Korean Job Discussion Forums

[KristaLynn]

Hey, everyone!

I want to go to the outside of Fukuoka using this, especially day #1 as my guide. The directions to this have me a little lost, and I'm half-afraid I'm going to get there and find no one that can help me out with it if I need it. These are awesome for getting on the right train rides, but does anyone know of a site or have any advice for getting to... Oh, the actual train station, from Fukuoka airport and then to the sites once arrived?

When I jumped on this, I'm afraid I wasn't thinking too straight because of a landslide of problems here. Korea has been sssooo easy to get around, absolutely impossible to get lost really, that I forgot for a moment that Japan could be entirely different.

Right, I have a tendency to post panic-messages only on eslcafe forums. Sorry about that and the continual moments of stupidity tossed your way from my direction. =)

[Donghae]

I take it you're arriving at the international terminal in Fukuoka, so first you need to take the free shuttle bus to the domestic terminal. Come out of the middle doors of the international terminal and you'll find the shuttle bus pretty much in front of you. The bus stop for it is marked clearly.

Get off at terminal 2 of the domestic terminal (next stop after terminal 1) as that's the closest to the subway station entrance. Take the subway 2 stops to Hakata Station. That's the main JR station for Fukuoka City. Don't worry, you can't possibly go the wrong way from the airport subway station as it's the end of the line and all the trains go the same way! The subway fare is 250yen BTW.

Hakata Station is quite big and busy, and it may be a little bewildering when you first surface from the subway station. Just make sure you don't go through the Shinkansen ticket gate, and you'll be fine. I take it from the site you linked to that you'll have the 5 day pass and won't need to buy a ticket, so go through any ticket gate except the Shinkansen one. The electronic train schedule boards at the ticket gates keep alternating between Japanese & English and you should look for the trains displayed in red - those are the limited express (eru tokkyu in Japanese) ones. Probably the one you want will have Kumamoto as it's final destination, but if in doubt, just say "Kumamoto?" to the JR official at the ticket gate and they'll tell you which platform.

Once you've successfully got yourself on the right train out of Hakata station, you shouldn't go wrong from there onwards. One thing to bear in mind about Mt Aso is that sometimes the ropeway to the crater at the top is closed if they deem the levels of toxic gas coming out of the crater to be dangerously high. I've been there about a dozen times and this has only happened once. But a friend here has taken 5 separate visitors to Aso and every time the ropeway was closed for this reason - just pot luck really.

Anyway, hope that helps.