,000 quoted by Kangsan Travel.

For bus lines from Fukuoka Bus Terminal:
http://www.123bus.net./

[qwerty]

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2024.html

[air76]

I don't need a car....but there will be 3 of us so it would just be more fun to have a car and be able to drive around. Exploring the countryside in a car would be half of the experience. Trains only get you to destinations and don't allow you to stop off at the little things you never expected to find along the way.

[Donghae]

Sorry, this might be a bit late now....

At Fukuoka Airport you've got Toyota Rentacar, Nissan, Nippon rentacar and Budget, all on the road on the other side of the car park that you see when you come out of the domestic terminal. If you're arriving at the international terminal, just get on the free shuttle bus and get off at domestic terminal 1 or 2.

Here's toyota's website, I'm sure you can find the others via google but they're all much of a muchness price-wise. It's often cheaper to book online. One company I've found not very foreigner friendly in the past was Orix, but I can't remember if they're still at Fukuoka Airport.

http://rent.toyota.co.jp/top.asp

I think you're right that travelling out of the city will be (a) more fun and (b) cheaper for 3 people with a car as opposed to public transport. But if you are using the car much in cities, bear in mind that parking in Japan is a real, real pain in the ass. If you park illegally on a road (and that means pretty much ANY road) you do have a good chance of having the car towed away and needing about Y30,000 to get it back from the police. Unless you're spending money somewhere like a hotel or big store, there isn't really a lot of free parking to be had in Japan. Family restaurants and video stores or electronic stores like Best Denki are often your best bet for free parking, but they tend not to be in places that are convenient for much else.

And btw, bear in mind that expressway tolls are ridiculously expensive. Fukuoka down to Nagasaki will cost you around Y4000 even though it's less than 200km. On the other hand, lots of Japanese avoid the expressways because of the expense so they're not so busy, and taking the normal roads for that kind of distance will treble your journey time.

Anyway, good luck if you haven't gone there already.