Almost all English teachers have to do a visa run some point during their stay here. Last week was my fourth visa run to Japan (once to Osaka and three times to Fukuoka). Fukuoka seems to be a popular city for a visa run because it’s usually the cheapest, especially if you take the ferry. Since my school didn’t pay for my trip, this was the route I took.

First of all, I booked a round trip ferry ticket from Pusan to Fukuoka through Kangsan Travel. Email them, or better yet, call them at +82 (051) 747-0031. Ask for Alice because she speaks English and can book you a ticket immediately. Obviously, book as early as you can because it’s pretty busy on the weekends. It cost me 190,000 won ($202 USD) for a round-trip ticket. Kangsan Travel can also include a one night stay at a hotel (usually Central Hotel) for 230,00~240,000 (depending on availability and day). I was going over a weekend, so all their partner hotels were full, so I opted just for the ticket.
This is their policy on canceling tickets:

*CANCEL/CHANGING DATE CHARGE
3DAYS BEFORE DEPARTURE : 30 % PENALTY
AFTER DEPARTURE : 50% PENALTY
You can’t cancel your schedule 3 days in advance of your departure day.

Office:

207-Ho, A-Dong, Sejong World Plaza B/D, 1479-3
Jwa-Dong, Haeundae-Gu, Busan, Korea
(Jangsan Subway Station, line #2, stop #201, exit #3)

Upon arriving at the Pusan Ferry Terminal, take the escalator upstairs, confirm your ticket at “Kobee” and they’ll assign you a seat. There will be an additional 11,600 won ferry tax that needs to be paid before you can get your seat assignment. (Click on any of the pictures for a larger version on my Flickr account.)

If you’ll be arriving in Japan after 2:00 pm, make sure you exchange money at the port in Pusan because the money exchange office in the Fukuoka terminal closes at 2:00 pm. They open every day from 7:30 am – 2:00 pm. So, if you need to exchange money on a Sunday in Fukuoka, take a bus back to the ferry terminal and do it there. I did. By the way, the exchange rate in Japan is not THAT much different than in Korea. Save yourself the hassle and just do it all in Korea.

(left: leaving Pusan port. right: the “Beetle”)
Upon arriving in Japan, exchange money at Shinhan Bank, if you haven’t done so already. Before you leave, pick up a map from Tourist Information. If you didn’t book a hotel beforehand, ask the woman there to make calls for you. They’re VERY helpful.

Once you leave the ferry terminal, look to your left and you’ll see the bus stop that leaves for Tenjin and Hakata Station.

The fare is 180 yen to Tenjin. Take bus 55, 61, 151, 152, or 80. The fare to Hakata Station is 220 yen. Take bus 11, 19, or 50. Wherever you end up, remember that the last stop on bus 80′s route is the Fukuoka Ferry Terminal. Before you go anywhere, you’ll need to know a little about the bus system in Japan.

Everyone enters the bus in the middle. For those with a pre-paid card, they’ll insert it in the gray box. Pre-paid cards can be purchased from the bus driver (when the bus isn’t moving). If you’re using change, take a ticket from the orange box. It’ll have a number on it. At the front of the bus, above the driver, is an electronic board with numbers. For example, if your ticket stub says “3,” look at the board for the number 3. At any time, it will display the cost of your fare. When you’re ready to get off, exit and pay at the front with exact change. There’s a change machine at the front of the bus. If you STILL don’t have exact change… well, you’re SOL.

The rest of the directions are to the Korean consulate. Get on a bus for Tenjin (180 yen). It’ll take about 15 minutes to get there. You know you’re close when you pass over a canal. Plus, once at Tenjin, the bus will make an announcement in Japanese, English, and Korean. When you step off the bus, you’ll be in the north end of Tenjin. The following is a poor quality map, but I think it’ll help get your bearings.

The blue car is supposed to represent the bus. The red dots are bus stops. The bus stop on the right is where you’ll get off. The picture below is the bus stop, and across the street, you’ll see a Family Mart and McDonald’s. The stop is roughly in front of Shopper’s Specialty Store. (As a side note, that store has a great grocery store in the basement.)

Cross the street to the bus stop directly across the street. The buses on the other side go towards the Korean consulate. On that side, bus # 44, 151, 152, 200, 201, 204, and 305 go to the Korean consulate. The closest landmark is the Fukuoka Dome, so you can just ask somebody, “Fukuoka Dome-mae?” just to make sure. This should be another 15 minute ride and 220 yen. Five minutes into the ride, you’ll go over this bridge:

Once off this bridge, you’ll be about 5-7 minutes from the consulate. On the right-hand side, you’ll pass 5 beige and blue apartment complexes, a store called “Gourmet City,” and 6 more brown apartment complexes labeled A-F on the side. Immediately after this, you’ll see a canal, in which case you should ring the bell. The next stop after the canal is where you’ll get off. Listen for “Yahoo Dome.”

