Fukuoka Audio Tours

Fukuoka formed in 1889 from the merger of two very different places: Hakata, a historic merchant port that had been trading with China and Korea for centuries, and Fukuoka, the samurai residential area on the other side of the Naka River. The tension between the two halves -- commercial and aristocratic, port and castle -- is still faintly readable in the city's geography. Hakata Station is the transport hub and commercial centre; Tenjin, across the river, is the department store and fashion district. The Fukuoka Castle ruins sit in Maizuru Park, mostly trees and surviving walls now, but the moat walks in spring, when the cherry blossoms are out, are genuinely beautiful.

The food culture here is specific and serious.

Hakata tonkotsu ramen -- a rich pork bone broth with thin, firm noodles -- is one of Japan's great regional dishes, and Fukuoka is where it was developed. The yatai, open-air food stalls that set up on the streets of Tenjin and Nakasu each evening, are a particular local institution: plastic-covered wooden stools, counter seating, ramen or yakitori or oden under a tarpaulin, eaten shoulder to shoulder with strangers. The Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival in July, where seven teams race massive decorated floats through the old merchant streets, has been running for over 700 years.