d-Wizz Hankuk Travel Diary [2005]
Day 31 (2005-08-26) / Day 32 (2005-08-27) / Day 33 (2005-08-28) 
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Day 32: 2005-08-27 (Saturday)
I went to sleep while the ferry was still docked at Busan. When I awoke at 0520, the sun was getting up, and I noticed that we were at Hakata.
Today promised to be very busy. Keith had organised a schedule for me to travel to his home in Odai, which involved about a dozen trains over a 600km distance. This is an edited transcript of some e-mails he sent me with the information I needed to get from Korea to Odai.
OK, I have worked out an option for you to leave Korea on Friday night, to get here economically and reasonably straightforwardly.
Take the Camellia line from Busan to Hakata on Friday night (check-in by 6pm, I think it is). That gives you a full day to get to Busan. The fare is KRW 80,000 + KRW 2,200 departure fee (+ subway etc. to get to Busan International Ferry Terminal). This gets in to Hakata at 0800 hrs.
The bus from Hakata Ferry Terminal to Hakata (Railway) station runs 4 - 6 times per hour, and takes about 15 minutes. Cost is ¥220.
You will need ¥19,690 minimum for train fares. Add another 10,000 or so for incidentals (eg, in case you or one of the trains is delayed, and you need to buy another bullet train fare), food, etc.
At Hakata Station, go to the Ticket Office and buy a non-reserved (ie, no seat reservaton) shinkansen ticket to Hiroshima. A distance of 280.7 km, this will cost ¥8190. (made up of 4940 basic fare + 3250 shinkansen surcharge). You are buying back time, to enable you to get to Misedani (Odai) by the last train.
Hopefully, you'll be in time to get this Bullet Train:
09:59 Hakata --> 11:09 Hiroshima "Hikari #456"
You just need three words at the ticket office: "Shinkansen, Hiroshima, jiyuuseki". Just say that, hand over ¥8190 and you should get a single ticket that works in the automatic ticket gates. You want a jiyuuseki to make life simpler - you can board any Shinkansen train, in the "non-reserved" section.
Pronunciation of "jiyuuseki": as in "gee-you-sek-i" ("sek-i" rhymes with "becky")
If you have time, also purchase a Seishun 18 kippu while you are here (this is not available at the ticket vending machine). The word for seishun 18 kippu is "seishun juuhachi kippu". "juuhachi" means eighteen. The cost is ¥11,500. You will use the Seishun 18 kippu from Hiroshima to Misedani (Odai) on ordinary non-express trains.
Once you've got your Shinkansen ticket to Hiroshima, go into the paid area, and get on a bullet train. Depending on timing, you may or may not have an hour or so to look around Hiroshima. You need to leave Hiroshima at 12:45. Your trip to Misedani involves catching 7 trains, riding 6 of them to their final destination. Here is the itinerary, which I have checked with the most recent timetables. Square brackets indicate platform number, where that info is available.
12:45 Hiroshima[5] --> 15:31 Okayama[8] (last stop)
15:48 Okayama[14] --> 16:51 Aioi (last stop)
16:52 Aioi --> 17:11 Himeji[3] (last stop)
17:31 Himeji --> 19:18 Kusatsu [dest: Nagahama] (this train travels through Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto - no need to change trains)
19:23 Kusatsu --> 20:09 Tsuge (last stop)
20:18 Tsuge --> 20:42 Kameyama (last stop)
20:52 Kameyama --> 22:17 Misedani (Odai) (last stop) - this is the last train.
This gets you into Misedani on the last train. If one of these seven trains gets delayed for some reason, you can get another train to within 60km or so of Odai - we could then pick you up by car, so there is some margin.
That's a total of 9 hours on local / rapid trains. However, this 9 hour trip, over around 600km, cost just JPY 2300 (one fifth of the Seishun 18 kippu).
Also, you would want to add some margin into that schedule. If you miss the last train to Odai, there are a few more trains to Matsusaka or Taki (further up the line), so we could pick you up in the car.
Overall, this is likely to be your best option. It combines:
- low cost ferry, with seats available
- late departure from Korea, late in the day
- overnight on transport (ferry) - no overnight in hotels etc.
- Ride on 300km/hr Shinkansen
- Visit Hiroshima - certainly more famous than "Hakata"
- Arrive directly into Odai on Saturday night.
