Ferries between Japan and South Korea?

January 11, 2012 6:17 AM

I want to take a ferry from Shimonoseki, Japan to Busan, South Korea, and then later from Busan to Fukuoka—but how do I book tickets?

For the first leg (Japan to S.K.) I've found a company called Pukwan Ferry that will take me there, and lots of information about these ferries, but I can't read or translate (images!) the site, much less make a reservation. For the return ferry, I'm looking at Korea Ferry, but I'm running into the language problem again. Would I be safe just showing up and buying a ticket the day of?

Thanks, MeFi!

posted by reductiondesign to Travel & Transportation (2 answers total)

I took the Shimonoseki to Busan ferry in 2008. I believe I used a travel agent to actually make the booking, since at the time the website said I should go to make a reservation at a counter in Japan (not possible since I wasn't *in* Japan yet).

I also looked over this website.

I recall being worried about getting a space, and I was looking about 2 weeks before my trip.

And lastly, I remember that there was some weirdness with getting the ferry tickets and I had to stick around my friend's apartment in Tokyo for a day waiting for the tickets to show up. Unfortunately it's been 3 years and I don't recall what the weirdness *was*, exactly.
posted by nat at 7:25 AM on January 11, 2012

I took the Beetle from Fukuoka to Busan. You can make an internet reservation on the website [english]. It was very easy. I got to the terminal about 3 hours ahead of time to make sure everything was ok, and had no problems.
posted by casaubon at 8:53 AM on January 11, 2012