The Hakata Ward is the main district in Fukuoka city located on Kyushu Island. It’s about a 4-hour Shinkansen ride or 2-hour flight southwest of Tokyo and only about an hour train ride from Hiroshima. The area has been called “Hakata” for about 1,200 years with plenty of shrines and 1,000+ year old trees throughout.
Although the city is called Fukuoka now, the main train station is still called Hakata Station. The train station is also a huge shopping area and worth some time spent exploring.
Fukuoka City is a port town with quick access to beautiful mountains and natural scenery. For instance, you could be eating ramen in the city center for lunch, and an hour later be exploring the Shiraito Falls. From beaches to the subway, street food to the Ritz-Carlton, this corner of Japan is not to be overlooked.
You may have heard about the incredible YouTube travel series Dirt with Josh Rosen. I highly recommend it. This episode features Kyushu Island and touches on Fukuoka a bit.
Hakata is most famous for its food stalls (Yatai), and its red light district. I love the Japanese red light districts, like Kabukichō. There’s typically tons of food, bars, people watching and nightlife. I would say the Hakata red light district, primarily Nakasu, was a little less diverse with most places being strictly for red light activities.
The riverfront was beautiful and had some cool food stalls. But don’t expect to go bar hopping or snacking toooo much in Nakasu. I’d focus on the other neighborhoods. But, can’t hurt to walk around and see for yourself.
The good news is, there’s a lot to explore. You can check out the Old Town to see temples and shrines and learn about one of the oldest cities in Japan. It may be a good idea to book a guide so you can understand what you’re looking at and to have someone translate. Hakatamachiya Folk Museum will also give you an idea of life in Japan from centuries ago.
I was recently in Hakata with my friend and travel buddy Ken Nagao, and we had a blast. It also happened to be December and we were surprised to learn that Hakata has a massive Christmas Market scene!
Lodging
Ken likes to avoid touristy accommodations and has a soft spot for some of the more traditional era and 1980’s boom spots. Hence, we often stay at The New Otani Hotels. The Hakata New Otani was very nice and dated in all the right ways.
And, the basement bar, The Castillion Room was absolutely 10/10. You can’t recreate this kind of charm. It’s retro in such a preserved, sincere and well-kept way. It’s a spotless relic.
Nothing beats great hospitality and champagne on ice right at the door when you walk in. This is a perfect bar in my opinion. I always like staying at the New Otanis. But this bar (and the bar at the Nagaoka New Otani) are time machines in the best way possible.
If you don’t care about staying at The New Otani, Fukuoka does have a Ritz-Carlton, Grand Hyatt, and many other options.
Activities
Shopping seems to be a VERY popular attraction here. The Hakata Station, Canal City, Fukuoka PARCO, Kawabata Arcade, KITTE Hakata, LaLa Port Fukuoka, AMU Plaza Hakata City are all stacked with options for the avid shopper. Personally, I’m not much of a consumer in this way, but if you are…this place is a treasure.
If you do stay at the New Otani you can walk around the corner to Yanagibashi Rengo Market, which is a small but interesting fish market to walk around and check out what’s in season.
There’s plenty of cabs everywhere, the subway station is around the corner and the Shinkansen runs through town. It’s also a very walkable city year round. Very easy city to get around.
Eating & Drinking
^ Sound on! JAB is one of my favorites bars in town, even though it’s more of a coffee shop. So I guess… a place you can drink coffee and smoke cigarettes all day and listen to jazz records until you decide to switch over to highballs. Killer vibe.
Not to mention a great sound system. ＪＡＢ is a place that, if I lived here, I’d be a diehard regular. They also served us a banana. Which was peculiar. But they asked if we wanted a banana and we did, so they sliced it and served it to us. Which, btw, banana and whiskey is a lovely pairing. They had more food than just bananas should you wish to take your meal further.
About 30-40 minutes outside of Hakata by cab or train is the Dazaifu area. An adorable walkable area that leads to the Tenmangu Shrine. Along the Tenjinsama-Dori Street you will see shops selling umegae mochi cakes everywhere.
They’re delicious and a must try when in Dazaifu. Umegae is a sweet red bean paste, and although the rice cakes often have an imprint of a plum on them, they’re not made from plums.
In Dazaifu there’s a Ramen Danbo location. We stopped at this shop and had an excellent Hakata Ramen. Ramen Danbo is a massive ramen chain with locations all over the world and this one didn’t disappoint. Would definitely visit again. A few doors down was Ramen Oigen, which I regret not trying. Across the street and right next to the train station entrance is one of many locations of Ichiran Ramen, which of course, originated in Fukuoka. If you’re a ramen lover, you can visit the original location and the headquarters in Fukuoka. I love Ichiran!
Hakata has so much ramen and street food it’s not hard to stay full. But I know this part of Japan is so rich in ingredients that I wanted to try a more serious restaurant. We settled on Nishimura Takahito and had our concierge make us a reservation. This is a lovely tasting menu restaurant tucked into a residential neighborhood that had a great wine list and warm, friendly service. We started the meal with a Dom Pérignon 2012 which was a nice break from all the highballs. The courses that followed played around with techniques, flavors and references to old world Europe but stayed authentically Japanese the whole time. It was a thoughtful, well paced and perfectly executed meal. I had a feeling that maybe their Michelin attention was a few years ago and maybe the buzz has died down a tad, but undeservedly if-so. This place scratched all the itch for a fine dining experience and was worth the time and money. (Note: booking a hotel with a concierge is so important in Japan in my opinion. From dinner reservations to deep cut recommendations to haircut appointments, a bilingual concierge can help you in so many ways. Worth the extra hotel cost for sure.)
On the other end of the spectrum is Hotto Motto: a takeout bento chain that originated in Fukuoka. I have a soft spot for all Japanese casual food chains, from 7-11/Lawson’s/Food Mart to Coco Curry to Yoshinoya to Hotto Motto. It’s easy to find cheap, delicious food in Japan and you should try it all. And if you’re in Hakata, swing by a Hotto Motto.
If I were to return with my girlfriend Sam, I would probably split my time between Hakata, Itoshima and Hiroshima.
Hiroshima deserves its own post, but I’ll say that for a one hour train ride you can at the very least visit the peace park and museum for yourself. I’m still processing this experience and do not have the words to describe what I saw and felt. But everyone should go.
In conclusion, Fukuoka is a wonderful corner of Japan fully deserving of your time and money. The people are great, the food is fantastic and it has a ton to offer both the experienced traveler and the first time visitor to Japan. Don’t overlook it!