Sydney to Fukuoka

An easy 9;15 am flight: JAL to Tokyo, land at 1640, a slightly rushed trip through Customs and then a false start and long walk back to find the bus to the other terminal. Not too long waiting, spent mostly looking in vain for an ATM for JPY, then a suitably dull 2 hour flight to Fukuoka. It was full of businessmen and businesswomen, but no service, so the first thing we needed in FUK was water!

We landed around 8;35pm, found the only ATMs in Fukuoka Airport that let foreign cards withdraw yen, worked out the local transport options according to the airport signs rather than the books back in Sydney, then took the local train to the hotel. The train took less than half the time the travel sites gave for taxis, and was a lot more fun. A lot of counting stations and staring at screens each time the speakers played the gongs and the train stopped at somewhere new. There was one change involving a longish walk, but we ended up at the same station going somewhere else a few days later and felt like locals.

We had booked a Best Western hotel because it had a room that was not too small and was in an area that wasn't too touristy... perfect. Even better when we arrived (around 945 local time) and the small foyer had no foreigners, but, oddly, large racks of combs, slippers, face-masks and toothbrushes!Read more