How to travel from Fukuoka Airport to Kagoshima by Shinkansen (Day 1)

We left Singapore in the wee hours of Monday morning (16 Nov). Six hours and two in-flight movies later, our SQ flight landed at 8.20am at Fukuoka International Airport.

First impressions? Wah seh the cool autumn wind is soooooooo nice!!! J

Fukuoka Airport Departure Hall - I don't have any pics of the Arrival Hall coz we were in a rush!

This is a rather tiny airport and no other planes arrived the same time we landed. We managed to clear immigration and collect our luggage in under 30 minutes. A  hallmark of Japanese efficiency I suppose!

After entering the arrival hall, we looked around for the signage for the free shuttle bus that would take us to the Domestic Terminal. We found it pretty easily. Just turn right at the arrival hall, take the escalator down and follow the signage.

The shuttle bus was already waiting at the bus stop when we came down the escalator and we quickly boarded. The bus was filled with people already and we had to stand for the entire journey. However, it was fine as the trip was pretty short – about 20 minutes only.

The reason why we came to the Domestic Terminal is because the airport subway station was located there. You can find the subway entrance right after you get off from the shuttle bus.

From the airport subway station, you can catch the subway to Hakata Station (Kuko Line, 2 stops, 260 yen) which is a major railway hub that connects to the other parts of Kyushu as well as Japan.

We purchased our subway ticket from the automated ticketing machine without any problems as English displays are available. Phew! The machine also accept big notes so you don’t have to worry if you do not have small change after you step off the plane.

Ticket stub for reference - the ticket was from another day

And here comes the bimbotic moment. At you enter the subway gantry, you are supposed to insert the ticket into a slot and collect it as you pass through the gates. You will need to the ticket again when you exit at your destination. Silly me just went off without taking my ticket!!!! ARRGH!

I had to go back to the control station to ask them if they found my ticket! Luckily, the station manager retrieved my “forgotten” ticket and returned it to me, otherwise I would have needed to purchase another ticket!

We got a bit shell-shocked when we got off the train at Hakata Station as the place was huge and packed with the morning peak hour office crowd (who were all dressed in black and  walking very very fast)!

After wandering around for a while, we managed to find the JR office (it is near the central concourse area) to purchase our Shinkansen tickets to Kagoshima. We bought tickets for the 10.20am Shinkansen Mizuho 603 which cost 9,805 yen (including the seat fare). As we were not taking any other long distance train rides on this trip, we did not purchase the JR rail pass as it was not cost-effective to do so.

We still had some time to kill before we needed to board the train so we grabbed our favourite breakfast food – onigiri – from the kombini to munch on the train. There are many food options around Hakata Station too, but we’ll explore that next time when we return in ten days’ time. 

When it was nearing our train arrival time, we made our way to Platform 16.

The train arrived and departed right on schedule, no surprises there. The entire journey to Kagoshima took only 77 minutes. That’s roughly 256.8km and travelling at top speeds reaching 190km/h.

It is the first time I am taking the Shinkansen and the ride did not disappoint. Just like the KTX in Korea, the seats were large, comfy and clean. Fellow commuters were also so civilised that they exited the carriage to make mobile phone calls. Power plugs are available next to your chair if you need to charge batteries urgently. Only gripe: we boarded the train too late and all the spaces to store luggage were already taken. We had to hoist both our 29” luggage up onto the overheard compartments – much to the amusement of the Japanese ladies sitting near us. (Are we not supposed to do that? I do not know!)

The seats are brown like kuma! :)

We barely even had any time to snooze (coz I was too excited to watch the scenery go whizzing by) and before we knew it, our train rolled into Kagoshima Chuo station. 

First impression: life seems to move a tad bit slower here than in Hakata. There are tons of shops and food nearby and not so many people most importantly. I like it very much already.