Venue
The conference venue is Centennial Hall, Kyushu University School of Medicine, in the Maidashi Campus of Kyushu University.
https://www.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp/100ko-do/english/
Maidashi Campus is integrated with the Kyushu University hospital, which is at a convenient location from Fukuoka Airport and Hakata station (main station of Fukuoka City). You can access the venue via a few minutes walk from Maidashi-Kyudaibyoinmae (meaning "in front of Kyushu Univ. hospital in Maidashi") station. From Fukuoka Airport, it only takes about 20 minutes on the subway, with one transfer at Nakasu-Kawabata station.
You can find more detailed directions at the following link:
https://www.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp/100ko-do/english/directions/index.html
Fukuoka City
Fukuoka is the biggest city of Kyushu, the western island of Japan, and is about 900 km west from Tokyo. With a population of about 2.5 million in the Fukuoka metropolitan area, Fukuoka is known as an active city welcoming tourists especially from Asian countries. It is also famous for various kinds of Japanese cuisines including squids, yakitori, and tonkotsu-ramen. There are many old temples and shrines for sight-seeing. The Kyushu National Museum in Dazaifu, located south of Fukuoka City, is a popular destination.
The weather should be reasonably good in November, with temperatures of 10-20 degrees Celsius. The dates coincide with the season of autumn leaves, so it is recommended that you visit the beautiful parks and the countryside.
For more information on Fukuoka City, please visit the sites below.
Travel to Fukuoka within Japan
Click the map below for details.
Fukuoka Airport
Fukuoka Airport is located near the center of the city. It is very convenient to access the city and the venue. Fukuoka serves international flights only from Asia (there is a direct flight from Helsinki only in the summer and is not operated during the conference date). So most of you will come via Tokyo or other cities. At Tokyo, please note that there are two airports, Haneda and Narita. Haneda is the main domestic airport in Tokyo, serving Fukuoka much more frequently than Narita. You may get a special discount of domestic flights from both major Japanese airlines (JAL/ANA), applicable to non-Japanese travelers. Domestic flights with major airlines are convenient, and you only need to go to the airport 30 minutes prior to departure. (If you choose a low cost carrier, you have to be at the airport earlier.)
Shinkansen (high-speed bullet train)
You can also access Fukuoka by the Shinkansen bullet train to Hakata station, which is also in the heart of the city. The travel time from Osaka/Kyoto, Nagoya and Tokyo is around 2.5/3.5/5 hours, respectively. Note that with Japan Rail Pass you cannot ride the fastest "Nozomi" and "Mizuho" trains. "Hikari" and "Sakura" are the second fastest kind of trains but the difference in the time is rather small (but they do not directly serve Hakata from Tokyo). The slowest kind "Kodama" is much slower. Reservation of the seats is possible on this site, but please note that the places to receive tickets are limited. Special care should be taken at Tokyo station because most areas are operated by JR-East Company, while the Shinkansen area headed west is operated by JR-Central Company. Reservation at stations is still more popular but you may encounter communication problems at non-major stations. Seat reservation is not mandatory (for Tokyo-Hakata route), but you need to sit in "non-reserved" cars.
As a rough guide, we at Kyushu University usually take flights when we go to Tokyo, and take the Shinkansen to Osaka/Kyoto. For Nagoya, both options are taken.
