After spending 5 nights in Tokyo, we flew into the domestic terminal of Fukuoka airport from Haneda, and then took the Airport subway 2 stops to our hotel (Hotel Forza Hakata) at Hakata station where we would stay for 4 nights. We got some great recommendations of what to do in Fukuoka from friends that have been there recently, so we tried to do and eat a lot of what they recommended.
Fukuoka things to do: Watch the Canal City Fountain shows, go to the instagrammable Futamajingaru couples rock shrine, eat at the Yatai stalls, ride the elevator up Fukuoka tower, see one of Japan’s largest reclining Buddha statue up close, walk around Hakata Old Town To visit shrines, shop and explore Hakata and Tenjin Station, see the life sized Gundam at LalaPort mall, and do a day trip to Yanagawa, Japan’s “Venice”.
Fukuoka Must eats: Hakata style ramen, sushi from the genki sea, chicken hot pot (Mizutaki), chicken skin skewers, the eel rice box at Yanagawa, and mentaiko France bread
Day 1
After exchanging our vouchers for the JR rail pass (the lines were crazy long taking more than an Hour to get our tickets!), and checking into our hotel, we walked to Hakata station for lunch. Then we walked to canal city and later walked to the yatai stalls for dinner.
Lunch at Hakata station. The station is HUGE. There’s Tokyo hands, AMU, Pokémon store (8th floor of AMU), Uniqlo, and tons of restaurants. We wandered around and found this katsu place. The cheese filled pork katsu, their specialty, was so good! Also rice… Every time I say I’m not going to eat all the rice because it’s just “empty calories”, I end up eating the whole bowl because the rice here in Japan is just so good, I can’t help it.
Canal City: we walked here from Hakata station and waited for the water fountain shows that are supposed to happen every 30 min
Only to find out that the fountains are under maintenance for the rest of the month! Waaah! Strike One…
Canal City: so instead we walked around the shops here. There’s a Totoro shop that’s cute to browse as well as a One Piece store and other character goods. I have to say, Japan is the land of all things cute!
There was also a strawberry cream manju shop that you can watch as they make the confection. It was pretty tasty, and they really stuff this!
Yatai Stalls: we then walked over to the yatai stalls by the river and had some skewers and mentaiko stuffed chicken wings. The food at this stall wasn’t great, and later, I realized why… The owners of the stalls were not Japanese, but rather Vietnamese immigrants. So I felt sad that I fell prey to the hustler that got us to sit down at their stall. Not to mention these 8 small skewers plus 2 chicken wings were 3000 yen!
Yatai Stalls: Mentaiko stuffed chicken wings at this same stall looked promising and tasted good until I bit in towards the center and a section was questionable as to whether it was fully cooked.
Yatai Stalls: dinner was a bust, but at least the Naka river walk was beautiful at night
This morning, we took the first bus out of Hakata station to Futamiguaru shrine. The Showa West coast liner bus (1150 yen pp each way), is a direct express bus, and is the easiest way to get to this picturesque/instagrammable torii gate. We decided to go first thing in the morning (as opposed to the afternoon) so we didn’t have to worry about missing the last bus back to Fukuoka since this place is 1 hr away. This website gives a great description of how to catch this bus, even down to the details of a picture of platform 32 at the 3rd floor of the hakata bus terminal. I had thought the Fukuoka tourist pass covers this bus, but it doesn’t so I got refunded for the pass and then just paid the bus fare to bus driver.
Futamiguaru Sakurai Shrine torii gates: the white torii gates sits on the beach in Itoshima. Normally, on a sunny day, the picture of the white gates against the blue sky and ocean would be very striking. It’s not as dramatic when the sky is cloudy white…
And when the pictures are taken from the correct angle, the gate frames the married couples rocks. Too bad it was raining the day we were here or we would have sat at the beach to enjoy the scenery longer.
Instead we walked ten minutes up the street to some cafes along “Palm Beach”. Yes, they called this section palm beach! There’s a strong aloha vibe, and even Lions coffee is sold here. I felt like asking, “Where's the ABC store?” Ha ha We got a smoked salmon avocado crepe and fish and chips and enjoyed the fantastic beach views from the cafe.
The first bus back to Hakata leaves at 12:32PM from palm beach, so you don’t have to walk back to the Futamiguaru bus stop. The bus stops are marked with a blue/turquoise sign and has the bus schedule posted. Since it was raining, everyone was waiting for the bus at this cute little hut, with a Japanese fisherman glass ball as decoration.
