9 Things To Do In Fukuoka, Japan | International Traveller

Stored away like a secret love letter, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Japan’s southernmost island, Kyushu, is ready to reveal its heart to international travellers seeking new experiences.

Whether you fall for Fukuoka’s laidback vibe, its breathtaking natural beauty, or unforgettable cuisine (voted in Lonely Planet’s ‘Best in Travel List 2023’ in the food category, no less) Kyushu’s most northern prefecture has an undeniable buzz that whisks you into its multifaceted world. With a language containing over 3,000 characters, each stroke more intricate than the next, Japan is masterful at creating surprising experiences.

Just a two-hour flight from Tokyo, Fukuoka is where Buddhism and Shintoism join hands, celebrating life, culture, and spirituality. The volcanic landscape, famous for its healing thermal hot springs (onsen), is a culture by itself. Cosmopolitan, trendy, yet with an ancient belief system, Kyushu Island rolls out the red carpet when it comes to adventure.

Read on and create your must-visit in Fukuoka list:

1. Fukuoka Tower

Float 123 metres skywards in Fukuoka Tower to take in the 360-degree panoramic view of Fukuoka’s sprawling metropolis and the sweeping vista of Hakata Bay. With its impressive triangular structure and 8000 half-mirrors reflecting the ocean, the 234-metre-high tower, dubbed the Mirror Sail, dominates the city’s skyline.

view of the city skyline from the Fukuoka Tower — Stare in awe at the 360-degree view of the city. (Image: Lynn Gail)

On a clear day, mountainous peaks, often shrouded in mist, are visible from the observation level. Visit after sundown to admire one of four seasonal illumination themes lighting up the tower at night, beautiful beacons that can be seen across the city all throughout the year.

the tallest seaside tower in Fukuoka, Japan — The Fukuoka Tower soars above the prefecture. (Image: Lynn Gail)

2. Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine

Bow twice, clap twice, and toss a five-yen coin (considered the most fortunate) into an offering box to awaken the gods at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine before praying, then pay your respects with a final bow. Dating back to 919, the shrine is built over the burial site of the famous scholar Sugawara Michizne enshrined as Tenjin.

one of the attractions at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Fukuoka — The famous Shinto Shrine embodies Japan’s long history. (Image: Lynn Gail)

As Japan’s most sacred place, Dazaifu Tenmangu is head of the nation’s 12,000 Tenjin shrines. Landscaped gardens, on-site museums, contemporary and historical artworks, along with vibrant festivals, attract locals year-round.

people passing through the bridge at Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Fukuoka — Marvel around the tranquil surroundings. (Image: Lynn Gail)

Shinto devotees believe over eight million gods exist in all things Mother Nature, and forever strive for harmony.

For a small donation, write your wishes on a wooden votive tablet and hang it with hundreds of other worshippers’ wishes.

small wooden plaques with written wishes hanging up at the shrine in Fukuoka — Make a wish and hang it alongside the wishes of others. (Image: Lynn Gail)

3. Kyushu National Museum

Kyushu National Museum is on Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine’s grounds. Shaped like a wave, its huge windows reflect the surrounding woodland. One of four national museums in Japan, permanent displays showcase the history and story of foreign cultural exchanges between Asia, Japan, and Europe. Various themed exhibitions and renowned artists are also shown throughout the year.

a glass structure at Kyushu National Museum in Fukuoka — The museum has an eye-catching glass structure. (Image: Lynn Gail)

4. Yatai – Fukuoka’s street food

Make sure to include a Yatai ‘dining’ experience in your itinerary. Lining the streets like well-spaced bus stops, makeshift food carts come with tiny fully fledged kitchens from which delicious dishes are cooked up in the flick of a frying pan.

a man cooking a meal at a Yatai Food Stall in Fukuoka — Witness how your food is cooked before serving. (Image: Lynn Gail)

Take your pick from roadside carts cocooned in heavy plastic taupe and slide in next to a local – you might not speak the language, but you’ll immediately feel part of Fukuoka’s after-dark street culture.

a Japanese dish at Yata Food Stall, Fukuoka — Satisfy your palate. (Image: Lynn Gail)

Try the melt-in-your-mouth Tamagoyaki Japanese rolled omelette, Yakisoba fried noodle dish or Oden hotpot washed down with sake or local beer.

