In three words: clean, orderly, delicious.
Definitely not Korea.
Ric and I spent a long weekend in Fukuoka, Japan, a large-ish city about a thirty minute plane ride from Busan. After some intense haggling with Immigration at the airport (apparently, they frown upon you not making hotel reservations before arrival), we spent three long summer days wandering the city. Here are our observations.
1) Immigration was right. We should have made a hotel reservation. The weekend we chose to come to Fukuoka was also the weekend the city hosts a countrywide youth soccer tournament. Finding a hotel was challenging, though we did end up at a great place that served free ramen and had a spa on site. But it didn’t come cheap.
2) The country (like Korea) is a startling mix of ultramodern and practically ancient. It made for some beautiful photos.
3) Zen temples are ideal feline habitats.
4) Japan is delicious! Noodles are delicious. 7-11 sushi is delicious. Yakatori, sukiyaki, you name it…yum. And the baked goods! Don’t even get us started on Japanese bakeries. We probably gained five pounds each in three days, but every bite was worth it.
5) The green line bus sells day passes that will take you to all the major attractions in the city. However, the pass is only good from 9-5ish, and there is a long wait between buses. Our advice? With comfortable shoes, you can walk to almost everything you want to see from the Hakata Station/Canal City area. Investigate single trip bus routes for faraway things like the castle ruins or Fukuoka tower. You will probably save some serious time and money.
6) On the same subject, buses work completely differently from Korea. In Korea, when a bus pulls up, there’ s a mad scramble to get on. Older ladies are the absolute worst for this, and they will physically shove you out of the way to get on first. Things in Japan are much more zen. You actually wait in a line for the bus to pull up. Then you get on in an orderly fashion. No one shoves anyone or pokes their umbrella into your back. It’s pretty awesome. However, the Japanese method for paying for bus rides is also way different. Make sure you read up on it at the bus station or in a guide book so you don’t look like a moron.
7) Taxis are wicked expensive compared to Korea. The subways are also more expensive. Okay, actually Japan in general is just pretty expensive, but the taxis are the worst. Do your wallet a favor–take the time to figure out public transit.
8) Did we mention Japan was expensive? Because it is. Fun, but pricey.
9) Canal City in Fukuoka was a great area to base our trip from. There were tons of places to eat and shop, not to mention that Altered English beloved by Asians, and a little taste of the American South. It’s also a really short walk from Hakata Station, the unofficial center of the city.
10) Japanese people still actually wear kimonos. Lots of young people had them on when they were going out for the evening, and many shop employees were also wearing them. In Korea, han bok is mostly reserved for special occasions only, so it was really cool to see people out in traditional clothing on an everyday basis.
11) Eat at Ichiran. It’s an experience so surreal that it’s getting its own post as soon as I’m finished typing this one.
12) The amount of Japanese we needed to get around in Fukuoka? None whatsoever, though “Arigato” goes a long way.
13) Practical considerations: The most popular way to get to Fukuoka from Busan is a high speed boat that leaves from the port on a pretty regular schedule. Tickets can be bought online, but the English is spotty, so you might want a Korean speaker to help you out. Incidentally, we lucked out and found flights from Busan to Fukuoka for the same price as boat tickets, so definitely scout out the Gimhae Airport website as well. The Fukuoka airport has little in the way of an ATM, and the one they have doesn’t take Mastercard. We would advise you to plan on using your credit card (which is accepted everywhere, but might incur fees) or have your Korean bank acquire some yen for you in advance. The only place we could use an ATM was at the post office. It worked fine, but they are only open business hours, which might prove difficult for a weekend trip.
14) Wander. There’s too much cool stuff to pack it all into one post.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Busan, Fukuoka, Japan, Korea, places to see, Temples
