Series › By prefecture

Fukuoka

59 places

• Ainoshima (cat island) The ferry from Shingū takes 20 minutes (480 yen); the cats are only ‘numerous’.
• Akizuki castle town Known as the ‘little Kyoto of Chikuzen’: the only one of 4 castle towns covered almost in full.
• Canal City Hakata Opened in 1996 on the site of a disused factory, with a canal running through the middle.
• Dazaifu Tenmangu Until 2027 the shrine of 1591 is replaced by one with a roof of 10,000 real plants.
• Dazaifu Tenmangu Omotesando (umegae-mochi) Legend: an old woman hid Michizane in a mortar, then brought rice on a plum branch.
• Fukuoka Castle Ruins (Maizuru Park) A letter from 1620: the 5-storey tower was taken down on purpose so as not to alarm the Tokugawa.
• Fukuoka Red Brick Culture Hall Built in 1909 as the offices of an insurance company, it is now a free public gallery.
• Fukuoka Tokushukai Hospital (福岡徳洲会病院) It is at Sugukita 4-5, in Kasuga. Sakuragaoka Hiroba Park, on the map, is about 600 m away; the Sakuragaoka junction that Takafumi crosses…
• Fukuoka Tower (福岡タワー) 8,000 half-mirror panels over 234 metres: the observation deck is at 123 metres.
• Fukuoka University — Nanakuma campus (福岡大学) The largest private university in Kyūshū.
• Fureai Plaza, Fukuoka City Hall (Hakata Dontaku) Central stage of the Hakata Dontaku, 3–4 May: 200 groups, 20,000 marching in the parades.
• Futsukaichi Onsen The Man'yōshū (eighth century) already mentions it: over 1,300 years of documented hot spring history.
• Hakata Machiya Furusato-kan It is the only Meiji-period shop-house still standing in Fukuoka that shows the production, sale and daily life of Hakata-ori together…
• Hakuhaku — Fukuya Mentaiko Factory Fukuya, which invented modern mentaiko in 1948, opens its factory here: for free.
• Harazuru Onsen (cormorant fishing) Cormorant fishing, suspended because of sediment in the river, resumes in the 2026 season.
• Ijiri Station (井尻駅) A station on the Nishitetsu Tenjin-Ōmuta Line, in the Ijiri neighbourhood of Minami-ku. It is one of the oldest on the line: it dates from…
• Ishiana Inari Jinja (Dazaifu) Pre-Heian sacred boulders in the oku-miya: it is said to have been one of the three great Inari of Kyushu.
• Ito-koku History Museum It holds the grave goods from the Hirabaru site: a National Treasure since June 2006.
• Jibasan Kurume (Kurume Kasuri museum) In 1800 Inoue Den, aged 13, devised the pattern that became an Intangible Cultural Property in '57.
• Kagami no Umi — the mirror coast of Fukutsu With the right tide the wet sand mirrors the sky: you need low tide and still air.
• Kahogekijō (wooden theatre from 1931) The only survivor of the 48 theatres on the Onga River: it reopens on 24 October 2026 after 5 years.
• Kamado Shrine (Hōman-gū Kamado-jinja) Founded in 673 to stand guard over Dazaifu on the side from which evil was feared.
• Kanmon Pedestrian Tunnel 780 m long, 58 m deep beneath the strait: you walk across it in 10–15 minutes.
• Kanzeon-ji (Dazaifu) Its bronze of 698 is the oldest bell in Japan, now in the Kyushu Museum.
• Kawabata Shōtengai The oldest shopping street in Hakata: about 130 shops along 400 covered metres.
• Kawachi Fuji Wisteria Garden Twenty-two varieties of wisteria cover two flowering tunnels, 80 and 110 metres long.
• Keya Beach It is one of the hundred beaches chosen by the ministry, and it has no lifeguard: nobody keeps watch.
• Keya no Oto The basalt cave, 64 m high and 90 deep, is the largest of its kind in Japan.
• Kinin Kōen — Gold Seal Park (Shikanoshima) A farmer found the Han gold seal, now a National Treasure, here in 1784.
• Kitakyushu City of Peace Museum It was the target on 9 August 1945: three attempts in 50 minutes, saved by the smoke.