Once you step off the bus, you’ll see this shopping center across the street:

And this in front of you:

Walk straight ahead until you reach the intersection. It’ll be pretty obvious from there. Which building looks out of place?

The rest is up to you – I’ve held your hand this far. Bring ONE photo, passport, visa issuance number (HSBO 07000XXX), and 5,400 yen in CASH. There’s a passport photo machine inside the consulate that costs 600 yen ($5 USD) for 4 or 6 photos. There’s also a copy machine there. There are lockers across the street in the shopping mall, next to Nike.

To get back, go to the bus stop directly across the street from where you got dropped off. Remember, bus #80 goes back to the ferry terminal, but you’ll have to go back to Tenjin first and transfer.

Please leave a comment if you have any additional advice or if any information is incorrect.

In the next week or two, I’ll have a review of places to stay in Fukuoka, including: a Siesta Capsule Hotel (3900 yen), SB Hotel (4725 yen), and Khaosan Fukuoka Hostel (2000 yen for a dorm bed).

View this in the original size on Flickr.

“u cannot promise many pictures of japanese girls thn pull “down time” bs.” 

Okay, okay, here they are:

View the entire album here.  I’ve talked to a couple guys and they say Korean girls are better looking, while Japanese girls have the nicer bodies.  You be the judge.

Here’s the first installment of photos.  It’s a collection of Harajuku fashion from Tokyo.  The Harajuku girls (and boys) are known around the world for their wild and crazy styles.  Their way of dress is also labeled "cosplay," or "costume play".  I think a lot of the tourist who took pictures of the cosplayers thought they were weird and freaky, and I overheard some making fun of them.  When I heard the ridicule, I’d think, "That’s laughable coming from someone wearing a sweat soaked t-shirt, khaki zip-off shorts, and Jesus cruisers (Birkenstocks).  You wish you had as much style as them."  I think the whole scene is really cool.  I admired their different outfits and would think, "Wow, I never would have thought to put those pieces of clothing together, but it looks great."  My favorite style was the "gothic lolita" look.  If you’d like to learn more, check this out:  "Behind the Scenes – Cosplay in Tokyo".

One thing I have to warn others about, are the bars that have a table charge.  On the first night I got into Tokyo, we went out for drink with two people Raswan knew.  There was so much to choose from in Shinjuku, so we randomly picked a place and had drinks there.  After sitting down, we were given a small bowl of green beans.  We thought, "Cool, it’s a free side dish."  A drink for each of us and two side dishes later, the bill comes to $80.  (Yeah, it’s Tokyo.)  We look at the bill and wondered what the $16 charge was.  The waitress tells us it’s for the green beans!

The four of us tried to argue that we didn’t order them.  The waitress, in her broken English, said it was part of the "table set".  What?!?  We didn’t like it one bit, but what could we do?  We were in a foreign land, didn’t speak the language, and weren’t aware of the "rules".  Then another day, Raswan and I walked into a bar for an afternoon drink.  The waitress brought us each a small bowl of boiled bean sprouts.  Oh, oh.  WARNING, WARNING!  Ras asked how much it was.  "350 yen".  "Oh no, we don’t want this."  "Sorry, table charge."  He then tried to ask whether the dish was 350 each or for the two bowls.  "Umm, two."  "Oh well.  We’ll just sit, have a drink, and leave."  When we finally went to pay the bill, the 1/4 cup of tasteless sprouts were 350 yen each!  It wasn’t about the money, but that fact that we didn’t want it, it didn’t taste good, and it was forced upon us. 

This also happened when a group of us walked into an establishment that looked like a restaurant.  Once we sat down and were served a small dish, we immediately asked how much it was.  "400 yen."  We stood up and walked out.  The staff were befuddled, but we weren’t falling for another "table charge".  After those incidents, we only went to bars that advertised "No cover charge" on their signs outside.

Click below to see more pictures of what I ate.

*** A bandanna – or small hand towel or handkerchief.  It’s hot, and you’ll be sweating a lot.

*** Plug adapter – If you’re coming from Korea, you can buy an adapter at a hardware store for 500 won.  The plugs in Japan are North American style.  If you buy it in Japan, it’s $4-$6.

*** Cash – All the money I brought with me was in yen.  I found it much easier this way.  There was no need to look for a bank or wait in long lines to cash traveler’s checks.  I had one instance when I ran out of money and had to look for a ATM at Shinjuku Station.  You’d think it’s be easy to find one because it’s such a large station.  There were not many, and the two I tried wouldn’t accept my MasterCard – only Japanese cards.  After 45 minutes of running around in the heat, I finally found one.  What a hassle.