Ohori Park: After the west coast liner bus dropped us off at Tenjin bus stop, we walked to do some shopping at Tenjin Underground. Then we took the subway to Ohori park pictured above. The body of water here used to be the moat system for the Fukuoka castle. Now there is just a picturesque pavilion in the middle of the park, and swan boats for rent. The castle was destroyed during the Meji restoration. Only a few turrets and castle wall ruins remain, so we didn’t walk over to see the castle ruins. Well, plus it was raining…
Team Labs Forrest: since it was still raining, we walked to team labs Forest and purchased tickets. This team labs is by the Pay pay dome on the bottom floor of a building called EZO Fukuoka boss. We got lost and walked all around pay pay dome before figuring out it was inside this EZO building. There were no signs that would have indicated team labs was inside this building. The signs basically said it was a food hall! Anyways, when I happen to enter this building to try to ask for directions, it turned out this WAS the building for team labs!
Team labs Forrest has only 7 rooms, so it’s much smaller than team labs borderless in Tokyo. Tickets are only around $17 a person. No previous reservations needed. (I.e. not sold out) The first room pictured above is a room with projection animals that you can catch with their app to then get more info about the species. They have free wifi so you can download the app.
Team Labs Forrest: This room has balls that you step on in order to change the wall colors. It was difficult to not fall off…
Team Labs Forrest: This room had lit egg shaped balloons that changed colors. They also had a room where you can draw an animal and watch it digitally come to life, very similar to team labs borderless. We had fun, but it only took about an hour to finish exploring all 7 rooms and there were no rooms I really wanted to repeat. Maybe this was because I was so “wowed” by Tokyo’s team lab borderless a few days earlier, so team labs Forrest didn’t seem as exciting. However, the good thing about this team labs is that it is not crowded.
Fukuoka Tower: from team labs, we walked over to Fukuoka tower. Since it’s Oct, the tower is lit up with bats or witches flying around or pumpkins rising out of the tower.
Inside the observation deck ($6 per person) you get a 360 view of Fukuoka, which is beautiful. They also set up a corner with Halloween decorations and people can line up to take photos.
Fukuoka tower Halloween display on the first floor. The first floor of Fukuoka Tower also had a souvenir shop with mentaiko crackers, clear soy sauce, various teas, and other unusual Fukuoka goods. Since friends told me this is the ONLY place they found that sold clear shoyu, so I bought some. Quite heavy though! We took the #312 bus back to our hotel. This bus was easy to figure out because the bus did have some English that said Hakata station.
Mister Donut is right around the corner of the JR information center: here’s our haul of mochi donuts. LOVE LOVE LOVE THESE! It’s got the perfect little chew to each bite! We got mochi donuts every evening and saved them for the following morning’s breakfast with coffee. It’s only $1.25 for a mochi donut here as opposed to the $4-5 per mochi donut in the states. They are also not as sweet as the ones in the US. I’ve been longing for these since our Japan trip back in 2016.
Okonomiyaki at Hakata station. We got a Hiroshima style (has noodles) and a Hakata style (has noodles and lots of fatty pork (pictured above)—had to pick out some of the fatty bits to discard, so if you don’t like fat, don’t get this one)
We took the train to Nanzo-in reclining Buddha, a large bronze statue of Buddha the moment he entered enlightenment. It’s the largest statue of Buddha in the world, and originally housed in Mount Koya before moving here. You can read more details in the link above. As you can see, it’s also under maintenance so we couldn’t walk up to it and pull the string tied to the buddhas hand. Ack, strike two on this trip! (The first strike were the closure of the canal city fountains)
Nanzo-in reclining Buddha : Well at least we could see the head
Nanzo-in reclining Buddha : And the feet very clearly
Nanzo-in reclining Buddha : This is the fierce budhha that protects all and is a short walk from the reclining Buddha
We took the train back to Hakata station and then walked 20 min to this ramen place. It was featured on “Japan by Food” videos as well as a bunch of foodie tour guides. At this Hakata style ramen shop called Hakataya Kawabata Ramen, you order and pay via this vending machine (the base bowl of ramen is only 290 yen! Add an egg for 150 yen and more cha Sui for another 150 yen and it’s still under 1000 yen ($7) a bowl! Amazing!). Afterwards browse around Kawabata arcade. It’s covered so it’s fine even in the rain and there’s a lot of Knick knack stores to browse. The family mart/seven eleven/lawsons has a bathroom upstairs if you need one.
Kushida shrine: this is near the Kawabata arcade so we stopped off to have a look even though it was pouring rain. We ducked under awnings in between each section to try to keep dry.
