Welcome To Fukuoka, The City Of Perfectures

Fukuoka is the capital of Fukuoka prefecture and the largest city on the island of Kyushu. Fukuoka is a modern city; most of its buildings are new. Historically, it was divided into Hakata and Fukuoka, two separate cities divided by the central river, and the main railway station and port are still known as Hakata Station and Hakata Port. The westernmost part of Fukuoka is also known as Sawara.

The city really has two centres in Hakata and Tenjin. Most of the English information for foreign travellers is available on the 8th floor of the IMS building, just to the east of Tenjin Nishitetsu station.

The surrounding cities and towns make up the prefecture of Fukuoka.

Fukuoka is a good starting point to begin a vacation to Japan for first-timers. Compared to Tokyo, even New York, London, Paris, and Los Angeles will seem sleepy and life appear slow. Beginning the trip at Fukuoka will help ease the transition. While still a big modern city, it's not hard to get around. The train station is already the loci of one of the city's two city centers (the other being Tenjin). When you're ready to head to the big cities up north, just board the "shinkansen" train line.

By Air 

The Airport is located to the east of the city, surprisingly close to the city center (only two subway stops away from the main train station). Within the country, Japan Airlines and ANA fly to Fukuoka from most larger cities, including Tokyo (both Haneda and Narita), Osaka (Itami and Kansai), and Nagoya Centrair Airport. There are scheduled flights to most major cities in China and South Korea, as well as Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Manila and Ho Chi Minh City, but the only scheduled transpacific flights are to Honolulu and Guam.

The airport is somewhat inconveniently split into four terminals. Broadly speaking, Terminal 1 handles domestic flights to smaller cities (eg. Sendai, Komatsu and those around Kyushu), while Terminal 2 handles those to larger cities (Nagoya, Naha, Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo). The two are essentially different parts of the same building, 5 min apart on foot, and the subway station is located under Terminal 2. Terminal 3 is not used for departing flights, while the International Terminal is on the opposite side of the runway and requires a 10-min bus transfer from T2 (free, every 20 min or so).

From Tokyo, flying to Fukuoka is much faster than the Shinkansen, and not significantly more expensive. The usual one-way fare on Skymark Airlines from Tokyo Haneda is ¥24,400, compared to ¥22,320 from Tokyo Station on the Nozomi Shinkansen, and steep discounts are available if you book in advance (as low as ¥12,000 with ANA's Tabiwari discount). The flight takes two hours while the train takes five. If you have a Japan Rail Pass, of course, you'll still want to take the train.

What to do

The Fukuoka subway station, located under the JR Hakata Station, can also take passengers straight to Fukuoka International Airport (6 minutes, ¥250), as well as to Tenjin, the city's de facto downtown district, as well as to other major stops. There is also a passenger tunnel, useful during the frequent rains in summer and bitter cold winds in winter, which connects Hakata and Gion subways stations, the latter of which is close to some of Fukuoka City's most interesting temples and shrines.

 See
Tourists visiting Fukuoka should not miss the beautiful Ohori park located 2 stops west of Tenjin on the subway
 Do
The area is famous for 2 local annual festivals, the Dontaku (May 3-4) and the Yamakasa (July 1-15), both of which are some of Japan's oldest and draw huge crowds.

A bus ride across the bay is also highly recommended for the sweeping views of the port, the ocean, and outlying islands.