Fukuoka – Busan

The Japanese islands have been linked by ferries for well over 100 years. There are over 100 islands that make up the country, at one time or another they have been a part of the ferry network.
A brief history.
In the last 10-15 years the expansion of the Shiskansen and major rail network as well as the de-regulation of the air industry ave seen a great rationalisation of ferry services. Almost all international travel is now by air.
Fukuoka is one of the major ports, with ships to China, Taiwan & Korea

Hakata Station is about 3km from the international Ferry terminal, departure point for all ferries to Korea.

BUSAN PORT

Has its own site with links top services.

Busan – Fukuoka (Hakata)

Beetle 2,3 | Hydrofoil | Korea Marine Express | 2h55m | ¥13000 | 0845 (1) … 1725(6)

Kobee 3,5 | Hydrofoil | Mirejet | 2h55m | | Mixed operation with Beetle

New kamelriah | Ro-Ro | Korea Marine Express | 5h30m | KRW 80000 up to KRW 180000 | 1230(Fukuoka)->1800(Busan)/2230 (Busan) -> 0630

The korean island of Geoje is also served by a large number of ferries from the Busan coast ferry port at the adjacent pier.

A subway line is 1 block away.

Busan KTX station is only 2 stops away.

Bye Bye Japan

What distinguishes it from the rest of Asia and even most of the world is that JR almost exclusively use EMU or DMU’s. Even over the past 12 months they have decreased the number of loco hauled overnight services.

If you travel on the cheapest trains, don’t expect comfort. They are not designed for someone who wants to take a 200km cross country journey.

Local and rapid trains are 3-4 doors per car. With most carriages being around 20m long they have either bench seating or back to back  seats. You would normally find this design on metro’s, no more than 5-10km for an average  journey. In Japan you can find these cars all over the country on routes of anything from 10km to 200km. In outer-urban and regional areas they often relegate the older stock from the urban areas, or sometime old super-express stock.

Super-Express trains and above offer standard 2 door 2+2 or 2+1 reclining seating, stopping patterns are around 10-20km between stations. They are also have the most interesting colour schemes and designs. Some might even call them ugly, I like to think of them as ugly in the same way they called the Sydney Opera House ugly, they are a little unique for mass acceptance.

It is rare to find dining cars on these trains, some trips that run more than a couple of hours have trolley services to the seats.

JR news shows quite a few interesting projects and expansions planned.