Fukuoka Trips & Tours

A result of the cities of samurai Fukuoka and merchant Hakata merging in 1889, Fukuoka has a split personality, and wears it well. The samurai won the naming rights but the merchants kept everything else – the food, the dialect, the festivals – and it’s that spirit that still hums through the yatai stalls of Naka River where tiny wooden kitchens dish up Hakata's famous tonkotsu ramen. Order your noodles barikata and ask for kaedama when you're ready for seconds – that's how the locals do it. But there's much more beyond the broth… Wander the temple district behind Hakata Station and you'll find Shofukuji, Japan's very first Zen temple, founded in 1195, whilst nearby Tochoji houses the country's largest wooden seated Buddha, all 30 tonnes of him. A short train ride will bring you to Dazaifu Tenmangu where students have prayed for exam success beneath 6,000 plum trees for over a millennium. This is the Japan you didn't know you were looking for.