- Only one portion of the Seishun 18 ticket is used.
- Apart from the ferry, no need to book seats, or hunt down obscure travel agents.
Armed with this information, I proceeded through Japanese immigration and embarked on this long adventure on Japanese public transport to Odai. I would be travelling for over 12 hours, and I still had two suitcases and the snare drum box. I was able to manage, but it was not easy.
First, I had to find the bus to Hakata railway station; this was rather easy, as there was a bus stop right outside the ferry terminal. I photographed most of the signage for my brother’s future reference. A bus arrived about 10 minutes later, and I got on, along with everybody else, through the back door. It appears that you pay the fare when you get off the bus. Just a few minutes later, the bus arrived at Hakata station, and I paid the ¥220 fare to the driver and took all my luggage off the bus. I made multiple trips to get all my luggage eventually moved into the station near the ticket window. I had ¥8,190 prepared and ready to pay for the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. I drew a deep breath and paused for a moment as I remembered the three magic Japanese words I needed to leave Hakata: “Shinkansen, Hiroshima, jiyuu-seki”. My incantation must have worked, as the transaction proceeded smoothly, much more so than the task of getting my luggage from that point to the Shinkansen platform. This involved three stages of movement: from the ticket window to an elevator which took me to the platform level, then from there to the Shinkansen ticket gate, and finally from the gate to the actual Shinkansen platform. Each time I moved my luggage, I had to make two trips, leaving either the suitcases or the snare drum box behind for a minute while I moved the other piece to a new location a few metres at a time.
The Shinkansen platform was very long: 16 cars, in fact. I noticed a number “1069” on the tracks, and deduced that this was probably a reference to the number of kilometres to Tokyo. Keith later informed me that I had assumed correctly.
When the Shinkansen arrived, I realised that I was waiting at the wrong end of the platform, so I had to move my luggage quite a long way to board the train. I only had four minutes to do this, so I needed to run back to get the second part of my luggage, before loading it all on the train together.
I left Hakata on the 0959 Shinkansen ("Hikari #456"), bound for Hiroshima. Like the KTX from Seoul to Daegu, the train was quiet and smooth as it sped along the tracks at over 250km/h, a fact proudly displayed on the LED displays inside the carriage. The train went through many tunnels, including one about ten minutes into the journey, which was very long. My brother told me later that this tunnel connected the islands of Fukuyama and Honshu – thus, I was travelling under the sea on the train. With Japanese precision, the Shinkansen arrived at Hiroshima exactly on schedule. I got off the train and went down the escalator to the foyer. It was 1110hrs, and I had about 90 minutes to look around Hiroshima.
My first priority was to buy the kippu ticket, as this was my way out of Hiroshima to Odai. I needed to find an ATM which would accept my card. Keith had told me what to look for, but I was unable to find it. I did, however, find a locker room, so I decided to stow my luggage there while I searched for an ATM. Alas, the lockers only accepted ¥100 coins, and I had none, so I just left my luggage in a corner of the room.
During my search for an ATM, I found a shop selling bakery products. As I was feeling a little hungry, I went inside and bought a sandwich and some other things.
Returning to the station, I put a few ¥10 coins into a payphone and called Keith to tell him I could not find the ATM. He said I should look for “Japan Postal Savings”, so I went back to where I had seen a bunch of ATMs, and, sure enough, one of them had a sticker, which said (in small print), “Japanese Postal Savings, International Service”.
Inserting my card into the slot, it asked me for my PIN, so things looked good. Another problem soon arose, however, when the ATM would not allow me to select the account I wanted to draw from. The potential for this to occur had been discussed between Keith and I previously. My account was accessed from the “cheque” button on my card, which Korean ATMs allowed me to select. It appears that Japanese ATMs do not offer this choice, and assume that the withdrawal is coming from a “savings” account. So, I could use the ATM, but it could not access my account. What was I to do? Would I be stuck in Hiroshima?
A quick call back to my brother provided a possible solution: call Westpac customer service in Australia, and try to get the account changed from the “cheque” button over to the “savings” button, so that the Japanese ATMs could access the account. I had doubts about whether this could be done instantly, but there was no other choice, so I called reverse charge to Westpac in Sydney and asked about the button change. To my surprise and relief, I was told it would have immediate effect, and I was advised to try the ATM again in about five minutes.
