Northern Kyushu Trip 2023 - Day 2 - Nagasaki - One day Street Car (tram) and city sightseeing places

Just infront of Nagasaki Station is the Tourist Information Office, we could buy the one day street car pass from the tourist information office and also collect maps and information about Nagasaki.

This is a one-day unlimited ride pass for streetcars in Nagasaki City and is recommended for those who are sightseeing in Nagasaki on a day trip. (The ONE-DAY PASS for Streetcar is valid only on the day of use.

Used to cost only 500 yen but recently increased to 600 yen. One way flat fare is 140 yen. So is worth if travelling multiple trips on the street car.

Read more from the official website    on how to use the pass.

It is easy to spot the street car stops. Just infront of Nagasaki Station is the street car stops,we just board and alight to our destination by showing the one day pass when alighting.

Our first destination on Day 1 sightseeing is the Peace Park. It is easy to locate the park, there's lots of signs to direct us from the street car stop to the park.

Nice park to take photos and also remember history of world war two. 

After visiting Peace Park, we took the tram with our one day pass to visit Oura Church and Glover Garden, they were just next to each other with few minutes walk from each other.

We even had a good view of Nagasaki City from Glover Garden.

Northern Kyushu Trip 2023 - JR Kyushu Pass - More about the JR Kyushu Pass (Northern, Southern or All Kyushu Pass and how many days to buy 3 , 5 or 7 days)

After our morning breakfast, we headed to Nagasaki Station, to purchase our Kyushu Pass from the JR Office. It was not crowded at the station and we dont even have to queue. I did not choose to purchase the pass online as I was afraid to make mistake. So I choose to purchase the pass from the station instead on arrival Japan.

JR Kyushu Rail Pass is a great value ticket for foreign visitors to Japan, allowing you to easily travel between multiple cities in Kyushu.There are 4 types of Rail Pass based on passenger needs.

JR KYUSHU RAIL PASS

All Kyushu

Northern Kyushu

Southern Kyushu

Fukuoka Wide 

 For more information on the various type of JR Kyushu Pass, please visit the official website of JR Kyushu Rail Company.

We need to show our passport to purchase the JR Kyushu Pass. We decided to get only 3 days Northern Pass. As this is our first trip to Kyushu, being two senior folks, we decided to only visit few places to get ourselves familar with the city. Dont think we have so much energy to go round the whole Kyushu haha

The northern pass only allow us to use the pass to take the shinkansen and JR Train for unlimited time for only 3 days. The pass need to be used consecutively for 3 days and no skipping of days in between once activated the pass.

My three days for the JR Kyushu Northern Pass is as follows:

Day 1 of activation of pass - Nagasaki Station to Fukuoka Station (with seat reservation and luggage reservation)

Day 2 of activation of pass - Fukuoka Station to Kumamoto Station.(with seat reservation only - as only a day trip )

Day 3 of activation of pass -  Fukuoka Station to Beppu Station (with seat reservation only - as only a day trip) - unfortunately I had to forfeit day 3 of activation of pass as I need to return to Singapore urgently due to family matter (will post more of this later) - so I did not make the trip to Beppu and fly back to Singapore.

This is the main pass that need to slide though the gantry each time we want to take the shinkansen or JR Trains.

We can also make seat reservations at the JR Office. We are only allow to make 6 seat reservation per person.

These are two tickets that I make reservations for going from Nagasaki Station to Fukuoka Station. There is no direct shinkansen train from Nagasaki Station all the way to Fukuoka Station but in between we need to change train, that's why there are two tickets for each of us.

First from Nagasaki Station we took the Nishikyushu Shinkansen  "Kamome 16" train to Takeo Onsen Station. The journey is about 30 minutes. Then we just crossed over to the other platform to board the "Relay Kamome" limited express train to Fukuoka Station. The journey is 1 hour. 

The transfer for the timing we choose is only 3 mins. So walking over the platform is less than a minute including dragging our luggage across. 

Remember that when making seat reservations on all Shinkansen remember to also reserve large luggages. For other trains, it is not necessary to reserve large luggages. Otherwise there's a penalty for bring large luagges in Shinkansen. Reservation of seats and luggages are free for the JR Kyushu Pass.

As I am not sure of the return timing for some tickets, I choose to reserve seats when I went to Fukuoka or Kumanoto (Will post details on making extra seat reservations at Fukuoka Station in later post).

Please visit the official website or watch the video for more information.

Northern Kyushu 2023 - Day 2 - Nagasaki - JR Kyushu Hotel Morning Breakfast

We bought the hotel breakfast voucher at 1500 yen which comprises of Japanese set and Western set. Breakfast was at the Umaya Nagasaki Restaurant located on the 5th floor of Amu Plaza,Nagasaki which was connectd to the hotel.

I got the Japanese Set while Hubby got the Western Set.

They also comes with free flow of juices, coffee and tea.

