When one firsts comes to Studio Kura from Fukuoka Airport or from JR Hakata Station, the recommended means is by train. Riding the subway is not too hard, and the train will take you to Ikisan Station, a 20 minute walk to Studio Kura. Most of this is explained on our guide from the Airport and our guide from Hakata, but here we will focus on the art of using the trains.
When you buy your ticket at the Fukuoka Airport subway station, Hakata Station, or any subway station in Fukuoka, the vending machine will look like this. Well, it may not look like this at first, but when you touch the English button and then the Chikuhi Line button, it will. You have to choose the Chikuhi Line because Ikisan Station is not on a subway line but on the JR Chikuhi Line, and you will be getting a combined ticket for both lines. The good news is you do not need to change trains at Meinohama, the station where the subway line ends. If you chose the right time to ride the train, it will take you all the way to Ikisan.
The vending machine above is ai Ikisan Station. Buying your tickets at Ikisan is not that easy because there is no screen or English text, or even a JR employee to help you. But you can just remember it is ¥670 to Tenjin or Hakata (downtown), and ¥700 to the airport. If you ever forget the amounts, there actually is a way to make sense of this machine without reading Japanese.
This map of all nearby train lines has every station name in both Japanese and English, so you can look up your destination on the map, then look for the Japanese name on the vending machine’s buttons. The red box with an arrow is Ikisan Station (you are here!), and you would go to the right on the green line to get to Fukuoka. Then in Meinohama the line becomes black (subway) and it goes all the way until Hakata (where one rides the Shinkansen, the intersection with the pink line) and finally Fukuoka Airport.
Anyway, if you have a smart card like Suica, Pasmo, Icoca, Nimoca, Sugoca, Hayakaken, etc. you can use it at Ikisan and not worry about the fare. You can also charge your card using this machine. Any questions about trains, or anything related to the residence program? Please contact us.