(vocal scat music) - Yellow Productions presents
Six Things to Know Before You Go to Fukuoka in Japan.
I'm Chris. - And Topher.
- This is Yellow Productions.
We do travel guides that are fun,
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This is part of our series on Japan.
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But we're here to talk about Fukuoka.
Fukuoka sits on the northern tip of Kyushu.
It is the southern-most of Japan's four main islands.
It's a city of 1.4 million people,
and this place,
as compared to Tokyo,
it's pretty, well it's pretty laid back.
Tokyo is hustle and bustle.
You can come to Fukuoka to enjoy
a little bit more laid back Japan.
Today's Fukuoka is a product of two cities.
It's a product of Hakata and Fukuoka.
Actually, we're in front of Hakata Station.
And so this was one of the original
central districts of Fukuoka.
It is now the main train station.
The other main train station is called Tenjin.
But speaking of trains and transportation,
let's head inside the train station,
we'll talk about getting around Fukuoka for number two.
Okay, number two, getting to Fukuoka.
Let's talk about getting here.
Chances are if you're coming to Fukuoka,
you will be coming through Hakata Station.
Most cities in Japan have a train station
that's the name of the city,
Tokyo Station, Kyoto Station.
In Fukuoka, the main train station is Hakata Station,
and you'll be passing through this eventually.
If you're flying into Fukuoka,
one of the nice things is the airport,
it's just a five-minute subway ride
from this main train station.
That is if you're coming in the domestic terminal.
If you're coming in the international terminal,
well, then it's a 15-minute bus ride
because the domestic and the international terminal,
they are not connected.
The other great way to get to Fukuoka
is to take the Shinkansen.
The Shinkansen is the bullet train in Japan.
It is two and a half hours from Osaka.
If you're coming from Tokyo,
then you'll probably want to fly into Fukuoka,
because it's about five hours by Shinkansen from Tokyo.
Your other option, you could drive.
Rent a car, come down to Kyushu.
Kyushu's not as busy or crazy as Tokyo.
It probably won't be super useful for you in Fukuoka,
but it will be great if you're
going out to some of the rest of Kyushu.
By the way, if you want to know more about Kyushu,
watch my travel guide on
10 Things to Know Before You Come to Kyushu.
That's the region that Fukuoka is in.
Okay, so now let's talk about getting around
Fukuoka once you're here.
The main methods of transport in Fukuoka,
there's the subway.
There's three or four different city subway lines.
There's the Nishitetsu
bus and train.
That is a private train company.
There's the JR Line,
there's the Shinkansen,
there's buses,
and, of course, there's taxis.
Oh, and did I mention?
There's your feet.
Topher has little feet, you can walk around, too.
Central Fukuoka is very walkable.
So when you're here, there's lots of
different modes of transportation.
But if you're used to using Uber and Lyft,
those really haven't made it to Japan yet.
We haven't seen any of them driving around Fukuoka.
So you'll be hailing a taxi the old-fashioned way.
The next thing to know before you
go to Fukuoka is about food.
And they love food so much, in the train station,
they've got these huge displays about food.
You'll find shops in the train stations
say souvenirs and gifts.
There's not the typical souvenirs you're thinking of.
There's going to be food that you can buy.
These particular birdies, these are popular here.
You want to know what to buy for food souvenirs?
Just watch these screens in the train station.
Actually, pay attention to me, don't watch those screens.
The biggest thing to eat when you're in Fukuoka is ramen.
Hakata ramen, it's a certain style of ramen.
The same name as this train station.
It was originated here.
It's a type of ramen with a white, milky broth
with tonkatsu, or a pork base.
There's a ramen street up in the train station.
You can check that out.
There's about 8 or 10 different ramen vendors there.
There's a ramen stadium at Canal City.
And a couple of famous ramen chains
in Japan were founded here,
Ichiran and Ippudo.
So make sure to check those out.
I really enjoyed Ichiran while I was here.
Some of the best ramen I think I've had anywhere.
So make sure you eat the ramen here.
The other interesting food thing in Fukuoka
is the Yatai, or the street side stalls.
And every guide book or travel guide
you'll read about Fukuoka says to
dine at one of these street side stalls.
There's about 150 of them throughout the city.
There's no more being set up because
the city isn't allowing any of them anymore,
but they're a bit of old, classic Japan
that you can check out if you're here sometime
maybe warmer than we are.
We're here in January.
It's really cold,
and I don't know I'd want to be sitting
at one of those Yatai's at this time.
The next thing to know in Fukuoka is about shopping.
And I am in front of the Hakata Souvenir Shop.
By the way, that's one of those shops that I talked about
that almost all the souvenirs in there are about food.
But what if you want to buy some things that aren't food?
Where should you go?
Well, this train station,
sounds like everything's in this train station,
this train station is huge.
There's JR Hakata City.
There's a bunch of different shops here.
My favorite is Tokyu Hands.
It is right at the front of the station.
It's called the creative life store.
Everything you'd ever want ever, Japanese goods.
There's a really cool electronic store
on the other side of the station
called Yodobashi Camera.
It's a Japanese national chain,
but if you want the electronics, that's the place to go.
If you're looking for more of a local shopping mall,
check out Canal City.
Canal City is the largest private
development ever in Japan.
There's about 250 stores there.
There's a canal that runs through the middle of it.
It has a fountain show.
That's a good place.
Also, the neighborhood of Tenjin,
which is the second main train station, has shops, as well.
Also, there's underground passageways.
So take a look for the shops in the underground passageways.
If you're using Google Maps and
you can't find the thing that you're looking for,
chances are it might be right beneath you.
Or above you, because a lot of times
something can be on the seventh
or eighth floor of a building, as well.
Finally, the shops, they don't open very early here.
Actually, we were just at Tokyu Hands.
It's currently 9:46 in the morning
when we're shooting this,
and people are standing in line to go in
because most shops don't open till 10.
So you might walk through one of the shopping malls
or train stations and seem like everything's closed
or out of business at 9:30,
but magically they're all going to open
at 10 o'clock and people are going to come in.
And the sixth thing to know before you go to Fukuoka
is about shrines.
There are two very major shrines
and popular shrines in Fukuoka.
The biggest one is the Dazaifu Tenman-gū Shrine.
It is to the god of literature or education.
It's kind of a day trip from Fukuoka.
It's about 45 minutes by bus.
It is really worth checking out.
You'll find a link in the description
or this card up here to watch my video on it.
I've got a whole 7 minutes on that shrine.
But it's really neat.
If you're preparing for some exams
or you want to get into college,
go there, make an offering, you might just get lucky.
There's another shrine that is in Fukuoka,
if you can't make it out to that one.
It's called the Kushida Shrine.
The Kushida Shrine is right in central Fukuoka,
so it's not hard to get at.
Because of that, it attracts a lot of foreigners.
And so that's one you can check out
if you want to see a shrine but
you can't make it out to Dazaifu.
Well, the final thing to know about Fukuoka
is that you should just come here.
I know I said six and that's number seven,
but you should come.
Topher and I really hope you enjoyed this video.
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All right, thanks.
Bye-bye. - Bye-bye.