Pleasant folks, implausible seafood, ramen, Japan’s largest pageant, and pristine nature
Nice meals and even higher firm reign supreme in Fukuoka, the relaxed port city that’s on the coronary heart of life on Kyushu Japan’s third-largest island. The town is the quickest rising in Japan and has engaged in cultural change all through its historical past from its proximity to mainland Asia.
- Fukuoka Metropolis has a few of Japan’s finest meals, and tonkotsu ramen is very widespread
- Fukuoka hosts Dontaku, Japan’s largest pageant, and numerous different festivals
- Fukuoka’s compact measurement makes it an excellent place to get pleasure from each the ocean and the mountains
Fukuoka is definitely accessible from each Tokyo and Osaka through direct shinkansen or air. Fukuoka is well-connected by sea (of which there are numerous vessels) and air to South Korea (about one hour) and is a brief flight from Taiwan and Shanghai (about two hours by direct flight).
From Tokyo, it’s about one hour and 45 minutes from Haneda Airport to Fukuoka Airport. The practice journey from Tokyo Station to Hakata Station through the JR Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen Line is about 5 hours.
Flights from Osaka’s Itami Airport to Fukuoka Airport take one hour and quarter-hour. The shinkansen trip from Shin-Osaka to Hakata Station is round two hours and 20 minutes.
A story of two cities
Fukuoka is Japan’s fifth largest metropolis and is nestled on the northern coast of Kyushu. The town is loosely divided into two halves, Hakata and Tenjin with the island of Nakasu within the center. Previously these areas was two separate cities: the service provider city of Hakata to the east and the fort city of Fukuoka (which included Tenjin) to the west. The cities merged in 1889 to create the fashionable metropolis of Fukuoka.
These days, Hakata is Fukuoka’s enterprise hub and is the terminus for the bullet practice line that runs from Tokyo.
Hakata Station is one among Fukuoka’s principal transport hubs, and the airport is barely six minutes away by subway. The Tenjin space is Fukuoka’s cultural heart, with 1,000,000 and one boutique retailers, eating places and bars. Nakasu in the meantime, is a glitzy a part of the town that actually involves life after darkish.
The town is definitely nearer to Seoul and Shanghai than it’s to Tokyo, that means many guests to Japan by no means make it to Fukuoka. Nonetheless, for those who’re on the lookout for a extra relaxed metropolis to spend a while in than Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka, Fukuoka is for you.
Scrumptious ramen and fish dishes
Fukuoka is famend throughout Japan for its good and low cost meals. A bowl of tonkotsu ramen right here will set you again as little as 280 yen in some eating places, whereas the town’s street-side yatai stalls draw crowds from throughout Japan and Asia. Should you’re a fan of sushi and sashimi, then you could attempt goma saba (mackerel), a Fukuoka specialty.
Pageant enjoyable
The Hakata Dontaku Pageant is held yearly in Might throughout Golden Week. It’s the most well-liked Golden Week pageant in Japan, with 2 to three million folks attending the pageant yearly. The Hakata Gion Yamakasa, held every July, sees one-ton floats being raced via the streets of Hakata. In addition to these two giants, many festivals happen all year long throughout the metropolis and within the surrounding areas.
Getting round
The town has good native public transport with a speedy subway system and well-connected native buses. For extra regional journey inside Kyushu and Japan, Hakata Station is the primary level of focus, with a big bus terminal and Fukuoka Metropolis’s bullet practice station.
The airport is conveniently situated, and journey to the town heart by subway from the home terminal takes solely 5 to 6 minutes. Common bus providers additionally run to the airport, connecting it to each the town and the remainder of Kyushu.
The Hakata Port Worldwide Terminal connects the town to a few of Kyushu’s most distant islands and internationally to South Korea, with an everyday ferry service to the Korean Metropolis of Busan that takes as little as two hours.
Gateway to Kyushu
Breathtaking seashores and mountains
Fukuoka’s comparatively small measurement implies that it’s extremely simple to get out to the close by mountains and seashores. Seaside Momochi consists of one among Fukuoka’s principal sights, Fukuoka Tower. In the meantime, throughout the summer season, locals flock to the close by Itoshima Peninsula for BBQs, swimming and water sports activities. Itoshima is house to a lot of hikes.
Kyushu’s seat of presidency for 5 centuries
Constructed again within the seventh century, the quiet little city of Dazaifu was as soon as Kyushu’s administrative coronary heart. The ruins of the federal government workplaces are nonetheless right here, as are many main temples and shrines comparable to Tenmangu and Kanzeonji. Tenmangu is the highest shrine devoted to students and scholarship and enshrines Sugawara Michizane (845-903), thought-about the god of educational achievement. That is the place college students dealing with exams come to wish for achievement.