*** Cotton clothing – very breathable and the best kind of clothes to bring.  Another alternative would be quick drying clothes, like workout tops.  If you plan on going out to some nicer clubs, some don’t let you in with very casual clothing.  If you want to have options for a night out, leave your Birkenstocks at home.

*** A coin purse – Most of my daily transactions were with change.  You’ll get a lot of it, in dollar and $5 coins.

Other tips:

There are many lockers in the subway stations.  Normal sized lockers are 300 yen for the day.  If luggage is left overnight, it’s another 300 charge.  Lockers are emptied out by station staff after 3 days.  I was able to put my large backpack in the largest locker at Shinjuku Station for 700 yen.  It was expensive, but convenient for me.  The large lockers are usually gone by the middle of the day.

I was surprised that there wasn’t more English in the subway stations.  The Korean subway system is more user friendly for foreigners.  In Japan, you would look on the subway map to see where you’re going (most of the time it was in Japanese).  The map will tell you what price ticket you should purchase.  We couldn’t read Japanese, so for 70% of the time, we would ask Japanese people around the station how much a ticket to a particular stop was.  Japanese people always helped us when asked.  There were also times when they would offer to help because we looked so confused.  There was one man who walked us to the place we were looking for, and another woman who called a hotel to get directions for us.  I was really impressed by how nice people were.

Photocopy the maps from your guide books prior to leaving for your trip.  At night, we’d map out places we wanted to eat at, or attractions we wanted to see the next day.  We’d write and make notes on our photocopied maps and take those with us instead of hauling around a book.  Ras would just carry around money, a bandanna, camera, and water bottle.  I’d take my purse, camera, and copies of the maps.  It worked out well for us.

Everything else I missed is just common sense for backpacking and traveling, but the above were things I noticed about my week in Tokyo.

This is a map of all the trains and subway lines in Tokyo.It’s just like a bowl of spaghetti, isn’t it?Shinjuku Station had 8 lines that you could transfer to.  I wonder what the most number of transfers at a station is.

"US War Department comic strip included in the first edition of the "POCKET GUIDE TO CHINA", a 75-page booklet distributed to US soldiers (Army and Navy) during their stay in China during World War II."

After my trip, I love the Japanese.  They’re polite, very helpful, and are so stylish.  I’d really like to go back and live in Japan for a year.

Side notes:  Here’s a couple’s 3 week trip to Japan.  Japundit would have been a good blog to have read before my trip.

Tokyo is a great place for people watching.  Many times, I wanted to take some more artistic shots, but if you think too hard, the opportunity quickly passes.  I clicked and clicked and clicked, realizing that I could go back later and choose the ones I liked best.  I never delete my bad pictures, but archive them.  With the advent of digital cameras, many people like to delete less than flattering pictures of themselves.  It’s unfortunate, because ugly or not, that photo captured YOU… at that certain moment in time… that you’ll never get back.  I have lots of ugly, awkward pictures that highlight the many chins I can have, if I’m not careful.  They’re stored away, ready to be pulled out and gazed upon whenever I need a dose of humility.

I don’t take the greatest photos, but there are those moments where I look upon something I’ve taken, and think, "Man, I rock!"  I’d like to have more of those moments and learn more about photography.  I don’t think photography will ever be a career for me, but it has grown into a hobby I love, along with digital scrapbooking, bookbinding, and paper arts.  (Bet you didn’t know those things about me, did you?)

I’m taking the next big step… I’m buying a sler.  Sler is what Ras affectionately calls an SLR.  I’ve set aside $1000 USD from my checking account for my SLR purchase when I go back to the States in a couple months.  That should get me the body and at least one lens.  I’m really excited about the whole thing and was thinking of purchasing one in Korea so that I’d have a camera for my summer trips.  Believe me, it would have been great to have it in Tokyo, but I didn’t want to rush into a purchase that big.  Plus, the word on the street is that Canon is supposed to come out with an upgraded model to the Canon Rebel XT (aka Canon Kiss Digital 2E in Japan or Canon EOS 350D in Europe).

Right now, I’m making due with my Canon SD630 (aka Canon Ixus 65) that I bought a month ago.  Yup, that’s 3 inches of goodness there.  It’s funny, but it’s only the guys who comment on the size of my screen!

It’s hard to imagine that just yesterday, I was taking pictures of this:

and this:

There’ll be a lot more reviews, insight, and pictures(!) on Tokyo in the next week.  Stay tuned…