Ferry from Japan to S Korea, advice please.

[user 6862]

I appreciate this may not be an everyday experience for forum members but who knows, someone may have used this, it's worth an ask.

We wanted to travel on the overnight ferry from Fukuoka (Japan) to Busan (S Korea) but this stopped during Covid time and hasn't restarted. The fast ferry (Beetle) however has resumed since November this year, a 3h 40m journey.

Ticket booking is only by phone though although this may change in the future... but we'll cope with phoning.

The alternative is to fly from a Japan SW city to Seoul but flying is always our last resort. The fast ferry doesn't sound very attractive to us as we make or made the crossing of the English Channel several 100's of times, a bit like commuting. An overnight ferry appealed to us especially after seeing Michael Palin take it.

Does anyone have any experience of the Fukuoka ~> Busan fast ferry to encourage us to use it? Using the ferry does already have an advantage, we would then have to take a Korean train from Busan to Seoul, Seoul is our departure city for our flight to Vancouver BC.

Any advice or opinions welcomed, thanks.

 

[George Harris]

If your alternative is flying and you have the time, then the train / fast ferry / train is a no-brainer. Don't know anything about it, but Korea does have a high speed train using the French TGV model that essentially French other than paint job, or at least was when first opened. Otherwise, from my one visit to South Korea, they have a nice well operated rail system.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Sounds like a great trip. Hopefully you will get to spend some time in Seoul. I was there many years ago on a business trip. We didn't have much free time other than the last day we were there which happened to be Easter Sunday where we got to visit one of the parks and ride the tramway to the top of the Namsan mountain. I did take a short ride on the Metro and had no trouble getting around as there is signage and announcements in English. Before my trip I had learned the Korean alphabet which is not hard. Their writing at first glance looks like characters a la Chinese but the "character" is actually a syllable formed by 2 or 3 letters so it is not hard to transliterate once you know the alphabet. Although like the Japanese they do lapse into Chinese characters on occasion.

 

[user 6862]

If your alternative is flying and you have the time, then the train / fast ferry / train is a no-brainer. Don't know anything about it, but Korea does have a high speed train using the French TGV model that essentially French other than paint job, or at least was when first opened. Otherwise, from my one visit to South Korea, they have a nice well operated rail system.

Yes, have ridden a few TGV's in other countries, could be interesting riding the Korean version.

Thanks

 

[user 6862]

Sounds like a great trip. Hopefully you will get to spend some time in Seoul. I was there many years ago on a business trip. We didn't have much free time other than the last day we were there which happened to be Easter Sunday where we got to visit one of the parks and ride the tramway to the top of the Namsan mountain. I did take a short ride on the Metro and had no trouble getting around as there is signage and announcements in English. Before my trip I had learned the Korean alphabet which is not hard. Their writing at first glance looks like characters a la Chinese but the "character" is actually a syllable formed by 2 or 3 letters so it is not hard to transliterate once you know the alphabet. Although like the Japanese they do lapse into Chinese characters on occasion.

I learnt a second language easily enough, but now struggle with a third one. Rosie has an aptitude for languages, she learnt a little Russian for when we were there.
We may spend one day less in Japan and an extra day in Korea, the ferry may be more interesting than we thought and the Busan - Seoul train sounds interesting. Your impression of Seoul only boosts our reason for wanting to visit, did you ever go to Gangnam?

Thanks

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Before my trip I had learned the Korean alphabet which is not hard. Their writing at first glance looks like characters a la Chinese but the "character" is actually a syllable formed by 2 or 3 letters so it is not hard to transliterate once you know the alphabet. Although like the Japanese they do lapse into Chinese characters on occasion.

As I understand it (Trigger Warning: I have way too much extraneous knowledge) the Korean written alphabet was the first scientifically created - by a scientist king - language - the letters are based on the position of the mouth and tongue. This, apparently, made it very easy to learn and children pick it up quickly - Korea has a high literacy rate (and iirc the most PhD's per capita, at least in S. Korea).

Looking forward to your trip reports...

 

[Willbridge]

I learnt a second language easily enough, but now struggle with a third one. Rosie has an aptitude for languages, she learnt a little Russian for when we were there.
We may spend one day less in Japan and an extra day in Korea, the ferry may be more interesting than we thought and the Busan - Seoul train sounds interesting. Your impression of Seoul only boosts our reason for wanting to visit, did you ever go to Gangnam?

