April 10, 2016 – Fukuoka, Japan

We’ve had four port calls in the past four days – Incheon, Jeju Island, Busan, and Fukuoka. We described Incheon and Jeju in the last posting. So, once again, there will be two port calls in this posting – Busan and Fukuoka.

April 9 – Busan, South Korea

Leaving Jeju Island, it was only a short overnight cruise to Busan, located at the southeast tip of the Korean peninsula. It’s now South Korea’s busiest port (5th largest in the world) and second largest city, with a population of about 3½ million. The city’s name is spelled Busan (using the Roman alphabet) but is still pronounced as “Pusan” (Pooh-san).

There’s a brand new and very large international cruise terminal in Busan. They must have built this terminal to handle demand for many years into the future, as it was big enough for many very large cruise ships simultaneously. Interestingly, instead of escalators, they had moving sidewalks going up and down between floors of the terminal.

For our first Korean port – Incheon – all passengers had to have their passports stamped (for arrival in the country) by Customs & Immigration on board the ship (in the Palm Court). Since Busan was our last port call in Korea, they required that each of us get our passports stamped for departure, in the terminal, when returning to the ship after the last time in Korea.

Ginny chose to stay on the ship today, while Jim decided to take the shuttle bus into town. After lunch, both of us went from the ship all the way through the arrivals part of the terminal together. Then Ginny headed back through the departures area to have her passport stamped before returning to the ship, and Jim found the shuttle buses waiting outside the front entrance. Ginny walked at least a mile, to accomplish this passport stamping formality. One more note about this large, modern terminal – Jim again experienced a heated toilet seat, with a control panel offering many other features. All controls were labeled in Korean, so he was afraid to push any buttons. This must be the future of plumbing (at least in Korea). Look for it in a store near you!

Being about 100 miles from Japan, Busan has a long history of periods of war and cooperation with that country, and it also played a key role during the Korean War in the 1950’s; but that’s all history. It’s now a bustling, prosperous city. Busan’s several beaches are major attractions for visitors, and we were told that they’re very crowded in the summer season. Two other favorite tourist attractions are the Jagalchi Fish Market (for early morning auctions and sales, as well as restaurants on the second floor of the building), and the UN Cemetery (final resting place for soldiers from 16 nations who joined forces under the UN flag in the tragic Korean War).

The ship’s shuttle bus ride took Jim to the Nampo-Dong market and shopping district along Gudeok-ro street in town (just south of the Busan Tower and Yongdusan Park). There was a seemingly endless range of choices for shopping here. Jim didn’t take his camera with him today, so there are no photos to share.

The Jagalchi Fish Market has an entrance off this street, but Jim skipped that and went walking on a very busy pedestrian street (maybe alley is a better term) that was a sensory overload of sights, smells, and noise. He walked for at least a mile along this street, observing small shops selling almost anything imaginable – food, herbs, hardware, wildly colored socks and other clothes, ice cream, artwork, and anything else imaginable. Most interesting was a stretch of several blocks, where food was being cooked in the middle of the road, on the ground. Customers would pull up (small) stools and sit there eating while talking with the cooks and other customers. Everyone else would need to squeeze by them while walking along the street. Amazingly, there were numerous inter­secting roads that had similar colorful shopping scenes in both directions, branching off this main road.

Walking in the other direction on the main street (Gudeok-ro) led to the massive Lotte Department Store. Jim didn’t go in there, but one of our friends did. The store is 13 stories tall and is, in some words we read, “an over-the-top temple to consumerism.” In the basement of the building is a food court/delicatessen/supermarket. Incredibly, Lotte has opened a massive building called Lotte Mall right next door to the department store Even more astonishing is that there’s an even bigger store in the City Centrum, called Shinsegae. According to something we read, Guiness World Book of Records lists Shinsegae as the biggest department store in the world. None of the ship’s guests we talked to made a visit to Shinsegae, so we can’t verify that claim.

April 10 – Fukuoka, Japan

Crystal Serenity sailed across the Korean Strait overnight, arriving in Fukuoka, Japan early this morning (before 7:00 am). Fukuoka is Japan’s 6th largest city, with a population of 1.5 million The city sits on the northern shore of Japan’s Kyushu Island, which is separated from Japan’s main Island of Honshu by the “Inland Sea.” Geographically, Fukuoka is closer to both Seoul and Shanghai (and very much closer to Busan) than it is to Tokyo.

