Getting from Seoul South Korea to Tokyo Japan

Here’s a quick post on getting from Seoul South Korea to Tokyo Japan which includes the “how much did it cost?” when I made the trip.  The first part of the journey was to get from Seoul to the southern port city of Busan.  I booked a seat on South Korea’s KTX (fast train) by walking into the “Seoul Station” metro station at the stop by the same name.  It departs at regular intervals so it was no problem getting a ticket. Please keep in mind that I traveled on a Monday afternoon.   If you’ll be traveling during a peak time or holiday season you may want to book ahead of time using their website.  A one way ticket cost me approximately 47 900 won (approximately 45$ Canadian at the time) and it took just a few minutes more than 3 hours to make the trip.

From Busan I planned on taking the ferry over to Shimonoseki Japan. There are several Japanese and at least one Chinese city reachable by ferry from Busan.

From the Busan train station you can walk to the ferry terminal in approximately 10 to 15 minutes.  Ask for directions at the information booth or look at one of the many maps in the terminal on how to reach the international ferry terminal.  Be careful as the international ferry terminal is located a little further than the domestic ferry terminal.  At first glance it’s not very intuitive which one is which but here’s a tip: The international terminal has a pointy roof with many jagged white ‘horns’ sticking out of it.

Here’s a picture of the terminal in question in order to give you a better idea of what to look for (taken from the ferry):

It’s also smaller than the domestic terminal.  The one way ferry crossing from Busan to Shimonoseki cost me approximately 160 000 won for a first class cabin (approximately 162$ Canadian). The cabin had four bunk beds, a small washroom and a television. The Seonghee had a small restaurant (use the machine to purchase a ticket first) as well as a GS25 ‘store’ which sold a variety of chips, instant noodles, rice and everything else you would expect from a ‘corner store’.

When you consider that this is a overnight ferry and also transports you a large way into Japan it’s a reasonable cost. You can do it for even cheaper if you don’t mind sleeping in some of the more affordable options.  The lowest priced option was one which had you sleeping on a tatami (floor mats) in a room full of other people passengers.  For one night I think this is completely reasonable for the budget traveler.
Here are several pictures from inside the ferry and of Busan prior to departing:

Here’s a few pictures from inside the first class travel room:

While waiting for the departure I snapped several pictures which are among some of my favorite.  Definitely worth taking the time to click on them and seeing them in full screen!

The following morning it was still raining slightly as I woke up.  However as we continued to approach the island of Japan the weather kept getting nicer and nicer.   I took advantage of it to snap a few pictures from the porthole in my room:

I arrived at the Shimonoseki international ferry terminal and after having cleared customs made my way to the train station.  Out of customs I pointed myself towards the train station.  Although I spoke almost no Japanese with the assistance of a very kind and friendly station attendant I managed to book a one way ticket to Tokyo using their fast train (aka bullet train) for 20,725 Japanese Yen (approximately 240$ Canadian). This got me into Tokyo in approximately five and a half hours hours using the fastest train possible; the Nozomi!

That being said when you leave shimonoseki you’ll be on one of the local trains.  Being a smaller Japanese city the signs will be in Japanese (you knew that right? The world isn’t in English so don’t get your panties in a bunch!).  When I rode the local train out of Shimonoseki in order to transfer to the Nozomi bullet train I missed my stop!  The train left Shomonoseki and I sat beside the window so I could read the signs.  It was mostly empty.  It made, if memory serves me well one or two stops, with the odd passenger boarding and debarking along the way.  Eventually most of the passengers got off, but I wasn’t certain if it was my stop.  I should have known that we had reached a “transfer station” but my nerves got the best of me and I stayed on the train.  The train then started going in the same direction we had just arrived from and It’s at that moment that I knew I should have gotten off.     Taking it all ‘as it comes’ I rode the train back to the Shimonoseki station and finally back to the transfer point and stepped off the train looking for the transfer platform.

Here a few shots form the Shimonoseki train station taken prior to me riding it back and forth ;-)

I got off at the transfer point, showed a Japanese station attendant my ticket and pointed in various directions as if to indicate “which platform” and the station attendant kindly indicated with his hands which platform number I should go to.

Once on the bullet train the English language appeared in some of the announcements.  That is to say when the bullet train stopped in some of the stations it announced in English the station name.  I was still a little worried about missing a possible “transfer” in order to reach Tokyo so I used one of the only Japanese phrases I knew “Sumi masen” (excuse me) to one of the younger Japanese passengers while showing him my ticket for Tokyo and pointing to the floor in the hopes that he would understand I was asking if I was on the correct train.  He politely smiled and pointed to the seat which I understood to mean he was saying I was on the right train.  Five hours later I was arriving in Tokyo.

The total cost from Seoul to Tokyo was 447 Canadian dollars. This is definitely more expensive than a direct flight to Tokyo from Seoul. For approximately 500 000 won (500$ Canadian) my Korean friend was able to locate some round trip plane tickets from Seoul to Tokyo. However there were a few reasons I didn’t want to fly: I wanted to experience taking the train and the ferry which would allow me to see more of the country side.  I also wasn’t certain how long I’d be in be in Japan and didn’t want to have a confirmed return date.

In hindsight I should have flown into Tokyo and then taken the train back to Seoul.   If you’re going to be spending a lot of time in Japan and South Korea or want to see a lot of the country I’d suggest flying from Seoul to Tokyo and then working your way back to either Shimonoseki or Fukoka in order to take the ferry over to Busan. From Busan you could either take the KTX train back to Seoul directly or visit many of the smaller cities along the way back to Seoul.

You can find ferry information listed on the official site of Korean tourism here.  Pay specific attention to the departures as some ferry locations do no leave everyday and make certain to be there early enough to ‘check in’.   Although the ferry may depart at a specific time the boarding is usually stopped a few hours prior to departure.

It’s also possible to purchase a Japan rail pass which is valid for 7 days of rail travel within Japan.  I believe I’ve also read that it’s valid on some of the ferries within Japan.  In my case because I didn’t have a planned itinerary and wasn’t certain how long I’d be in Japan for I didn’t want to be limited to 7 days and therefore didn’t purchase the pass.  You can find more information regarding the JR rail pass here.

Hope this was helpful to some of you thinking about visiting South Korea and/or Japan by through Busan!