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Zed
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Shakedown Street
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 Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| I might just check that out since I believe I'll be going tomorrow. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Cymro wrote: |
I'm flying to Fukuoka tomorrow (wed) afternoon to do the visa on Thursday.
How's the nightlife there Wednesdays? Do I recall correctly that it's a cheap night at the bars?
Also, 190,000won for a return flight from Seoul? How? I had to pay almost double that! |
TOPS TRAVEL in Seoul has it for 190,000 through JAPAN Airlines (Not Korean Airlines - which is about double the fare).
Nightlife on Wednesday.. I don't know.. but Sunday and Monday it was dismal. On the plus side, there are teachers coming from Korea soaking up some beer at the Happy Cock.
Happy Cock has two bars.. fairly close to each other. All you can drink for (equivalent 15,000 won or 1500 yen) for TWO hours. Best deal in town. They were closed on Monday, so I went to 50 other bars JUST LOOKING.. never found any beer cheaper than 650 yen (or 6,5000 won) for a mug of beer. |
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PolyChronic Time Girl
Joined: 15 Dec 2004
Location: Korea Exited
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| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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So how was the visa run, folks? I just came back from Fukuoka last week and I am floored at how much money I spent (for four days cost about 500,000 won, not including boat ticket). I didn't even drink or do any real shopping! It's a cool city and being around Japanese, who didn't even blink at me, was a nice change. People eat alone at restaurants and it's nice to see that kind of comfort of being alone (unlike korea) Great food too! I was by my lonesome unfortunately, so I didn't really get a chance to meet other foreigners (the consulate was dead when I was there) and hit the bars in Tenjin.
The only frustrating thing was the buses. The ferry terminal is out in no-man's land and there were no buses at the terminal that went in the direction of the consulate. Also, when I boarded the bus, I needed to have a card and could not simply just take a ticket from the inside dispenser. Could anyone fill me in on the bus system?
Did anyone else have trouble getting a hotel room? I didn't make any reservations when I left and Kangsan travel said it couldn't give me a package hotel deal because the hotels were booked up. When I was near Hakata Station, I must have at least walked to at least seven hotels before I could find one with a room available. And I paid 6700 yen/per night for a very small hotel room. Anyone know of where some other hotels areas are for next time that would be available?
Great city though...but I think four days was a little too long for just there. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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| PolyChronic Time Girl wrote: |
Did anyone else have trouble getting a hotel room? I didn't make any reservations when I left and Kangsan travel said it couldn't give me a package hotel deal because the hotels were booked up. When I was near Hakata Station, I must have at least walked to at least seven hotels before I could find one with a room available. And I paid 6700 yen/per night for a very small hotel room. Anyone know of where some other hotels areas are for next time that would be available?
Great city though...but I think four days was a little too long for just there. |
I stayed in a capsule inn called "WELLBE".. there were plenty of capsules available.. definetely not booked. Had a sauna.. cost me roughly 3800. There was another called Hakata Capsule at 3180 but the NEW news is that its SHUT DOWN. So anyone looking for that cheaper option, can forget it.
The strange thing about WellBe Capsule was I only saw guys in there.. so if you were a women.. not sure if they have a separate section or out of luck.
I also agree its a GREAT city.. extremely comfortable.. would be ideal if you were perhaps married with children. Very expensive though and for a single person who wanted to go out a lot, Osaka or Tokyo would out-rank Fukuoka. For comfort facts and aesthetics, I can definetely understand why Fukuoka is always rated high and raved about often. |
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Cymro
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Looks like I'll be at the Happy "Male Bird" then tonight. |
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different
Joined: 22 May 2003
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 11:03 am Post subject: |
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| It is no longer possible to get your visa in one day in Fukuoka. It used to be possible, but starting this month you must come back the next day. |
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Cymro
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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...and if you don't get your application in early, then you won't get it back in time to catch the Busan boat the next day, so even the one-night stopover might turn out to be a two-night stopover.
There were some pretty angry people at that consulate this week! |
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Donghae
Joined: 24 Dec 2003
Location: Fukuoka, Japan
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:05 am Post subject: |
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| PolyChronic Time Girl wrote: |
| It's a cool city and being around Japanese, who didn't even blink at me, was a nice change. |
It's certainly true and something I liked when I first came here from Korea, that in bigger Japanese cities like Fukuoka you won't get people "noticing" you as much as is often the case in Korea, especially so if you look like a temporary visitor; very different story, however, if you're clearly a more permanent foreigner in Japan and if you're in cities less used to foreign visitors. The other downside of this intially positive seeming feature is that whilst some Japanese are less likely to stare annoyingly at you than many of their Korean counterparts they are also less likely to help you out either.
| PolyChronic Time Girl wrote: |
The only frustrating thing was the buses. The ferry terminal is out in no-man's land and there were no buses at the terminal that went in the direction of the consulate. Also, when I boarded the bus, I needed to have a card and could not simply just take a ticket from the inside dispenser. Could anyone fill me in on the bus system?
