For Golden Week this year, I went to Fukuoka! This will be the furthest east I’ll ever travel in Japan, and is probably also one of the longest flights in the country (excluding Hokkaido to Okinawa). I was excited to do some local sightseeing, eat some tonkotsu ramen, and it just happens that the local Dontaku Festival occurs on Golden weekend. This time I stayed with a friend, so no hotel review.
May 3rd: Time to head to Fukuoka! I left at my usual time to go to Sapporo. Before heading to the airport, I stopped by Gong Cha to pick up the new mango seasonal. Read about my boba here!
I found the train quite crowded, but for a potential Golden Week crowd, the airport wasn’t too busy, with a normal amount of customers. The Snow Festival crowd was much worse.
Once at the airport, I headed to the Ramen Dojo to get some lunch. Most of the ramen at the airport is some sort of miso ramen, with the occasional Hakodate shio and Asahikawa shoyu, but I did notice that Kaiko offers a crab miso ramen. I’m a crab fan, so I was intrigued.
The broth is quite salty. I’m not sure if I tasted any strong crab flavor from the broth, or even any miso (though that’s already a salty ingredient). There was one slice of decently lean and tender chashu, along with two small crab claws. Egg was nice and soft, and I liked how the noodles were slightly thick and chewy.
After lunch, I went to the relatively newly opened Morihico Coffee in the airport. I don’t drink coffee, but their takeout counter offers a really enticing soft serve. The strawberry is a limited time flavor I think.
Ice cream was very good. The milk flavor is subtle compared to the strawberry, but definitely has a rich milkiness to it. The strawberry was strong, and tasted a lot like a sherbet, with pure strawberry flavor, but with the creaminess of a soft serve.
Boarding went smoothly, and we were off into the air around 2:30! The flight was smooth, with one drink service and one round of candies, and we landed around 5. I met up with my friend at Hakata station, and we headed to Canal City. It’s a pretty nice and spacious mall with a ton of stuff to do. It’s particularly known for the water show, which occurs at regular intervals. We happened to catch one while we were on the third floor.
We walked around for a bit, and then headed to the Kirby Cafe for our 6:20 reservation! Pro tip: the Kirby Cafe in Fukuoka is so much easier to get reservations for. Highly recommend as opposed to the Tokyo one. The cafe space is different, but if you’re looking for snag a spot, this one will have openings. We were seated right next to a giant replica of Whispy Woods! I opted for the carbonara pizza (most because of the star egg), and ordered the Kirby parfait as dessert. Plus, this parfait is a Hakata store exclusive! It came with a postcard of Kirby making the parfait.
My pizza came with a creamy white sauce, grilled asparagus, and a sunny side up in the shape of a star. There was definitely a lot of stuff on top of the flimsy crust, and the yolk was very runny, but otherwise, the pizza was yummy! I’m usually a red sauce girl, but I couldn’t turn down a unique item. The parfait was cute, but very sweet. There were layers of cake, whip cream, marshmallows, and ice cream. My favorite part was the baby crepe cake on top.
I knew the whole setting with the parfait was that it was made by Kirby, but when it was delivered, the waitress put on a baby voice and said “Kirby really tried his best to make this parfait! He really held back on eating the ingredients, and here’s a photo for you to take home as proof.” That was very cute.
We managed to finish our dinner just in time to catch the 7:30 extended 10 minute show. This one only runs twice a day. I knew it was Gundam themed, but I didn’t expect it to be an entire Gundam fight sequence. At one point, you could get out your phone and “join” a side in fighting. Like Yokohama, Fukuoka also has a Gundam, but it was a bit out of the way from my plans this trip.
May 4th: Today I was my explore the local area and check out the Dontaku Festival day! My first stop of the day was Ohori Park, or more specifically, a cafe at Ohori Park for some breakfast. Around 9:30, there was a slight line, but it was mostly a line to order. Off of their morning menu, I opted for the inari set, which comes wih 2 inari of your choice, miso soup, and a Yamecha of choice. I chose the sesame inari, apple & honey inari, and a hot matcha. I even snagged a seat with a nice view of the lake!
Miso soup was very flavorful, and a nice strong flavor contrast to the mild inari. The sesame was basic, with sesame seeds sprinkled throughout. I will say, I thought the apple honey flavor would be stronger, but it was also on the subtle side. Although there were some apple chunks, it actually tasted very similar to the sesame one. The matcha was very good. Simple, but effective. After breakfast, I walked the bridges through the islands in the lake.
It’s a really nice park, and the weather was extra perfect. People were hanging out, with many runners running around the perimeter of the lake.