Thanks

The attached schedule includes the segment that you are considering. It will be interesting to compare this with your results.

 

[user 6862]

The attached schedule includes the segment that you are considering. It will be interesting to compare this with your results.

What a fabulous journey, 1936 too. Who ran that multi connection enterprise? Many of those places were on our Fall 2020 adventure that was cancelled due to C, ah well.

Now none of them are on our list as we are taking a ferry from Kagoshima to Naha on Okinawa island, a real 25 hour ferry. So although not a ferry from Japan to S Korea it is a ferry that calls at many of the islands on the way to Naha, really looking forward to that. Not quite true that none of the 1936 schedule are on list, we'll fly from Naha to Seoul.

We hear that Okinawa is very Americanised, that will be interesting too especially as it's in Japan with it's own strong culture.

We know the ferry schedule, departure and arrival times/dates along with which companies operate the ships, what type of accommodation is available, meal provision and even the dates that particular ships sail on, but can't find anyone to sell us tickets... hahaha. You couldn't make it up but we'll get there.

 

[Willbridge]

What a fabulous journey, 1936 too. Who ran that multi connection enterprise? Many of those places were on our Fall 2020 adventure that was cancelled due to C, ah well.

Now none of them are on our list as we are taking a ferry from Kagoshima to Naha on Okinawa island, a real 25 hour ferry. So although not a ferry from Japan to S Korea it is a ferry that calls at many of the islands on the way to Naha, really looking forward to that. Not quite true that none of the 1936 schedule are on list, we'll fly from Naha to Seoul.

We hear that Okinawa is very Americanised, that will be interesting too especially as it's in Japan with it's own strong culture.

We know the ferry schedule, departure and arrival times/dates along with which companies operate the ships, what type of accommodation is available, meal provision and even the dates that particular ships sail on, but can't find anyone to sell us tickets... hahaha. You couldn't make it up but we'll get there.

Well, that was in a mimeographed hand-out from Intourist in Berlin. When they weren't busy running intelligence operations, they booked a trip to Tokyo for W.E.B. Du Bois on his around the world journey. It was in the German spellings and blurred, so I re-typed it. When Du Bois made his trip, even those direct routes were pretty exotic and/or scary.

You're definitely traveling off the beaten path for American and European tourists. Okinawa, of course, to newsreaders here is sort of a really big American aircraft carrier anchored in turbulent waters. But I've talked with people who found its original niche culture "around the corner."

 

[user 6862]

Re tickets for the ferry from Kagoshima to Naha Okinawa... 13 February 2023 sailing.

Just can't find a shipping line or travel agent to sell us tickets. By all accounts the most popular tickets sell out early and sometimes the entire ship sells out before departure date. Anyone with Japanese connections that could give us a clue how to buy these tickets, this is a really silly situation.

 

[eklein]

As I understand it (Trigger Warning: I have way too much extraneous knowledge) the Korean written alphabet was the first scientifically created - by a scientist king - language - the letters are based on the position of the mouth and tongue. This, apparently, made it very easy to learn and children pick it up quickly - Korea has a high literacy rate (and iirc the most PhD's per capita, at least in S. Korea).

Looking forward to your trip reports...

What you have said is all true about King Sejong the Great and the invention of Hangul. Literacy is quite universal and complete in the Republic of Korea (as well as in the north). Unfortunately, the designer(s) of Hangul (there was a "committee" that worked on it) did not forsee the typewriter, and so the fact that Hangul is not absolutely linear (like the alphabet of almost all languages) made typing and designing a typewrite a problem. When I first went to Korea in 1966, using a Korean typewriter was a bizarre experience because the stoke of a key felt and sounded different than those on an English (or other Western languages typewriter)--sometimes moving forward, sometimes waiting for the stroke of a letter below. That is, one stroke did NOT result in one letter and a movement to the carriage, preparing then for the next letter. However, that has been been simplified nowadays by the use of computers. No problem.

 

[user 6862]

Have now abandoned the Kagoshima to Okinawa ferry idea completely after making further enquiries on how to buy tickets, or not as in this situation. Replaced the ferry trip with a long distance train journey.