Place list Fukuoka Tenjin Hakata Kashiihama Ohorikoen

• Fukuoka

On this page, I will continuously try to write about the city and I hope that this will serve as a good travel guide when I am done with it.

Map of Japan

Fukuoka with its 1.300.000 inhabitants is the largest city on the island of Kyushu and is the 9th largest city in Japan. The city of Fukuoka was merged with the city of Hakata so from time to time people get confused when they arrive at the train station and think that they have arrived in the wrong city. This happened to me the first time I set foot in the city, so don’t be confused! The area around the train station and east of the Naka river is still called Hakata, therefor the train station is also still called Hakata. The city is an important hub in the region with close connections to both China and Korea so the culture of the city has been enriched with flavours from other parts of asia (good thing since korean food is really nice!).

The city has good communication with subway lines, JR train lines and buses. The subway consists of 3 lines with Tenjin acting as a hub. JR also has regular boat rides to Korea.

• – Links -
• Fukuoka Now Magazine
• City of Fukuoka official Homepage
• Fukuoka Tourism

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• Tenjin

My favourite part of Fukuoka is the central part of Tenjin.It has a lot of nice shops and restaurants. Check out the Chikagai! The chikagai (litteraly underground mall) is a way of traversing the downtown area underground. So if it rains, you can shop your brains out without having to face the rain!

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed.. Pictures from Tenjin

A nice place to shop is the IMS building. IMS stands for InterMediaStation and it has many shops on many stories. A nice thing to know as a foreigner is that they have an “International Forum”. So if you have questions as a newbie in Fukuoka, this is a good place to find information.

Another nice place is the Tenjin Core. This building is interconnected with the Tenjin Chikagai like IMS so you can walk easy between them. There are several floors of shopping goodness and with a restaurant floor on top.

• – Don’t miss -
• Solaria Plaza
• Tenjin Chikagai
• Watanabe dori

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Hakata was actually an independent city before 1889 but it was merged with the city of Fukuoka, and the new city took the name of simply Fukuoka. This can be a little confusing sometimes because the train station is still called Hakata-station, so for a newcomer it can be easy to believe you ended up in the wrong city. But Hakata is well known in Japan and has a very strong impact on the lives of the people of Fukuoka. The traditional Hakata doll is one of the traditional crafts from this area.

There is also a lot of interesting and delicious food originating in Hakata. Most notably is Hakata ramen, or Tonkotsu ramen, which is noodles with a special taste. It is made from boiling pork bones to get a frothy broth and is served with some slices of pork, some leek and maybe an egg. This type of ramen noodles has become very popular and chain stores have opened up in all of Japan. Popular chain stores are “Ichiran”, which I wrote about here, and Ippudo.

Another famous dish is “Mentaiko”, which is marinated fish roe. It is not unique to Hakata, but Hakata is famous for being the biggest producer of “Karashi Mentaiko” which is a little bit spicy. Mentaiko can be enjoyed with some rice or by it self. One of my favourite Onigiri (rice ball) flavours is with Mentaiko. Delicious!

Hakata-ben is the local dialect which is very distinct. It is spoken by locals in all of Fukuoka, and in the rest of Japan is well known. A lot of the words used in Hakata-ben is totally different from normal Japanese so it can be really confusing to try and understand, but it is a lot of fun to try it and locals will definitely appreciate it if you try it out!

Some examples:
Nan ba shiyou to? What are you doing?
To tou to? Did you take it?
~ken. ~because.

The Hakata area is naturally a busy hub thanks to the train station. From here you can go with Shinkansen bullet train to Tokyo, or Tsubome speed train to the south and the city of Kagoshima. But there are a lot of good shopping here, for example Yodobashi Camera which is a humongous electronics store.

• – Check out the ramen! -
• Ichiran Ramen
• Ippudo
• Ramen Stadium at Canal City

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• Kashiihama
  

This residential area is located 20 minutes by bus east of Tenjin. I used to live in the “Ryugakusei Kaikai” (留学生会館) that is the dormitory complex that Kyushu University offers. The area has a lot of nice parks and is located right by the beach, making it a nice place to live. This is perhaps why there are so many residential complexes in the area, and there is also a big AEON Jusco shopping center here. The shopping mall is actually quite big with a lot of shops as well as the normal Jusco super market. Me and my friends always used to go to Jusco and buy cheap food, especially in the afternoon when the fresh meals got price reduction because they had been on the shelves for more than a couple of hours.

The “hama” in Kashiihama means beach, and the beach is a nice place indeed. Its quite long and located right next to the AEON Jusco shopping mall. Also, close to the beach there is an artifical island calles “Island city” constructed mainly for housing. The 3 big towers in the middle of the island can be seen from miles away and is a nice landmark. Island city is a really nice place to go for a walk because there is a really nice park with a pond and recreation facilties. Overall, Island City is a really nice place and I don’t think I would mind living in one of the towers.

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• Ohorikoen
  

Ohorikoen is a big park in central Fukuoka with a characteristic lake in the middle. It is a beautiful place to walk around in if you have a day of or just want to relax. It is right nex to where the Fukuoka castle used to be so this is a big gathering spot, especially for the Sakura-blooming!

In the middle of the lake is a couple of istland connected with bridges. It is a great place to walk and you can even fish along side the beaches. You can also rent a foot-paddeling boat and take it easy in water. In the south east corner of the park there is a traditional japanese garden that has a nice little pond.

In the heat of the summer there are a lot of firework festivals in Japan. One of the biggest one in Fukuoka is held here in Ohorikoen. I went with good friends and enjoyed it, eventhough I didn’t get a chance to wear a traditional Yukata. It is very popular and it feels great to wear a summer-yukata when you go to see a summer fireworks festival. A LOT of people went to watch the festival when I went there, so much that the subway station nearby was totally packed for hours.

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