On my way to check out Fukuoka Castle, I stopped by Sannomaru Square. They were setting up a gyoza festival that looked really enticing, except I was there around 10:30, and the festival wouldn’t start until 11. Unfortunately, I would not come back to the area…You can get one of the collectible Japan Castles stamp at the tourist center here.
On the way to the castle, I entered the Najina-mon Gate (one of the few reamining structures from Najima Castle), and passed by a peony garden. It was super pretty, with a bunch of flowers in bloom.
And then I headed to Fukuoka Castle. Or what’s left of it. Unlike other replica or the few actual real castles in Japan, there’s no grand Castle! moment here. There is however, a really nice view at the top of the Base of the Castle Keep.
You can walk around the area reading the various plaques around the ruins, but it really is just “the place where the castle was”. The nature is super pretty though.
For some actual ruins, I headed to the Korokan Ruins Museum. A korokan is an ancient guest house for foreign diplomats, and this is the only found one in Japan.
I saw posters during the day that the Tamon Yagura was doing a special limited-time opening to the public during Golden Week. It’s a multi-room turret, and the only building still in the same place when Fukuoka Castle was originally built.
Before lunch, I decided to visit Fukuoka Prefecture Gokoku Shrine. (Not to be confused with Gokoku Shrine in Kurume, Fukuoka) I somehow stumbled upon the beginnings of some kind of festival celebration, as a bunch of people in matching outfits started chanting. (I would later realize this was one of the venues of the Dontaku Festival that was happening. Turns out, the Dontaku Festival takes place at a bajillion venues across central Fukuoka, from small stages in different shopping plazas, to all of the local shrines. More on that later.) This shrine had a bunch of omikujis, and though I usually don’t do them, there was a cherry blossom one! This one comes with a random charm, so I thought it’d be cute. I ended up getting normal luck, so I tied the paper fortune in the usual place.
It was time for lunch! My lunch of the day was at Hakataya. There’s two locations near Hakata station that are 24 hours, but this one is a bit smaller and out of the way, so maybe that’s why this one isn’t. This chain is quite famous for offering ramen at a base price of 290 yen! As with Fukuoka ramen, they ask for your desired noodle firmness. I got firm. Vending machine cash only!
For cheap ramen, this was pretty good. The chashu was small and thin, but lean and tender. Soup was not too heavy, with a light porky flavor, but a bit oily. Noodles were nice and al dente. Gyoza was yummy, and definitely one-bite.
Right next door was a boba place that I was excited to try while in Fukuoka! It’s less of a shop, and more of a window store with one indoor and one outdoor table, but the offerings were enticing. Read about my boba here!
I just got a drink, but time for my real post-lunch dessert: a fancy fruit parfait! I bussed over to Prince of the Fruit, a fancy fruit parfait parlor that always works with fruit in season. When I got there, there was only one other party!
They posted on Instagram that they were offering mango parfaits, so I was super excited. Little did I know that I was being naive, and of course Miyazaki mango would go for more than 5000 yen…Fukuoka is also known for the Amaou strawberry, so I was debating getting one of the strawberry parfaits (around 3000 yen), which was looking cheaper in comparison…The staff even came over twice to ask me for my order and give me advice. After a bit of pressure and chatting, I decided to go with the mango parfait. I’m on vacation, I can splurge a bit, right? They very kindly let me swap out the coconut gelato with vanilla. The other gelato was milk, and some berry.
Oh my god, the mango was so good, perfectly sweet, and soft. It melts in your mouth and requires no chewing at all. I like how they didn’t waste any mango, and put small scrap pieces in the bottom. The milk and vanilla gelato both had strong flavors, and the berry portion was more of a thin layer between the two.
Honestly highly recommend coming with a friend so you can split two different parfaits and share. The staff even see you off and bow at the entrance.
After my parfait, I bussed over to Fukuoka Tower. It’s pretty tall, with a couple of souvenir shops inside, and cafes in the upper levels. I didn’t bother going up, because I didn’t feel the need for the view, and there was a ticket line anyway.
Behind Fukuoka Tower is Momochi Seaside Park. It’s this Hawaii-Okinawan-esque plaza area with surf shops, a bunch of American-style food options, and an artificial island alongside a beach. It was pretty cool, and I honestly felt like I wasn’t in Fukuoka anymore. I had bookmarked this Okinawan brand ice cream stand, and bought a Okinawa purple yam ice cream.
