Fukuoka is one of Japan’s largest cities and the largest on the island of Kyūshū. The city is located on Hakata Bay, and with its location to the west and close to the Asian mainland, Fukuoka has been a large and important international trading city over time. Fukuoka already emerged as an important city during the Yamato period, and later the city and its coastal area became the scene of Mongol attempts to invade Japan.

The invading armies were overcome by the forces of nature in the form of a typhoon, which was called kamikaze or the divine wind. During the later centuries, Fukuoka was located quite far from the economic and political centers of Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo, and therefore the city developed with local characteristics.

There are many interesting things to see in Fukuoka. You can see Fukuoka Castle/Fukuoka-jō (福岡城), located on the Fukusaki ridge. The castle was built from 1601, and it was completed as Kyūshū’s largest castle in 1607. The castle and the city were then called Fukuoka after the place in the province of Bizen, where the lord of the castle Kuroda Nagamasa came from. After the Meiji Restoration, Fukuoka Castle was abandoned in 1871 and large parts of the facility were moved or demolished.

Today, therefore, you can only see preserved ruins of the main castle complex, Hommaru (本丸), while you can find a part of the old moat at the main gate Ōtemon (大手門) to the north. At the area, you can also see the Najima-mon (福岡城 名島門) gate, which originally stood at the castle in Najima (名島), where Kuroda Nagamasa lived for a few years before Fukuoka Castle was completed. You can visit the Najima castle ruins in the northern part of Fukuoka as well.

A visit to Fukuoka is an exploration in modern neighborhoods and architecture. Fukuoka Tower/Fukuoka Tawā (福岡タワー) stands close to the city’s important harbor and towers over the skyscraper’s 234 meters in height. Fukuoka Tower is one of the landmarks of the city, and you can enjoy a panoramic view of Fukuoka from the observation floors, which are between 116 and 123 meters up.

Fukuoka Tower is located on dammed land, and to the north of the building there is a park along the sea, Momochi Seaside Park/Shīsaido mo mochi kaihin kōen (シータイドももち海浜公園), where you find some lovely sandy beaches. You can also get up to a nice view at the Hakata Port Tower/Hakata pōto tawā (博多ベートタワー), which was built in 1964 in Fukuoka’s central port area. The tower is 103 meters high, and there is an observation deck at a height of 73 meters.

There are several see-worthy Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Fukuoka. Among them is Hakozaki-gū Shrine (筥崎宮), founded in 923. It is a shrine dedicated to the kami Hachiman, and the complex is built according to tradition, and you can pass the first torii at the water’s edge to the west and go to the inner part of the sanctuary to the east. Sumiyoshi Jinja (住吉神社) is another of Fukuoka’s Shinto shrines. The main hall of Sumiyoshi Jinja dates from 1623, and the park surrounding the shrine is good for a walk with its cedar and camphor trees.

Not far from here is the temple Tōchōji (東長寺), which belongs to Shingon Buddhism. The temple was founded by Kōbō Daishi in 806 and is known for housing one of Japan’s largest figures of the Buddha. A few minutes’ walk from here is the Shofukuji (聖福寺) temple, established in 1195 as the first Zen temple in Japan. The temple consists of many beautiful wooden buildings such as the gate Sanmon (山門).

Fukuoka also offers several interesting museums. One of them is the Kyūshū National Museum/Kyūshū Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan (九州国立博物館), located in a modern museum building from 2005 a little southeast of Fukuoka city center. At the museum you can learn about Kyūshū’s exciting history and cultural development with inspiration from China and Korea. You can enjoy fine collections at the Fukuoka Art Museum/Fukuoka-shi Bijutsukan (福岡市美術餓), located on the old grounds of the city’s castle.

The collections consist of works by international artists, and here is some Japanese art too. At the museum, you can take a walk in Ōhori Park/Ōhori-kōen (大濠公園), which is located around a lake that was a historical bay that was turned into a moat for Fukuoka Castle. The park opened in 1929 with the lake modeled after the famous West Lake in Hangzhou, China.