• Koishiwara-yaki — Traditional Industry Hall (Tōhō-mura) Pottery that began in 1682: in 1975 the first in Japan to be designated a traditional craft.
• Kokura Castle The top floor of the tenshu jutted out wider than the one below: the only case in Japan.
• Kushida Jinja (Hakata Gion Yamakasa) The shrine was founded in 757, and the Yamakasa floats stay on display in its courtyard all year round.
• Kyushu National Museum Japan's fourth national museum, since 2005: the only one of the four devoted to history.
• Miyajidake Jinja The largest shimenawa in Japan: 13.5 m and 5 t, remade every year by 1,500 people.
• Mizuho PayPay Dome Fukuoka In 1993 it was the first stadium in Japan with a retractable roof: it closes in 20 minutes.
• Mojiko Retro (historic port district of Moji) The room where Einstein stayed in 1922 is preserved in the former Moji Mitsui Club (1921).
• Munakata Taisha (Hetsu-miya and Shinpokan) The museum holds 80,000 finds from Okinoshima, all of them National Treasures en bloc.
• Nagahama Fish Market Nagahama ramen was born here in 1952: customers asked for just the noodles, no broth.
• Nakasu and Tenjin Yatai Fukuoka has 90% of Japan's licensed street food stalls: 103 in 2024.
• Nanzoin The reclining Buddha is 41 m long: the largest in cast bronze in the world, from 1995.
• Nata Kaigan In the Edo period the Nata coast was one of the eight views of Hakata, under the name Nata Rakugan, and its white sand dunes run for more…
• Nokonoshima Island Park (のこのしまアイランドパーク) 150,000 m² of flowers on an island reached by ferry, with views over Hakata Bay.
• Ohana and Shōtōen Garden In the pond, among 280 black pines and 1,500 stones, wild ducks gather in winter.
• Ōhori Park Japanese Garden ‘Inspired by China's West Lake’: a widespread legend, but no document confirms it.
• Oniyo of Daizenji Tamataregū The Ōniyo of Daizenji Tamataregū, national intangible cultural heritage since 1994, is counted among the three great fire festivals of…
• Ōshima and Nakatsu-miya (Munakata Taisha) The Nakatsu-miya is a minute by bike from the port, 25 minutes by boat from Kaminominato.
• Oyafuko-dori Renamed in 2000 for the sake of its image, it went back to its original name in 2017: 71% in a survey.
• Sakuragaoka Hiroba Park (桜ヶ丘広場公園) The Tokushūkai hospital, also on the map, is 600 m away.
• Sakurai Futamigaura (wedded rocks) The two sacred rocks, 11.8 and 11.2 m tall, joined by a sacred rope 30 m long weighing 1 tonne.
• Senbutsu Cave (Kitakyushu) A 900-metre cave, a national Natural Monument since 24 December 1935.
• Tagawa Coal and History Museum 585 drawings by a miner: in 2011, Japan's first UNESCO Memory of the World entry.
• Tateishiyama (Itoshima) A 210-metre summit: 30–40 minutes on the trail for a 360° view over the Genkai.
• Tenjin Chikagai 590 metres and over 150 shops beneath Tenjin, built to resemble Europe in the nineteenth century.
• Tenjin-Daimaru-mae Bus Stop (天神大丸前バス停) Stand 4A in front of the Daimaru in Fukuoka Tenjin, on Watanabe-dōri. The Mitsukoshi you can see on the other side has the Nishitetsu…
• Tenten Ramen (、、ラーメン) The restaurant's name really is two commas. It is at Ijiri 3-14-33, in Fukuoka's Minami Ward, five minutes' walk from Sasabaru Station. It…
• Ukiha Inari Jinja Ninety-one red torii follow one another along the flight of steps that climbs to the shrine.
• Yame Fukushima (white-walled district) About 150 buildings from Edo to early Shōwa, in igura style: white rammed-earth storehouses.
• Yanagibashi United Market (Hakata no Daidokoro) Known as ‘Hakata's kitchen’: about 35 shops along a 100-metre corridor since 1918.

All series · Open the map