After walking around the beach of a bit eating my ice cream, I decided it was time to finally check out the Dontaku Festival proper. The idea was to bus over from Fukuoka Tower to Kushida shrine, which was supposed to take 20 minutes, but ended up close to 50 because of traffic. On the way, I did see some of the Dontaku venues from the bus.
I decided on Kushida Shrine because supposedly it’s the main venue of the Festival. The event schedule said festivities at the shrine would end at 5, but luckily when I arrived aournd 4:50, it seemed like the giant crowd there was waiting for something to happen.
Eventually, at the main platform stage area of the shrine, some young boys in costumes started chanting and beating a drum, and then a young priestess(?) stood up and started stiffly walking around the stage. The group behind started chanting, and after a while, it ended. This was all while two people wearing masks in a costume were facing the stage on horses. All the costumed people in the watching crowd started doing some kind of group chant, and then someone called the end of this event.
Everyone dispersed, and I headed down the street to check out the Kawabata venue. It was a small stage, with a middle-aged idol group performing at the moment for a small crowd. I headed further to the Dontaku Plaza, where there was a dance team parade going on.
Starting at 5:50, because it was the last day of the Festival, Mayumi Dance Studio was doing a circular dance and inviting common folk to join the circle and dance.
This dancing in a circle ended at 6:20, followed by a few speeches by important people, and then a clap altogether to signal the official end of the festival. I kind of regret not being able to see the flower cars, but that was probably poor planning on my part.
For dinner, I headed to the Nakasu Food Stall area to see what was up there. Yatai, or food stalls, are a big culture in Fukuoka, and the Nakasu area is supposedly the most famous. I browsed the menus of each, but it seemed like these stalls are vaguely had the same things (tonkotsu ramen, oden). Plus, people were really lining up. Was cool to check out though.
In the meantime, I headed back to Canal City to do some brief shopping. After scoping Google Maps for some dinner options, I decided to go for udon. Fukuoka has an udon culture of its own too. Daichi no Udon is a popular udon spot, with a really cool looking burdock tempura. At 7:30, there was a bit of a line, but it moved relatively fast. Cash only!
The burdock root tempura was huge, and super crispy! I liked how it was essentially on top of the bowl and not touching the soup, so it wouldn’t get soggy. This shop makes their udon in house, and indeed, this was some unique udon. The noodles were almost transparent, thin, and soft. The meat part was ok, pretty typical thin shreds of tender beef. I wish there was more.
And then I headed back to my friend’s place for the night!
May 5th: I planned my Day 2 to be an Itoshima Day! For anyone going to Itsohima without a car, I highly recommend looking up the bus times and planning ahead. Google is pretty accurate! My friend joined for the Itoshima portion of the day.
We arrived around 8:15 at Hakata station, and although our bus wasn’t supposed to leave until 8:58, I wanted to get there early to line up for Dacomecca, a bakery in Fukuoka that’s gone viral. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was already a line around the corner, and I didn’t want to risk the long line.
My friend had pointed out a croissant place they liked that sometimes gets a line a couple days ago, and I suggested we go see how the line was. Turns out, this croissant shop has two shops side-by-side in the station: one with the super long line (that moves fast) is the shop that sells their normal items and croissant flavors, and the other with the virtually no line sells their seasonal flavors. We opted for the one with no line for time’s sake, and they were selling a sakura croissant! Interestingly, their croissants are cute and small, and are sold by weight. In addition to a sakura croissant, I got an apple pie. I don’t think this is freshly made like the croissants though, because it came in a plastic packaging with a dessicant packet.
I did wait until we got to Itoshima to eat the croissant, so I’d recommend eating it fresh, or wait until you can heat it up somewhere. Nevertheless, although I was missing the crunch factor, the outside was flaky, the inside was delicate with many layers, and there was some sakura paste inside. The apple pie was not bad, but it was mostly crisp pie layers with a few slices of apple filling. Flavor was good though.
With croissants in hand, we headed over to the Hakata Bus Terminal early. Good thing we did, because when we got there, there was quite a line for the West Coast Liner we wanted to take to Itoshima (goes straight there!). We made it safely onto the bus though, and arrived a good 10 minutes early because our bus was so full that we skipped the other stops that were meant to pick people up. There’s many palm trees in this area of Fukuoka…
Our first stop was Sakurai Shrine Futamigaura Torii and the Couple Stones in the ocean behind it. There’s a bit of a line to take pictures in front of the shrine, but otherwise, moves pretty fast. Very unusual to see a white torii gate!
