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Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/29 05:06
I'll be flying from Sapporo to Fukuoka on Oct. 16 Wed at 5.10 pm.
I intend to buy a 3 day Northern Kyushu Areas Pass.
What places should we cover for those 3 days. Both of us are in the late 60s, so we don't need to be too cramped.

We intend to stay 4-5 days in Kyushu. Rather than staying all nights at Fukuoka, maybe we can leave our luggage in Fukuoka and stay one or two nights else where in our 3 day train.

Q1: Northern Kyushu Pass is not the same as the JR Rail for 7. 14 or 21 day pass? We can buy it when we get there and the price is the same.

Q2: Places to visit during those 3 days on train. Preferably to stop for 2 nights in some of the places. We can leave our luggage at Fukuoka hotel.
by peterkh  

Re: Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/29 14:51
If you are only doing northern Kyushu the rail is pretty cheap and cheerful anyway. Some nice trips from Fukuoka would be Yufuin (nice for an overnight stay), Karatsu, Kurokawa (if you are into onsens, I wouldnt bother otherwise), and the Nagasaki Bio Park was awesome (train to Huis Ten Bosch then shuttle to the park).

There would be plenty of other things, they are just places we liked in our Fukuoka/Yufuin/Kurokawa/Huis Ten Bosch/Nagasaki/Karatsu trip earlier this year.
by Lazy Pious (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/29 15:11
I've only used the Northern Kyushu 3-day pass once, and that was to take day trips out of Fukuoka.
Q1 - You can buy the pass at Hakata Station in Fukuoka for the advertised price. You just show your passport and they put a green ticket in a folder.

Q2 - Most of northern Kyushu can be reached from Hakata on day trips, such as
Karatsu (castle and pottery),
Imari & Arita (pottery),
Okawachiyama (small pottery town south of Imari),
Yoshinogari Koen (reconstructed Yayoi town in Saga),
Nanzoin (big bronze Buddha and temple in Sasaguri)
Hita, Mameda (old silver mining town and hot springs and Onta pottery)

If you want to take in sights around Nagasaki or Beppu/Yufuin, it might be more relaxing to stay in one of those 2 places for a night as they're reached by a longer train ride.
N. Kyushu doesn't lend itself for a complete circle route. If you go from Fukuoka to Nagasaki to Beppu, you have to backtrack almost back to Fukuoka.

The northern pass also gets you to Kumamoto City by Shinkansen if you want to check out the earthquake damaged castle and see all the landslide scars on the slopes around Mt. Aso. The rail line to Mt. Aso is still out, but JR has a special bus to get you around the damage.

Kokura is also accessible by Shinkansen on that pass if you want to see the Toto toilet history display there.

You could use up the 3-day pass on just day trips from Fukuoka unless you want to stay on either the east or west end of the island, or use other transportation to get away from the rail lines which would take time also (Kurokawa, Yamanami Highway).

Pass details:
https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/english/railpass/railpass.jsp
by Anaguma (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/29 15:29
Kumamoto and Beppu are also covered by North Kyushu Pass. Kurokawa Onsen is nice, but is not on a train route. Yufuin, near Kurokawa, does have a train station. There is a bus to Kurokawa from Yufuin.
by Mei (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/29 15:34
Kokura is also accessible by Shinkansen on that pass if you want to see the Toto toilet history display there.

No, the Shinkansen north of Hakata belongs to JR West and is not covered by passes of JR Kyushu.
by Firas rate this post as useful

Re: Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/29 15:37
Kokura is also accessible by Shinkansen on that pass if you want to see the Toto toilet history display there.

You cannot use the JR Kyushu Pass to take the shinkansen between Kokura and Hakata. It says so in bold red script in the link you gave.

If the OP's first time to the island, Nagasaki is a must - a beautiful and charming city with lots of variety. Fukuoka has its sights too - the Nanzoin Temple is most memorable. Yanagawa also makes a nice half day trip on the canal boats and garden there.
by Ken (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/29 17:23
I would either stay in Nagasaki prefecture or Oita prefecture for you 2 nights.

Nagasaki has Shimabara/Unzen, Huis Ten Bosch and Takao-Onsen various trip trip away.

Oita has Beppu and Yufuin, you can stay at either and travel to the other.

All options have write ups on this website to allow you to come to your own conclusion about which appeals to you more.
by hakata14 (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/29 22:35
Vow! Thank you so much for everyone's suggestions. You folks are priceless!
by peterkh rate this post as useful

Re: Northern Kyushu Area with 3 days Rail Pass 2016/8/30 00:33
Just so there is no confusion: You can go to Kokura with the pass. You simply can't use the Shinkansen. You can go as far as Shimonoseki, which is actually in Yamaguchi, but again, you simply have to use the local trains, not Shinkansen.

As mentioned above, spending time in Nagasaki, Oita, and/or Kumamoto would get you more for your money.
A couple additional ideas:
-Taketa (Bungo-Taketa Station - Oka Castle ruins and former castle town)
-Hita (historic district)
by Rabbityama rate this post as useful

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