250px, Beetle ferry is a

hydrofoil A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

service that travels between

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. It is operated by JR Kyushu Jet Ferry, a division of

Kyushu Railway Company The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan and the JR Kyushu Jet Ferry Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait ...

. Although journey times are longer, ferry travel is generally much cheaper than flying, with direct connections available between several major Japanese port cities and China, Korea and Russia. Ferry schedules are subject to seasonal changes and may vary according to the weather.

Amenities

Beetle Ferries provide two seating areas and a

duty-free shop A duty-free shop (or store) is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who ...

Travel Information

Checking in

Departure processing starts 2.5 hours before departure and ends 1 hour before departure. Passengers must fill out a boarding pass before travelling.

Arrival/Departure Cards

Arrival cards required to enter Japan are available on the ferry. They can be filled out at the same time as the Korean departure card. The departure card (from Korea) must be filled out in Korean, while the arrival card for entry into Japan must be written either in

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

or English.

Customs Declaration

Travelers carrying expensive merchandise or valuables (cameras, watches, jewelry, fur products) are required to declare the item, quantity and price on the customs form. The document must be retained for the return trip.

External links