Now, the gate is probably the easiest thing to get to. The actual shrine is located much more inland, and so we took a bus at 10:18 to more of the central town area, and walked 15 minutes to the shrine. There’s signs throughout, so it didn’t feel too in the middle of nowhere. The walk actually gave massive Ghibli vibes! The shrine itself is enshrined in a giant forest of sorts, and is at least 600 years old!
After walking around the shrine a bit, we headed to a cafe as a rest stop before bussing to our next location. UOVO is a cute cafe that specializes in egg goods. This is their main location, but they have a small store in Canal City. I opted for one of their puddings as a snack. After paying, the clerk handed me a small packet of caramel sauce.
The pudding was silky smooth, and not to rich but still flavorful. The caramel sauce had a nice deep burnt sugar flavor to it, but I did feel pouring it on top overpowered the pudding I had at the beginning and made the whole ratio off.
After a snack break, we got on a bus at 11:40 to the Itoshima Picnic Village area. There’s some cool things to do around here, but I was here for the Totoro Forest. It’s not officially Totoro licensed, but a forest path that really looks like the one in Totoro, so locals have nicknamed it so. There’s even a bunch of totoros at all the nearby shops!
We hiked up the Totoro Forest path, which is pretty steep, so people with weak knees, beware. The observation deck at the top was really nice view though, so if you’re willing to wait for people to take their pictures and sacrifice your knees, I think it’s pretty worth it. At one point during the hike, the path branches off towards the observation deck, or 黒磯海岸 (black rock beach). We decided to hike down to the beach, and we walked along it until we were back at civilization. It’s a nice walk, but not quite smooth for the feet. The black rock trail ends at the boat station that gives rides to Keya no Ohto cave. The unique vertical rock structures can be seen a little from outside, but if that’s your thing, I heard it’s pretty cool.
I didn’t have anything else to do in the area, so we took a local bus to Chikuzen-Maebaru Station, and took the local train back to central Fukuoka. My friend went home for the day, and I got off at Tenjin station to do some last minute exploring. Oh, and also grab lunch and boba.
It was practically 2pm by the time I arrived, so I was looking for more of a savory snack so I wouldn’t be too full by dinner time. I ended up getting takeout from Chun Sui Tang in the Tenjin underground mall because there was a line to eat-in…Read about my boba here!
The zhongzi (rice dumpling) was pretty good flavorvise. Not too salty, with chewy sweet rice. There was a small piece of tender and flavorfuli meat, one small shiitake mushroom, and some tiny dried shrimps. I wish there was more filling, but it’s what I get for ordering a side I guess.
After exploring the underground mall (fancy!), I went to check out I’m Donut?. Tokyo’s viral donuts have a shop in Fukuoka, and I figured this was a good opportunity to try it out. The line was indeed long, but people kept lining up. About halfway through the line a staff came out to say there was only a few varieties left, and a few parties before it was my turn to enter the store, they ran out of stock…I didn’t mind waiting since I had the time, but I was so close…
To make matters worse, right after the sold out announcement, the sky decided to pour random rain for an hour. I ducked back underground, checked out the rest of the shops, and came back up around 6 to eat dinner at the local Tenjin food stalls.
My first stop was Nakanakanaka! I saw in a video that they serve juicy gyoza, and it was a good starting point for my yatai experience. I ordered one original and one Hakata motsunikomi, which seems to be a local and store specialty. Unfortunately(?), they have a one drink policy, so I ordered an oolong tea.
The stewed intestines came in a nice slightly sweet, savory broth, and included konjac and radish! I like the chew, but a little too fatty and not enough meat for my taste. The gyoza was good, and reminded me of slightly thicker skinned, grilled xiao long bao. Definitely beware of the juices that squirt out when you bite!
I was trying to yatai hop, and after doing a bit of last minute research, decided Takachan around the corner looked like it had a good yaki ramen. It’s a cute stall, and I think it’s a family run business. There’s an old lady trying to recruit people to eat, and the son and father both prepare the food. I was originally just going to get the yakiramen, but their specials of the day board had pig feet, and I rarely ever see pig feet. This was the first time I ever had it grilled! My neighbor’s mochi bacon looked really good, but my stomach was nearing its limit…
The pig foot was an interesting experience! It was definitely the usual chewy collagen, with many small bones throughout. I don’t mind chewing around bone, but I wish there was a bit more meat…The foot was seasoned with salt and pepper, and came with an acidic sauce. At one point, the sauce had gotten too strong to eat with both the cabbage and foot, so I could have used a bit less of it. The yaki ramen was quite interesting! It uses the thin Hakata noodles, and when stir-frying, they poured some tonkotsu broth, followed by a giant squeeze of yakisoba sauce. It was really yummy, but also extremely salty by the end of it.