Open until the early hours of the morning, Yatai is a laid-back no-frills foodie experience.

customers sitting and dining on a Yatai Food Stall in Fukuoka — Pull up a chair before all seats are taken. (Image: Lynn Gail)

5. Mt Sarakura Cable Car – Kitakyushu

Kitakyushu city is as sweet as it sounds. Step back in time and catch the train from Hakata to Mojiko Station. Opened in 1891 the city’s transport hub has all the bells and whistles of a bygone era hanging in its historical building.

a boat cruising along the river near Mojiko Station at Kitakyushu — Take a boat ride tour from Mojito to Shimonoseki. (Image: Lynn Gail)

From there, head to Mt Sakakura and catch the cable car climbing 622 metres up a steep incline to the summit. The dazzling cityscape sparkles around snaking inlets leading to the Genkai Sea, the southwestern tip of the Sea of Japan.

top view of the Fukuoka cityscape from Mt Sarakura Cable Car at dusk — The city lights glisten at dusk. (Image: Lynn Gail)

Called the “10-billion-dollar-nightscape" the sparkling panorama is now recognised as one of Japan’s most scenic views. A restaurant at the observation lookout serves basic fare, the vista though is magnificent, day or night.

the exterior view of the Kitakyushu Riverwalk — Stroll along Kitakyushu Riverwalk. (Image: Lynn Gail)

6. Kokura Castle – Kitakyushu City

Stroll along the Murasakigawa Riverbank to Kokura Castle, an elegant five-storey Edo Period structure built in 1602.

The original castle was destroyed by fire in 1866 and reconstructed to its former glory in 1959. Each level showcases artwork from the 1600s along with a variety of vibrant modern pieces.

Visit during springtime, and you’ll likely see cherry blossoms blooming in their hundreds. Just over the bridge, river cafes, restaurants and speciality shops add to the explore Kitakyushu experience.

the exterior of Kokura Castle with cherry blossom trees in the background — Find cherry blossoms outside the castle. (Image: Lynn Gail)

7. Ohori Park

Ohori Park is a place that comes to mind when you think of Sunday strolls. Registered as a place of scenic beauty, the park is listed as one of Japan’s most prominent recreational areas.

The centrepiece, an oval pond with three mini-islands topped with pine trees, was originally part of Fukuoka Castle’s moat. Walking paths, red-painted bridges, and Ukimi Pavilion, a structure extending over the water, create a relaxed ambling-along atmosphere.

a stream surrounded by lush greenery at Ohori Park Japanese Garden — Take a break away from the city at Ohori Park Japanese Garden. (Image: Lynn Gail)

8. Ohori Park Japanese Garden

For a small fee visit Ohori Park Japanese Garden located at the southern end of Ohori Park. Manmade, with slow strolling in mind, the polished three-acre landscape lulls you into a meditative pace.

a japanese garden with a trickling stream surrounded by evergreen shrubs at Ohori Park — Reconnect with nature at Ohori Park Japanese Garden. (Image: Lynn Gail)

Pebbled paths lead to a display of rhododendrons, azaleas and evergreen shrubs edged by waterfalls and bridges. For green tea connoisseurs, a teahouse is available to rent for private ceremonies.

a waterfall splashing gently into the stream at Ohori Park Japanese Garden — Hear the relaxing sound of water splashing from a nearby waterfall. (Image: Lynn Gail)

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9. Fukuoka Art Museum

A short wander from Ohori Park will lead you to Fukuoka Art Museum where pre-modern art is on show in the shape of Buddhist Art from Tokoin Temple as well as temporary displays by modern and contemporary artists exhibiting throughout the museum.

On the ground level, an architecturally inspired cafe sells delicious sweet treats. A restaurant on the second floor serves Japanese or Western-style options created to contain a characteristic element of the exhibitions on view. Extensive views of close-by Ohori Park can be enjoyed while you dine in style.

a Buddhist statue at an art exhibition in Fukuoka Art Museum — Find Buddhist art sculptures inside the museum. (Image: Lynn Gail)

Travel tips for Fukuoka

Accommodation

Modern: Nishitetsu Grand Hotel in the heart of Fukuoka City. Guest rooms are elegantly designed, comfortable and well-appointed.

Traditional Ryokan: Route Inn Grantia Dazaifu offers hot-spring baths, a Korean sauna, and a relaxation room with massage chairs. The hotel’s modern rooms are well-appointed with ample space.

Restaurants

Ohori Park Royal Garden Cafe. Patrons can enjoy dining while enjoying the open scenery of the park.

Tanga Yatai Sushi Manten serves unforgettable sashimi. Book in advance: +81 93-511-2333

Getting there

Japan, Malaysian, and Qantas Airlines all fly to Japan from Australia.

The writer travelled as a guest of Fukuoka Prefecture Tourism Association.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

9 ways to forget time in laidback Fukuoka, Japan