After resting at the hotel, the rain stopped and so we headed out to a fresh Fruit mochi shop recommended by our friends. 680 yen each is a bit pricey, but the quality of the fruit and mochi is top notch, and they provide you with string to cut the mochi in half neatly. There’s a Josuian mochi shop a block from our hotel and also one inside Hakata Station, making it convenient for us to go back the next day for another round. 😋
From Hakata bus station first floor, we lined up at the 44/45 bus stop (clearly marked on the floor in green 44/45 to LalaPort) and took the bus to Lalaport mall where there is a Life size gundam.
For dinner, we ate at this yakitori place Hakata Torikawa (it’s at the KITTE section of Hakata station, bottom floor). Open late til 11pm! It’s known for their chicken skin skewers which takes a 72 hour process to make according to the “japan by food” video. They grill the chicken skin, then let it rest, and grill again, and repeat the process so that the fat renders off, but the chicken skin is still soft inside and slightly crispy outside without tasting fatty. We got both the salt and soy sauce flavored chicken skin skewers as well as pork belly, squid, chicken, chicken meat balls, cheese wrapped in bacon and grilled rice balls with collagen soup. Everything was so delicious and orders of magnitude better than at the Yatai stall on our first night here in Fukuoka.
Cheese wrapped in bacon is soooo good! What’s keeping the cheese from oozing out all over the grill?
Grilled rice ball and collagen soup
Day 4
Today we took the train to Yanagawa, the Venice of Japan. Here you can take a one hour canal ride where the guide will sing in Japanese and give some Japanese history…all in Japanese of course. They really make it so easy for tourists. Once we got off at the Yanagawa train station, there’s a representative that gives you a map and directs you downstairs where there is a free shuttle that takes you to the “punting” station where you buy the canal tickets. Then you hop on the boat. The boat drops right off at the town where there’s souvenir shops and the famous eel rice box restaurants. Afterwards walk to the free shuttle stop indicated on the map they gave you at the beginning, and ride back to the JR station. Really nice service! (Previously I didn’t know they offered this service and I was trying to figure out how to get back after the canal ride. Walking to the start of the canal rides is doable—11 min walk from the train station, but I was worried about getting back to the train station since where they drop you off after the canal ride would be a 40 min walk to the train station. But since they provide a free shuttle back, problem solved!)
Yanagawa Canal ride: Our gondola “driver”
Yanagawa Canal ride: look how narrow and low the bridges we go through are!
Yanagawa canals: lone egret
Wakamatsuya: Menu
Wakamatsuya: this is a well known eel rice restaurant with lots of reviews I think because it’s actually on the map that the company that does the canal rides gives to all the tourists. It was indeed delicious, but honestly, walking around the town, there’s tons of other eel rice box places that serves the same dish of steam eel over rice in a bamboo box.
I got the kaiseki mini box (two pieces eel steamed over rice, eel omelet, pickles and miso soup, 3000 yen) and David got the full eel rice box (3 pieces eel steamed over rice, pickles and miso soup, 3600 yen). Both were really good!
After the canal rides, we took the train back to Fukuoka, and stopped off for some Fukuoka exclusive merchandise at the Snoopy Town in Tenjin station. 8th floor of the department store.
We then walked from Tenjin station to Hakata station for excercise because we didn’t hit at least 10,000 steps yet today (you can take the subway one stop if you don’t want to walk). Got my niece some Pokémon stuff at The Pokémon store on the 8th floor at Hakata Station
And then we ended the day with dinner at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Hakata station called, Ugashi. Afterwards we picked up more of the fruit mochi at Josuian Mochi shop for dessert back at the hotel while we did our laundry and packed to get ready to leave Fukuoka
Omiyage from Fukuoka:
Fukuoka had a Pokémon store as well as Snoopy town where you can get Fukuoka exclusive merchandise. That’s where I got the socks, towels, folders and Pokémon shaped seaweed for my niece. And the Uniqlo at LaLaPort mall had Pokémon shirts and snoopy shirts, so I got her favorite Pokémon character shirts from there. The bottom row are sweet potato “chips” from a specialty sweet potato store at Tenjin underground, some Japanese mushroom tea from the temple stall at the Reclining Buddha, and mentaiko mayo.
First floor of Fukuoka Tower sells clear soy sauce, so I bought a few bottles since my friends told me that these are a rare find, so if you see the clear soy sauce buy it. I got the plain clear soyu and the dashi soyu. But after I bought these, I started to think, is this for real? How do I know what I bought wasn’t just
salt water?! How is clear soy sauce made? If it’s made clear through a filtration and decolorization process, am I just left with salt dissolved in water? Glad I’m not the only one with these thoughts! Here’s an article on taste testing clear soy sauce and how it’s made.
These strawberry and matcha candies have milk incorporated in them. I don’t think they are a Fukuoka specialty, but they looked slightly unique, so I got some.