At The Station : Hakata Station

Japan = rail travel. Rail travel = train stations. For us, at least.

Spending a fair bit of time at the train stations is inevitable in Japan. Thus, there will be a series of "At The Station" posts coming up soon.

First : Hakata Station.

When we first ccame to Fukuoka in 2007 & 2008, the station was still undergoing a massive renovation.

In 2011, we arrived to a spacious, modern, clean and overall spanking new looking train station. The JR counters here are very foreign-tourists friendly, and by foreign tourist, I don't mean only for English speaking tourists. There are a LOT of Chinese and Korean speaking tourists in Kyushu, you know. Much more noticeable than at other parts of Japan, that I noticed.

It's always fun to be on the platform. Looking at fellow commuters either rushing to their destination after alighting the train or patiently waiting for the train to come.

Can't help myself taking a shot at this lady. Despite plenty of empty benches on the platform, she chose to squat there, eating her breakfast (of porridge/soup with a teeny weeny spoon). Of course, it was only me who took interest. Nobody else even look twice at her!

Then, there are the trains. It's always fun for us to watch trains arriving to the platform. You bet we had a ball of time running everywhere taking train photos! I mentioned this before. Once, I got so excited taking photos, I made the whole group missed our train!

Come nighttime, you'd see photographers taking their spot trying to capture the illumination set in front of Hakata Station. Christmas illumination in Japan is a BIG thing, it seems.

Like most big stations in Japan, one doesn't need to travel far to shop. Shopping malls are integrated within/around train stations! So convenient!