Japan Guide
Kyūshū
Fukuoka
A big, semi-industrial city at the southern end of the Shinkansen, FUKUOKA was until recently simply a place to negotiate as quickly as possible en route to Kyūshū's more picturesque regions. However, over recent years it has established itself as western Japan's major cultural centre and an important international gateway. It's not a huge place but the city combines tremendous vitality with a determination to make the rest of Japan sit up a take notice. For the visitor this translates into a thoroughly modern city with all the energy and atmosphere of Tokyo or Ōsaka, contained within manageable proportions.
Though Fukuoka offers few historical sights, it does have one or two excellent museums plus more than enough eye-catching modern architecture to justify at least a day in transit. The highlights are Canal City, a self-contained cinema, hotel and shopping complex built around a semicircular strip of water, and Hawks Town, which forms part of a major seafront redevelopment incorporating shopping malls, dozens of restaurants, a cinema, a spa complex and an amusement arcade. The city is also renowned for its festivals and folk crafts, which are presented at Hakata Machiya Folk Museum. As with any self-respecting Japanese city of this size, Fukuoka maintains a lively entertainment district, in this case crammed onto the tiny island of Nakasu, though it's safer on the wallet to head for the less glitzy bars and restaurants of Tenjin, the city's main downtown area.
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