How to Get from Fukuoka to Nagasaki, and the Nagasaki Tram Day Pass
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How to Get from Fukuoka to Nagasaki
I took a summer vacation trip to Japan, visiting Fukuoka and Nagasaki.
Let me walk back through the journey from Fukuoka Airport to Nagasaki!
Eastar Jet
Highway Bus
I booked the Fukuoka Airport → Nagasaki highway bus route through the site above and got the ticket by email (the email arrived a few days after booking). It cost roughly 50,000-60,000 KRW per person for a round trip.
However, due to congestion at Incheon Airport, our flight departed almost an hour late, so I missed the bus I had booked. I told my friend, who had already arrived at the airport, to go on ahead and I’d catch up.
Train
The next bus was fully booked, so I looked into other options and decided to take the train instead (a one-way train ticket to Nagasaki was also around 50,000-60,000 KRW).
Limited express: Hakata Station → Takeo-Onsen Station
Shinkansen: Takeo-Onsen Station → Nagasaki Station
Currency Exchange
First off, I had no cash for the train. I needed to exchange money, but I didn’t have a travel card or any preferential rate, so I figured any exchange counter would be about the same.
Currency exchange counter
So I exchanged 100,000 KRW at a currency exchange counter I saw at the airport, and got less than 9,000 yen back.
Right now the rate is about 1 yen = 9.18 KRW, so 100,000 KRW should be roughly 10,887 yen. (Back then the rate was even lower than 9.18 KRW.)
It felt like I lost almost 20,000 KRW just from exchanging 100,000 KRW. :(
Later, I checked the ATM withdrawal fee in my banking app, and it looked like about $3 plus roughly 1% per transaction — which is way better. Withdrawing via ATM, you’d only lose something like 5,000-6,000 KRW on a 100,000 KRW exchange. (There’s a reason people line up at the ATMs.)
If you’re going to exchange money at a counter like that, just withdraw from an ATM instead!
From the Airport to Hakata Station
The bus stop in front of Fukuoka International Airport
Anyway, after exchanging money, I went from Fukuoka Airport to Hakata Bus Terminal.
At the time I thought the bus was the only way, but you can also take the airport shuttle bus to the domestic terminal, then take the subway from Fukuoka Station to Hakata Station.
At Hakata Bus Terminal, if you just follow the signs, Hakata Station is right there.
From Hakata Station to Nagasaki Station
Limited express ticket, Shinkansen ticket
Limited express ticket, Shinkansen ticket
Hakata Station is huge and really crowded. (It was rush hour, so that probably made it worse.)
When you buy a ticket for Hakata Station → Takeo-Onsen Station, you get two tickets — one for the general ticket gate, and one that works like a boarding pass for the limited express. I asked a station staff member, who told me to insert both into the gate together.
I don’t remember exactly, but I believe it was platform 3 or 4 for the train to Takeo-Onsen.
I don’t have a photo of this, but when you get off at Takeo-Onsen Station, the Shinkansen is waiting right on the opposite track. (The Shinkansen schedule is timed to match the limited express.) It’s not a transfer where you exit and re-enter the ticket gate.
So it seems that if you buy a ticket straight from Hakata Station to Nagasaki Station from the start, you get three tickets.
Since I only had a Hakata Station → Takeo-Onsen ticket, I had to exit, buy a new ticket, and go back in — and by then the Shinkansen had already left. (I’d bought the ticket with the origin and destination reversed, so it wouldn’t go through the gate, and I had to get it stamped and let in manually. Lol.)
Since the Shinkansen is timed to wait for the limited express, unless you sprint over, you’ll have to catch the next one. The interval between trains seemed to be about 30 minutes.
Anyway, if you’re taking the train to Nagasaki, buy a ticket straight from Hakata Station to Nagasaki Station and make sure you get all three tickets!
Unreserved Train Seating
Shinkansen unreserved/reserved seating
Also, both the limited express and the Shinkansen had separate cars for unreserved and reserved seating, just like in the photo.
On the limited express ticket, it says “NON-RESERVED SEAT” in English; on the Shinkansen ticket, it’s written in kanji. It seems like you can sit anywhere in the unreserved car as long as there’s an open seat.
The unreserved car on the Shinkansen had plenty of open seats, but on the limited express it was almost completely full.
Nagasaki Tram Day Pass
Hotel Marine World
Hotel Marine World
Nagasaki is great for getting around by tram, and you can either pay about 2,000 KRW each time you ride, or get a day pass for about 6,000 KRW.
You can buy the day pass at stations or hotels — the hotel I stayed at, Hotel Marine World, also sold them.
Nagasaki tram
Nagasaki tram