Did anyone else have trouble getting a hotel room? I didn't make any reservations when I left and Kangsan travel said it couldn't give me a package hotel deal because the hotels were booked up. When I was near Hakata Station, I must have at least walked to at least seven hotels before I could find one with a room available. And I paid 6700 yen/per night for a very small hotel room. Anyone know of where some other hotels areas are for next time that would be available?
Great city though...but I think four days was a little too long for just there. |
On Nishi-Tetsu buses in Fukuoka city you get on in the middle and either (A)feed your pre-paid bus card thru the machine or (B)take a ticket with a number on it. In the case of (A) you simply feed it thru the machine by the driver when you get off at the front - as long as there's enough credit left on it you can use it for more than one person, just tell the driver before you feed it thru; if (B) then as you get off you need to check the price of your journey shown under the number of your ticket on the electronic board at the front of the bus; drop the EXACT fare in the big slot next to the driver, if you need change the machine next to, but slightly behind the driver will change 100 or 500 yen coins or 1000 yen bills.
You can also get the prepaid bus card from the driver on the bus in 1000 (100 yen extra free) , 3000 (400 extra free), 5000 (750) or 10000 (1000 extra) denominations. If doing this you need to show the driver as you get off the fare stage number ticket you took when getting on so that he knows how much to take off your card. And if you have nothing smaller than a 5000 or 10000 when you get on the bus then your only option is to buy a prepaid bus card for either amount from the driver anyway as the above mentioned change machine takes nothing over 1000.
There are NO buses from anywhere near the ferry terminal towards anywhere near the consulate. So unless you're taking a taxi the bus card (1000yen one probably best) is a good idea as you get about 100 yen discount on a second journey bus fare if you get on another bus within an hour of taking the first.
Hey, everybody clear about the buses, now?? 
BTW, 6700yen for a small hotel room is not that expensive by Japanese standards. And, sad to say it, but there are undeniably some places (not many though) who may be less than honest about the availability of vacant rooms to someone who's a foreigner and/or speaks no Japanese and/or they don't like the look of. I refer again to the hotel chain I gave the link for above - can't stress how much better a deal they are than almost any other Japanese hotel, especially for visa run people. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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| different wrote: |
| It is no longer possible to get your visa in one day in Fukuoka. It used to be possible, but starting this month you must come back the next day. |
Links? |
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andrew
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 6:30 am Post subject: |
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.....
Last edited by andrew on Sat Apr 25, 2009 3:53 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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people going to Fukuaka or however you spell it, i found this website that seems to be quite informative so far:
http://www.geocities.com/japanfaq2/fukuokahotels.html
re: same day service.
Well, my school phoned the consulate to make sure.
Also, I had a big stink up in Vancouver when I found out that in Vancouver it's legislated that you have to wait 3 days.
That's the whole reason i'm taking this trip.
There is a one night service by the sounds....but that's the minimum. You can not believe my sheety situation but it seems to be true.
oh ps...for all the ladies out there...there is now a capsule hotel just for you.
It's called "Siesta"...it's run by the ehe....here's the link
http://www.katsuyamasangyo.co.jp/greenland/EandK/index_e.html |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2005 12:22 am Post subject: |
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i also was sprung on this visa run thing.
I've had a couple days (yesterday night and today) to figure out what's going on but i just found out that i'm not flying in but taking a ferry.
Basically, I wanna get from the ferry terminal to Tenjin station (since that is closer to the consulate). Can anyone give me decent directions in terms of buses to take fares/ et al? In the end...ALL help would be appreciated but the more specific the better.
I've got a decent sized list of places to stay....we'll see in the end how it goes.
As i write this, i see i can take bus 80#. Don't mind me...i can sometimes be a bit of an idiot when i get any sort of stress. |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 1:19 am Post subject: |
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1) i:m not in fukuka...sorry aboutthe ;....
2) taking a bus from the ferry terminal+
hakata
11 19 50
tenjin (subway stop closer to Tojin machi...the consulate)
55 61 151 152 209
3)i:m staying in a greenland capsule hotel Nakasu
3900Y
basic stuff in a capsule
take exit 5 out of Nakasu~Kawabata
walk down shopping archade.
take first right and cross a river.
on the other side of the river, it:s about 15m on your left... a big faded green sign saying capsule and sauna.
it seems like a good base...walking distance from a big shopping centre and the subway and 3^4 stops from the consulate.
seems ok. |
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burnin rubber
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:04 am Post subject: |
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| There is a cheap capsule hotel near Tenjin station that has a sauna included in the price for 3,990 Yen. It's close to a lot of restaurants and bars and hot Japanese women. And, yes the service has changed to a two day visa process. If you take Korean air, then you are waiting for 8 hours after picking up your visa with nothing to do. remember Japan is 10 times the cost of Korea. Meaning your 10000 won is only worth 1000 there. One beer in Japan is 5000 won. Be careful |
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leon_d
Joined: 14 Apr 2005
Location: Formerly a Pohangster, now back in Sydney
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| Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 2:42 am Post subject: |
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Did this run last weekend. Stayed at the Sunlife hotel 3 next to Hakata Station. You can't get the working visa in one day.
Managed to fit in a good day of sightseeing using the 600Y subway one day pass, including a Hawks baseball game at the Yahoo dome. |
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