I will say, this is probably best enjoyed with a friend, or if you are extremely extraverted. That way, you can yatai hop, and share all the small dishes to try more food. From what I saw online, I was hoping to get the chat-with-the-owners experience at the yatai, because I thought this was quite common. Either I looked like I wanted to be left alone or I gave foreigner vibes, because no one tried to talk to me…The food was all good, but either I got unlucky, or had expectations for my experience.
I hurried in the rain back to my friend’s place for the night!
May 6th: Time to leave Fukuoka and head back to Hokkaido!
I woke up and left my friend’s place early to go line up for Dacomecca properly. I was aiming to get there around 8 when they were supposed to open, and sure enough, at 8:05, there was already a giant line around the corner of the block. Good thing I gave up the previous day, as I ended up waiting around an hour in line, and then around 10 minutes more once inside the shop. While I was there, I figured I should buy a bunch to make the time worth it. I got a pear bostock (367 yen), matcha and white chocolate rustic (313 yen), Dacomecca dog (529 yen), chicken mushroom (508 yen), caesar salad (454 yen), garlic baguette (335 yen), and apple kouign amann 356
Honestly, I’d wait again if I had the time. The bread selection was really unique, they were all made fresh in-house, and everything was really good quality.
Protip: If you’re ever gunning for Dacomecca while you’re in Fukuoka, you can online reserve the day before to pick up and skip the line. The only caveat is that pickups start at 11am, so if you’re looking to eat your bread for breakfast, you’ll have to line up. It also seems like online doesn’t have the full selection that the store has, so for the full experience, you’ll still have to wait.
With my bread haul in hand, I got on the 9:30 5-minute train ride to the airport. First item of business, is a stop by Itoking. I think one of their famous products is a mochi cheese, but I was here for their seasonal dorayaki with an amaou strawberry. According to the sign, they were just freshly delivered! I bought an original (642 yen), and a matcha (680 yen).
Time for my first meal of the day! The airport has a branch of a local tonkotsu ramen chain that I wanted to go, and this was my last chance to taste Fukuoka before I left. Even 10 minutes before opening time, there was a line forming outside the store. I have to say, people’s comments on Google are right. There is a certain, almost fermented smell that comes out of ramen stores like this. I opted for the rich broth as opposed to the salty light tonkotsu, and asked for firm noodles.
I will say, the broth does taste like how the restaurant smells, which might turn off some people, but is interesting and unique. That said, it tasted like a pleasant version of the smell. The soup flavor was porky, rich, yet not creamy or as heavy as a prototypical tonkotsu ramen. The firm noodles were chewy and thin, and I liked the not-too-fatty chashu.
I walked around a bit, trying to find some last minute souvenirs, but decided it was safer to head into security with less than an hour to my flight. Security was as fast as usual, but this was probably the first time I didn’t have loads of time to explore. As is usual, there were a couple of quick restaurants and cafes, souvenir shops, basic, but spacious.
The flight itself was pretty smooth. Although we were a bit delayed, we actually landed early! For lunch, I ate my caesar salad sandwich from Dacomecca, and my first stop after the airport was JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo.
A hotel? Yeah. Their lobby lounge was doing a sakura fair, and the parfait looked really enticing for a decent price. The vibes at this hotel are super fancy…almost too fancy, with people opening the door, greeting you, and escorting you to where you need to go. After a bit of a wait. I was seated. The parfait comes with sakura cream made of bean paste and buttercream, sakura ice cream and sherbet, strawberry ice cream, peach ice cream, and sakura bean paste youkan.
It might be a fancy parfait, but I liked all of the parts! The meringue stick and white chocolate decorations on top melted in my mouth, and the youkan ad plenty of sakur flavor. I liked how there were two different kinds of sakura ice cream, plus the addition of strawberry and peach were nice flavor changes. The strawberry slices were perfectly sweet and crisp!
I did some various window shopping, and with nothing else to do in Sapporo, I bussed to Otaru station around 5, and my friend drove me home. And that was my Golden Weekend!
No hotel review because I stayed at my friend’s place, but Dontaku Festival protip: It’s virtually impossible to see and do everything. Theres 20+ venues, most of which are small stages all around the city. There’s performances by various small groups constantly going on, and then there’s the main parade with groups of people and flower cars. Technically, the main venues are Kushida Shrine and the Dontaku Plaza, so I’d recommend heading there. My takeaway is that there’s just constant performances, and if you’re not rooting for any particular group, just head to the main venues or shrines.
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