So, I went back to the ATM and put in my card and PIN, then I selected the withdrawal button and asked for ¥20,000. After a significant delay, the machine began to make noises akin to that of counting cash, so I realised that the button change must have indeed worked, and I was about to receive my much-needed injection of funds. The ATM spat out 2 crisp ¥10,000 notes, and I took them forthwith to the adjacent ticket office to say “seishun juuhachi kippu” to the clerk and buy the ticket.
This run of events had taken about one hour to unfold, so there was no longer enough time to see much more of Hiroshima. As it was, I had just enough time to move my luggage to the platform and eat one of the sandwiches I had bought, when the first of a series of trains I was to catch pulled in to the station.
In the itinerary my brother had sent me by e-mail, there was a one-minute transfer at Aioi, and I was concerned about not being able to change trains in time, especially with all the luggage I had with me. During the phone calls at Hiroshima, he had given me an alternative schedule to get to Aioi earlier, so I was attempting to follow it, having jotted it down in my notebook:
1223 dep Hiroshima[5] --> 1331 Itozaki [T]
1347 dep Itozaki --> Osaka --> 1414 Sukuyama
1424 dep Sukuyama --> 1509 Okayama
1515 dep Okayama --> 1619 Aioi
This would allow me 33 minutes to transfer at Aioi, instead of only one. If I wanted to, however, I could continue:
1620 Aioi --> 1833 Kusatsu
which would give me 45 minutes at Kusatsu, so I could have something to eat if I wanted.
The plan was going well, until I was unexpectedly assisted by a fellow passenger at Itozaki, who took part of my luggage off the train for me – and then put it on a train waiting on the opposite platform. As my schedule said I was not supposed to leave Itozaki for 16 minutes, I was a little apprehensive about whether this train was going where I wanted. Fortunately, my good Samaritan understood some English, and when I showed her my schedule, she checked her timetable and told me that the train would take me all the way to Okayama if I stayed on board. This looked like a good thing, as I did not really want to drag my luggage on and off too many trains, so this turn of events would avoid me having to change trains at Sukuyama.
So my schedule was revised:
1332 dep Itozaki --> 1506 Okayama[10]
My journey continued towards Odai as per the revised schedule, and I was able to connect at Aioi for the one-minute transfer; again it was as easy as crossing over to the other side of the platform.
Two stations before Kusatsu, the train passed another train with “Tsuge” on it. Recognising this as my next transfer point, I decided to try to catch that train at Kusatsu, knowing that the train I was on would arrive probably a couple of minutes beforehand, as the “Tsuge” train was a “local” (all stations) service, and I was on a “rapid” (express) train.
Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. I got out at Kusatsu and quickly found out which platform the local Tsuge train was leaving from. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it would leave from the same platform my express train had just left. The local train arrived about two minutes later and I got on board to continue my journey. This was a definite deviation from the schedule – I was now 45 minutes ahead. I was quietly hoping I could keep time on my side, as I did not fancy another four hours of trains. The travelling was starting to get a bit wearisome.
The train arrived at its terminus, and I got off. There was another train on the adjacent platform, but I did not know where it was headed. Just then, two ladies came running along the platform, obviously attempting to catch the train I was thinking about. I caught their attention, pointed to the train and said, “Kameyama?” They nodded, so I followed them on board.
I arrived at Kameyama, and learned there would be no trains to Misedani (Odai) until the 2052 which was in the original schedule. This was about one hour away, and I did not want to wait that long, as I was getting hungry (having not stopped at Kusatsu), so I again called my brother. There was a train to Taki leaving at 2012, and I wanted to know if I should catch that one, as Taki is only about 30 minutes from Odai. Keith said he could pick me up from there, so I joined the train. The trains had been getting progressively smaller with each transfer from Kusatsu, and now I had reached the stage where I was travelling on a single carriage train, which could probably best be described as a “bus on rails”.
I arrived at Taki and met Keith, who drove me about 30 minutes to Odai, a small country town about 60km from Nagoya, in the Mie prefecture. When we arrived at Keith’s apartment, his wife Tsuyako greeted me. Keith continued assembling a new bed he had bought that morning for me to sleep on, and after having dinner together, we went to bed, as I was very tired from all the travelling that day.
Day 31 (2005-08-26) / Day 32 (2005-08-27) / Day 33 (2005-08-28)
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