We spent a few days in Fukuoka, Japan because it is situated close to South Korea and our next move is to head there via a 6-hour ferry ride! We noticed due to its close proximity to the the rest of East Asia, Fukuoka is a convenient pitstop for Koreans and Chinese to indulge in Japanese retail therapy without having to fly all the way to Tokyo. We’ve never seen so many gargantuan suitcases and shopping bags on the return ferry headed back to South Korea!

Hakata is Fukuoka, and Fukuoka is Hakata

Fukuoka is often called Hakata because the modern city, established in 1889, was formed by merging the historic merchant town of Hakata (east of the Naka River) and the samurai town of Fukuoka (west of the river). While Fukuoka was chosen as the official city name. Because Hakata was the older, more established commercial center, many cultural, culinary, and regional identifiers—such as Hakata ramen, Hakata-ben (dialect), and Hakata dolls—retained the historic name.

Let’s Eat Hakata Food!

Tonkotsu Ramen: By now, the rest of the world has been introduced to Japanese style ramen. Fukuoka is the birthplace of the well-known creamy pork-based tonkotsu ramen. You may have heard of Ichiran, headquartered in Fukuoka and world famous, its made its way all the way to New York. For the full tourist experience, we attempted to go to Ichiran several times, but the lines were ridiculously long and we hated to wait when we knew there are plenty of great Hakata style ramen on every corner. We ended up at Gyorantei, an institution since 1948.

Mentaiko: Throughout Fukuoka, we noticed these bright pinkish “sausage” looking sacs of fish eggs advertised as part of almost every dish - over rice, noodles, spaghetti, sushi, everything (hungry yet?!). Turns out, mentaiko (chili spice marinated Alaskan pollock roe) is a Fukuoka specialty with a Busan, South Korea influence. There’s even mentaiko vending machines throughout the city, in case you couldn’t possibly wait to get to the store. We finally mustered up our appetite courage and ate spaghetti mentaiko carbonara - true Italian Japanese fusion dish. It tasted like slightly spicy, salty, ocean of fish!

Pietro: It was a fun surprise for Akiko to discover Pietro - her favorite salad dressing - is from Fukuoka! Pietro is a japanized Italian restaurant (loosely comparable to an Olive Garden in the States in style and price point???). Per the website, “The dressing was created to encourage customers—particularly children—to eat more vegetables by blending Italian vinaigrette techniques with bold Japanese flavors.” I think the tactic worked! Back in the 80s, Akiko’s mom discovered this salad dressing and been a family favorite ever since. It can be purchased in most Asian supermarkets in the States as well. Of course we had to eat at the restaurant. For Yoko. 😉

Strawberry Season: Japan goes all out with seasonal products. It gets incorporated into everything and because of its seasonality, customers queue up in long lines to avoid FOMO. We got caught up in the strawberry season trendy frenzy by lining up for strawberry sandwiches at a famous shop, Fruits Garden Shin Sun. We enjoyed the sando on the ferry deck, waving goodbye to Fukuoka.

Sites On Our Walkabout in Fukuoka

With limited time in the city and prioritizing getting our steps in for exercise, our sightseeing was limited to what we could cover on a half day walk.

Kushida Shinto Shrine is the oldest shrine in the city and is known as the guardian shrine of Hakata. It’s home to the Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival and visitors can get a close up view of the humongous float that stored in its own tall shelter when not in use.
Tochoji Buddhist Temple: the highlight is one of the largest wooden Buddha’s carved out of cypress and stands about 33 feet high. Photoes were not allowed, per the signage. 😂📷
Fukuoka Art Museum at Ohori Park: We had one objective, to check out the artist Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkin sculpture. You may inadvertently recognize the spotted pumpkin pop art. It’s iconic and world famous!