You can't come to Japan and not ride the trains... Japan does trains magnificently, there's just no two ways about it.

Before we arrived, we armed ourselves with a couple of multi-day Kyushu railway passes, and on Sunday (two days ago), we went to collect them at the station. You can organize seat reservations online, but it's quite expensive. So we decided to do it person, which is free (up to a certain number of trips per pass). Full marks to the incredibly patient young woman who sorted out all the reservations for two sets of journeys (it did help, however, that we'd printed out a list of our requirements).



The original Hakata Station was opened in 1889, a short distance away from the current one:


The current station is very cool, and -- as seems to be the norm for major Kyushu stations -- comes complete with an AMU Plaza, which is stuffed full of shops and cafes.

Hakata station is rather different, however, in that it boasts not only a very pleasant roof garden, with impressive views, but also a railway shrine...









So..., our journeys start tomorrow!