A Fukuokan's Notes from Sapporo

Today, I am going to talk like a “guide”, though being a bit useful or talking about tourism is against this blog’s policy…

The new Shinkansen service, connecting Kagoshima, the southernmost city of the Kyushu Island, and Fukuoka in less than two hours, begins in the middle of March. Toward the open, the main JR station of Fukuoka, Hatata-eki, is busy preparing to welcome the train itself and expected new flows of tourists. 

Most of the building renovation works seem to have been nearly completed.

The main building housing  department stores (as usual in station buiding), souvenir shops, and restaurants look  under finishing touches,

 making around the building look nicer by adding extra cosmetic surgeries.

Even before the full open of the new station building, the tourist office is in full swing.

There are countless numbers of free maps full of local information (written in various languages... may be this is why I have been jobless!).

And ladies behind the counter are keen to help you by searching the internet to find the answer (warning: they don’t seem to discriminate between blogs and reliable information…have I said something lethal to this blog?)

Also, the Ekiben store is in business.

This store deals not only with Fukuokan local bento, but also with ekiben from all over the Kyushu Island, including ones produced by my friend’s company in Kumamoto (special advertisement).

Anyway, to show Fukuokan enthusiastic welcome to non-Japanese tourists, (nearly) everything in the station is written in three languages other than Japanese: English, Chinese (I don’t know which Chinese is used, though), and Korean.

However, as I said “nearly”, not everything is written in your language. For example, special notice (delays of trains, short-cut course to particular places, etc) and  this kind of apologies, or excuse, are written only in Japanese. I don’t know why.

 It reads:

We apologise for any noise caused during these Hakataeki improvement works. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. The Stationmaster

If you are lucky, someone who wants to show off their English may kindly translate it for you.

Once you get out of the station building, you will notice some huts from which young pretty-looking girls smiling at you.

Unless you would like to try your Japanese, you can ignore them. They are promoting storecards (usually with credit function) of the newly introduced department stores in the station building.

At the taxi rank, there are ladies called ‘taxi concierge’ who can speak more than two languages and gone through training courses to work in tourism industry

. Although they tried to offer good service, asking where you want to go and pass your answer to the driver, or something, (Caution: they don’t get on the taxi with you) you don’t have to tip them. They are paid by a local taxi association.  

Then, enjoy your stay in Fukuoka!