Present-day Fukuoka resulted from the merger of two cities on opposite sides of the Nakagawa River – Fukuoka on the west side and Hakata on the east side – in 1889. However, you’ll see references to both as you travel through the modern city. For example, the airport is named Fukuoka Airport (incidentally, this is the former Itazuke AFB, used by US Air Force for many years, including during the Korean War). The main train station is Hakata Station and we’re docked at Hakata Port (International Terminal).

We signed up for a shore excursion today named “Panoramic Fukuoka,” which was described as a “relaxed outing by motor coach (that) offers an engaging survey of Fukuoka …” We were ready for that, especially after the heavy schedule we’ve had for the past week. We had an excellent guide named “Patti” who led us on a driving tour almost exclusively in downtown, but she told us a lot about life in this thriving city.

Here are some examples: Patti told us that Fukuoka is known throughout Japan as the place to go for fresh ramen noodles and the soup broth is made with pork bone. The best street stalls for ramen open after 6:00 pm downtown and can be quite popular. Japan’s population is decreas­ing. There are now 3 million more women in Japan than men. She told us that Fukuoka is especially known for the number of single women. She also told us that people in Japan have the longest longevity in the world: Women = 87 years, and Men = 80.

Some of the highlights in town included the Fukuoka Tower, 768 feet tall – the tallest seaside tower in Japan – which was built on reclaimed land out of Hakata Bay. It has a triangular cross-section covered with 8000 mirrors on the outside. After dark there are light displays projected onto its mirrored surface, but we didn’t get to see that.

They’re also very proud of the Fukuoka Dome (the first domed stadium in Japan), which is home to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, one of the twelve professional baseball teams in Japan. This stadium seats 48,000 and has a retractable roof.

We were very lucky to see some cherry blossom trees in Maizuru Park, adjacent to the old 17th century Fukuoka Castle (now in ruins). As we were driving past the castle grounds, the driver spotted some cherry blossoms and pulled over out of traffic. In among the ruins of the castle there are close to a thousand trees, but these were on the periphery along the road. We all hopped off the bus to take a look, and a bonus was that a local lady was there in her kimono posing for a professional photographer. Jim didn’t rush over to interrupt and snap photos of her, but some of our passengers did. There’s a strong chance that the cherry blossoms in Tokyo may be over by the time we reach there in a few more days, since we read that they were at their peak on April 4th, so this was a fortuitous break for us to see some of the trees here in Fukuoka.

Patti also showed us the Fukuoka Convention Center, where a Sumo Tournament is held every November and attracts many visitors. On the topic of foreign visitors, Patti told us that since ferry boat service started into the Hakata port in the early 2010s, there has been a very large increase in visitors to Fukuoka from Korea and China. Jim walked over to the International Ferry Wharf later in the afternoon and saw two ferry boats leaving for Busan, South Korea.

Continuing on our ride through the city, we saw a lot of canals and also a lot of the major streets with Bike Lanes and Pedestrian Lanes designed adjacent to the streets (a great idea). There are also a lot of outdoor vending machines. Ginny used one of them to get a Coke Light. Patti said that Japan has the 2nd largest number of vending machines in the world (second to the U.S.).

Next, Patti described some of the many eco-friendly initiatives undertaken across the city. We drove past the ACROS building, where we saw thousands of green plants on terraced façades along the front and sides of the building.

Last, but not least in some of our fellow passengers’ minds were the two modern shopping areas in Fukuoka. First is the main commercial district of Tenjin, with department stores (Mitsukoshi and Iwataya, for example), and street after street of modern, popular stores (both above ground and underground). Then there’s Canal City, a huge American-style shopping mall built around a man-made canal. The tour bus drove by both these shopping areas, but we didn’t get off the bus (some of our other passengers did). The ship’s shuttle bus dropped off and picked up Serenity’s guests at the center of Tenjin, for those who were so inclined. When driving by, we did note that there was a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus stop at the exact same location as the shuttle bus.

After the excursion we thought to ourselves that if they removed all the many signs written in Japanese, Fukuoka would look a lot like many American cities of comparable size, only cleaner. We mean that as a compliment. Our hats are off to this modern, internationally oriented city.


Jim & Ginny