Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TK421]

With a five hour twenty minute layover in Fukuoka, would that be enough time to go out of the airport for a couple hours and see a little bit of the city? How far is the airport from things worth seeing and what's the best method of getting "downtown"? Anybody have any experience/advice? Don't really feel like sitting around in an airport for five hours...

[Caffeinated]

If you want downtown head to Tenjin subway stop from the airport, browse around the underground shops or on street level, inside the big department stores Daimaru or Mitsukoshi, walk a bit along the river to Canal City and grab a bite at one of the food stalls or yatai.

[highdials5]

[bbb0777]

Repeat of what they said...

You only have a few safe hours, but still - several *usable* hours that shouldn't be wasted.

Fukuoka, while interesting/fun, is a bit short on 'must see' sights. I'd possibly suggest taking a trip to the Fukuoka Tower as well for a view of the city, if such a thing interests you.

[b-class rambler]

I lived in that part of Japan for around 10 years and must have used that airport over 50 times.

OP, which terminal are you arriving at and departing from? The answer to that question will make a very big difference to how much of the time you have you can realistically use. 5 hours 20 mins between landing and take-off times may seem like a lot, however the amount of that which is actually usuable free time may be a lot less, I'm afraid.

If you're landing at the international terminal, I would allow anything from 25 minutes (if you're really, really lucky on an empty flight or one with few other foreigners on it) to 50 minutes to get through immigration and customs. Japan fingerprints and photographs all foreigners arriving in the country and that often takes quite a while.

Once you�re through customs, you�ll need to get on the shuttle bus from in front of the international terminal building to get to the domestic terminal. It�s free, but frustratingly slow given the short distance and lack of traffic on the road it uses. Get off at domestic terminal 2 and go down the stairs/escalator outside the terminal building to the subway station. The shuttle bus takes 10 minutes. You might be lucky and get on one that leaves immediately or you might have to wait 5 minutes for one to arrive and another 5 for it to depart. Likewise with the subway.

Tenjin is 5 stops from the airport and it�s a journey of just over 10 minutes. So international terminal exit doors to Tenjin is doable in about 45 minutes if you get lucky, but is equally likely to take well over an hour. Add that onto your passport and customs time and you�d have either a worst case scenario of 2 hours from plane landing to getting to downtown Fukuoka or a best case one of just over an hour. Obviously, the same for the journey back. If your onward flight is from the international terminal, you�ll have to be at the boarding gate 30 mins before and also allow plenty of time for the long queues to get through security. I would advise getting back to the international terminal about an hour before your flight's take-off time. That's assuming you already have your onward boarding pass.


If you�re leaving from or arriving at the domestic terminal, it�s a whole different ball game. No passports/customs, no shuttle bus to get to/from the subway station, no big queues for security checks and you can be at the gate just 15 mins before take-off.

Of course, a lot depends on the unknown factors of your arriving flight�s punctuality and how long passport/customs takes. But I�d suggest that if you go anywhere, take the subway to Hakata station (just 2 stops/5 mins). There�s a department store and quite a few stores around there, including a huge electronics store (Yodobashi Camera) which a lot of visitors find interesting.

[TK421]

Hey thanks a lot man! That was very useful information.

I will be going from Tokyo to Fukuoka so I'll be landing the domestic terminal, no baggage to be checked or picked up, so I should be able to get out into the city very quick. I will need to get back early though because I'm taking off again from the international terminal and heading to Busan. Thanks for the useful post!

[b-class rambler]

You'll have no baggage to check in? In that case, when you're checking in at the international terminal, there may be a long queue that you can jump.

At the international terminal all the check-in desks are in a fenced off central area. They x-ray your check-in baggage only (NOT your carry-on baggage) at the entrance to this fenced off check-in area. So there's often a long line of people waiting for their bags to be x-rayed so they can proceed to the actual check-in desk. If you have only hand baggage, just go straight to the front and tell the security person you only have hand baggage (te-nimotsu in Japanese) and they'll wave you through.

I know of people who've stood in one of those lines for 30 minutes only to find they didn't need to.

Once you've checked in and exited from the opposite side of the fenced off area, you'll have a separate queue to join which is people waiting for their hand baggage to be x-rayed on the way through to the passport check & departure area.

If you did head for Fukuoka Tower, the subway stop you'd want would be Nishijin, a further 4 stops after Tenjin. From there it's about a 20 minute walk to the tower. Personally, I wouldn't really recommend it because that's at least 45 minutes each way from/to the airport (plus the extra back to the international terminal) so you'll be pushed for time. Also, you'd be paying 800yen for a view you can get from the plane anyway!!

[Mosley]

Is the 5 hrs. at night? If so, make a quick visit to the Anchor Bar in Nakasu, even if you're not a drinker.

Is the 5 hrs. in the daytime? Don't waste time & money going into the city.

[JBomb]

If you want to stretch your legs, subway down to take a walk through the Fukuoka Castle ruins and swing over to the near by Shinto Shrine. They got priests there in full dress who do a bit of a ceremony on the hour with fans and drums. Interesting bit of culture before heading back to the subway and stopping back at Tenjin for a bite to eat at one of the street food stalls called Yatai. The airport is really really close to town so you can zip around very easily and quickly using the subway.