Also free flow of rice, eggs and seaweed.

More details can be found in their official website

Northern Kyushu 2023 - Day 1 - Nagasaki Chinatown

Went to Nagasaki Chinatown for dinner. Took the city tram to Chinatown. 

Surprised that most shops dont open at night except for the chinese restaurants.

They served very good chinese food.

Back to hotel for a good rest after  a very tired day travelling.

 

Northern Kyushu Trip 2023 - Day 1 - Jr Kyushu Hotel Nagasaki

For our accomodation at Nagasaki, we choose to stay at JR Kyushu Hotel, Nagasaki for 2 nights. Good rest and sleep in the comfortable bed, especially much travelling on Day 1 on the red eye flight from Singapore and transit through Seoul and then to Fukuoka.

Hotel a bit dated but very clean and quiet. We got the higher floor. 

The hotel is situated next to Nagasaki Train Station which makes travelling by train very convenient. It is also situated next to AMU Shopping mall.

 

Northern Kyushu Trip 2023 - Day 1 - How to take bus from Fukuoka International Airport to Nagasaki? (2 and half hour journey)

After exiting from the arrival hall of Fukuoka International Airport, we could see the Bus Counter. Original plan was to take the shuttle bus from Fukuoka International Airport to Fukuoka Domestic Airport to take the subway to Hakata Station to purchase Northern Kyushu 3 day pass(will explain about the pass in later posts) and then take the Shinkansen from Hakata Station to Nagasaki Station (need change 2 trains) - total journey would be 2 hours including the subway, shuttle bus etc. 

This option seems too chaotic especially for first timer visiting Fukuoka.

So we decided the next thing to do was take the bus from Fukuoka International Airport all the way to Nagasaki (there's few stops in between). No need to change bus etc. Just leave our luggage in the bus compartment and we just take nap in the bus from Fukuoka Aiport all the way to Nagasaki. The whole journey will be 2 and half hour and cost half of what we would pay to take the Shinkansen.

We can purchase the bus ticket via vending machine or go to the counter. We prefer the counter service and find out more about the bus service.

It is very easy to look at the bus schedule on the board. Looked at the circled Nagasaki and the timing. We missed the 11.02 am bus so we take the next available bus which is 11.42 am. The bus is not full, only half filled. Very smooth and comfortable ride.

After purchasing the bus ticket, we just followed the sign to the bus stop outside the airport.

We need take the bus from Bus Stop No.2. There are serveral buses at Bus Stop 2 that goes different places but there is a staff at the bus stop to guide us so we wont board the wrong bus.

The bus is here and there's free wifi onboard and we sit according to the assigned seat number.

There is a 5 minute toilet break after one hour journey.

Finally after two and half hour we arrived at Nagasaki Bus Terminal.

We just drag our luggage and walked one minute to the main road, we could see our hotel in the opposite direction from the bus terminal.

No need to climb the stairs with our heavy luggage, there's an elevator to bring us up the pedestrian bridge that leads to our hotel.

Our hotel (circled) next to mall and Nagasaki Train Station.

Another option is to make Fukuoka the base of the trip, and just make Nagasaki a day trip instead of staying overnight.

Nagasaki is not too crowded as Fukuoka and lesser people so we prefer to stay 2 nights in Nagasaki for a relaxing trip instead of all the rush and noises. 

 

Northern Kyushu 2023 - Day 1 - Singapore to Fukuoka Airport Japan and transit at Incheon Airport, Seoul, South Korea by Asiana Airlines. How to transfer at Incheon Airport (Transit)?

Yippee, finally after four years since the Covid Pandemic, I started travelling again. 

 As mentioned in previous post I am taking Asiana Airlines to Fukuoka from Singapore. The flight time from Singapore to Seoul is about 6 hours 25 mins, the transit time is less than 2 hours and the flight time from Seoul to Fukuoka is about 1 hour 20 minutes. Total flight hours will be less than 10 hours (including transit time).

First time taking Asiana Airlines, the seats are very spacious and lots of leg room. 

Finally, we arrived Incheon Airport from Singapore after more than 6 hours. We just followed the Green TRANSFER sign and to transfer our flight from Incheon Airport to Fukuoka. We dont have to collect our check in luggages, they were auto transfer to the next flight. We just carried all our hand carried bags.

Just walked into the passageway that had the sign TRANSFER. Super easy.

We need to go through security check again before allowed to go to our boarding gate. Before security check, remember to look out for the gate number of the next flight.

After security, we just enter into the departure hall of Incheon Airport. (No stamping of passport as we did not leave the airport)

There's drinking water located near the toilet, can refill water bottles.

Our next flight from Seoul to Fukuoka was Asiana Airlines and the seats were very spacious too.

Although it is an hour flight, we were served lunch. From Korea to Japan, the lunch was Beef Bulgogi with rice and water.

In no time, we arrived at Fukuoka Airport. Very smooth flight.