Fukuoka

Fukuoka is the capital of Fukuoka Prefecture in northern Kyushu, Japan, on Hakata Bay facing Korea. Food stalls called yatai open each evening along the Naka River and serve Hakata ramen in a rich pork-bone broth.

For more than a thousand years the port of Hakata received envoys and traders from China and Korea, and Zen Buddhism and the making of udon and soba are said to have reached Japan through it. Kuroda Nagamasa built his castle on the west bank of the river in 1601 and named the new town after his family's home in Bizen province. The samurai town of Fukuoka and the merchant town of Hakata grew side by side until they were joined as one city in 1889, and the main station kept the old name of Hakata.

Kushida Shrine, founded in the 8th century, is the shrine of the merchant quarter and keeps a decorated festival float on show all year. Its Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival ends each July with teams racing heavy floats through the streets at dawn. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks play baseball at the domed stadium on the waterfront and have won several Japan Series titles. Ohori Park, laid out in the 1920s on the old outer moat of the castle, has a path around a large pond with small islands linked by bridges.

Level-5, based in Fukuoka, develops video games such as Professor Layton and Yo-kai Watch. Fukuya, a Hakata food company, sold the first karashi mentaiko, cod roe marinated in chili, which became a symbol of the city. Ferries and jetfoil boats from the port of Hakata sail to Busan in South Korea.