Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Sophos]

I am going to Fukuoka by beetle ferry from Busan next week for Chuseok (Wed - Sunday) with my husband. This is our first trip to Japan and we plan to just stay in North Kyushu. We want to explore Fukuoka and go to Nagasaki, Beppu and Mount Aso using the JR pass for 3 days.

I was wondering if we should book our accommodation in advance for the 4 nights - will everything be booked up? We want to keep prices pretty low and as we are only in Japan for a short time we don't want to spend ages trekking around town looking for a reasonably priced place to stay. It would be nice to have the freedom to stay wherever we want though. In Korea we usually just stay in love motels as they are cheap, usually clean and there's loads of them. Do they have something similar in Japan that we could just rock up to?

Any advice would be mucho appreciated!

[Neil]

Normally I'd say just rock up, love hotels are all over the place, however next week is silver week. Thursday is a public holiday and a lot of people will take the friday off to get a 4 day weekend (my school is shutting on the friday and other companies may follow suit) so a few more people than usual will be on the road.

[Sophos]

Thanks for the info. Out of interest how much are love hotels in Japan for a night? Also, we are thinking of basing ourselves in Fukuoka near to Hakata train station and doing day trips out to Nagasaki, Mount Aso and Beppu by train. Does that sound reasonable or are we going to spend loads of time on trains and not see much? Should we stay overnight in some of those places?

[Neil]

A love/business hotel will be around 5-6000 yen a night, there is a hostel near Hakata (Kao San) which is 2-3000 yen a night. I am unsure how many single/double rooms they have though.

The sonic train (not sure if covered under JR pass) will get you to Beppu in 2 hrs. Only ever been to Nagasaki via bus, it takes 2 hrs by bus from Hakata so I'd estimate 1hr-1:30hrs by train.

[JBomb]

Book a hotel before. Much less hassle. I also got a bit of crap in Fukuoka Airport for not having a hotel or anything booked. They were going to refuse me and a friend entry. I had to make one on the spot using a flight attendant's cell phone and my lonely planet book.
Capsule hotels are also an option you might want to consider for saving costs. They are also an experience in themselves. Many are also connected to saunas which make for a nice wake up and soak in the morning.