br>Willer Express has a service from Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe from �4,800 with advance purchase tickets as cheap as �4,100. Other services are Nagoya (�5,400), Okayama (�4,300) and Hiroshima (�2,500). They have an English website with online booking available. Discounts for tickets purchased 21 and 14 days in advance.
If you're really ambitious, Nishitetsu bus runs an overnight service, the Hakata, from the Shinjuku expressway bus terminal in Tokyo to Fukuoka non-stop. The ride, at just over 14 hr, is Japan's longest overnight bus service (�8,000 for economy class �12,000 for high seasons, �15,000 for business class and �19,000 for 1st class, some roundtrip discounts are available).
By boat
JR Kyushu's Jet Ferry the Beetle hydrofoils to Busan (South Korea). It runs five times a day and takes just under 3 hr for �13,000 (�24,000 round trip discount fare; �20,000 round trip on weekdays). They are quick, but in 2005 one hit a whale and had to be towed back to Busan. Since then, the JR Kyushu Jet Ferry Inc. plays sounds that whales dislike using speakers to avoid further accidents. An economy-class ticket on the Meimon Taiyo Ferry from Osaka to Kita Kyushu costs �6,000 (20% discount if booked online); tickets in other price ranges are available.
Three times a week Kyuetsu Ferry Co. runs a service to Naoetsu in Niigata and then on to Muroran in Hokkaido
