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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.
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