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FUKUOKA |
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A big, semi-industrial city at the southern end of the Shinkansen,
FUKUOKA was, until recently, simply a place to negotiate as quickly as
possible en route to Kyushu's more picturesque regions. However, over
the last few years it has established itself as western Japan's major
cultural centre and an important international gateway. Though not a
huge place (just under 1.3 million people), the city combines tremendous
vitality with a determination to make the rest of Japan sit up and take
notice - already it claims the country's biggest hotel, longest bar,
largest cinema complex and most advanced baseball stadium. For the
visitor this translates into a thoroughly modern city with all the
energy and atmosphere of a Tokyo or Osaka, contained within manageable
proportions.
Though Fukuoka offers few historical sights, it does have one or two
excellent museums plus more than enough outstanding modern architecture
to justify at least a day in transit. The highlights are Canal City , a
sparkling new, self-contained cinema, hotel and shopping complex built
around a semicircular strip of water, and Hawks Town , which forms part
of a major seafront redevelopment. The city is also renowned for its
festivals and folk crafts, which are presented at Hakata Machiya Folk
Museum . As with any self-respecting Japanese city of this size, Fukuoka
maintains a lively entertainment district, in this case crammed onto the
tiny island of Nakasu , though it's safer on the wallet to head for the
less glitzy bars and restaurants of Tenjin , the city's main downtown
area.
The City
Even today the old cultural and economic divide between the original
castle town, Fukuoka, and the former merchants' quarter of Hakata can be
traced, albeit faintly, in the city's streets. Much of Hakata consists
of dull office blocks, but the district is also home to the city's
oldest shrine and its most rumbustious festival. Here too, you'll still
find the occasional wooden building, narrow lane or aged wall, and can
discover some of the unique, Hakata culture in its well-presented folk
museum . Not surprisingly, many craft industries originated in this area,
most famously Hakata dolls and ori silks, while geisha still work the
traditional entertainment district of Nakasu. Nevertheless, Hakata has
also managed to throw up a startling exception, and one of Fukuoka's
most famous landmarks, in Canal City . West of the Naka-gawa, Tenjin has
upmarket boutiques, department stores and "fashion buildings", but
there's little in the way of sights until you go further west to the
ruins of Fukuoka castle in Ohori-koen . As well as an attractive lake,
this park also contains an art museum with an important collection of
twentieth-century works. North and west again, you reach the high-tech
Fukuoka City Museum of local history and, beyond, the coastal Momochi
area dominated by the Fukuoka Tower and the Hawks Town development.
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