{"id":87976,"date":"2016-06-17T11:05:12","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T02:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=feature&p=87976&lang=en"},"modified":"2017-06-13T12:58:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T03:58:13","slug":"fukuoka-trivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/fukuoka-trivia\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukuoka Trivia – 22 Things You’ll Be Surprised to Learn About Fukuoka"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"trivia
\n
\nWelcome to Fukuoka! You might not know it, but you\u2019re in the city of startups, salons, sci-fi stadiums, strangely large strawberries and, um, snazzy sewage treatment. Whether you\u2019re a first-time visitor or a long-time local, there are always more things to discover that make Fukuoka fabulous. Read on for some facts about our fair city that you won\u2019t find in a guidebook.<\/p>\n

1. Seoul sisters<\/strong>
\nRight now, you\u2019re closer to South Korea\u2019s capital than Japan\u2019s. Fukuoka is 883 kilometers (or around an hour and a half by airplane) from Tokyo, compared to just 540 kilometers (or an hour and 20 minutes\u2019 flight) from Seoul.<\/p>\n

\"seoul<\/p>\n

2. Hakata then, Fukuoka now<\/strong>
\nIf history had gone just a little differently, we would have been welcoming you to Hakata, not Fukuoka. The two were once separate places: Hakata, a busy port that served as Japan\u2019s gateway to East Asia, and Fukuoka, a samurai<\/em> town that sprang up around the castle built by a 17th-century feudal lord. (You can admire what remains of it in what is now Ohori Park.)<\/p>\n

In 1889, it was decided that the two towns should merge \u2014 but what to call the new city? The council was called to vote; the result was a tie. The decision fell to the chairman who, being from Fukuoka himself, declared in favor of his hometown. And so Fukuoka + Hakata = Fukuoka, despite the fact that Hakata was the larger city at the time. As a gesture to disappointed Hakatans, the council named the shiny new train terminus Hakata Station \u2014 which is why anyone traveling here by Shinkansen still arrives in Hakata today.<\/p>\n

3. Boom town<\/strong>
\nToday, Fukuoka is Japan\u2019s fifth biggest metropolis with around 1.5 million inhabitants. If it keeps growing at its current rate, though, it might soon climb the rankings: between 2010 and 2015, Fukuoka\u2019s population increased by 5.1 percent \u2014 more than any other city\u2019s in Japan.<\/p>\n

\"boom<\/p>\n

4. Saved by the storm<\/strong>
\nFukuoka owes its survival to kamikaze<\/em> \u2014 but not that kind. Back in the Middle Ages, the Mongol Empire was one of the greatest threats to Japan. Having conquered Korea, they prepared to invade the closest part of the archipelago from there: Kyushu. In 1274, a Mongol fleet attacked. They made it as far as Hakata Bay before a typhoon wrecked their ships.<\/p>\n

Wary of a second attempt, the Japanese built a wall along the coast for defence, the remains of which are still visible today. Sure enough, in 1281 the Mongols tried again, this time with a vast force of some 140,000 soldiers. The wall couldn\u2019t withstand them. The samurai<\/em> on shore were outnumbered. But what\u2019s this? A second storm rolling in? To everyone\u2019s amazement, another typhoon turned up at just the right moment and scattered the Mongols\u2019 fleet.<\/p>\n

The Mongols never attempted to invade Japan again. The Japanese put the triumph down to \u201cdivine winds\u201d \u2014 kamikaze<\/em> \u2014 which is the origin of the word.<\/p>\n

5. There\u2019s really no excuse to miss your flight\u2026<\/strong>
\n\u2026 when you can get from the city center to Fukuoka Airport in just 11 minutes flat. And that\u2019s by public transport.<\/p>\n

\"no<\/p>\n

6. Tuna\u2019s a steal<\/strong>
\nA trip to the grocery store will cost you less in Fukuoka than in most other Japanese cities. Here you\u2019ll find some of the lowest food prices in the country \u2014 including, at just \u00a5286 per 100 grams, Japan\u2019s cheapest tuna.<\/p>\n

\"And<\/p>\n

7. Fukuoka made Japan Zen<\/strong>
\nNext time you\u2019re sipping on a green tea and contemplating the nothingness of existence, remember that you can thank one of Fukuoka\u2019s historical characters for both. A roving Buddhist monk, Eisai, first learned about Zen \u2014 and its practitioners\u2019 favorite drink \u2014 in China during the 12th century. He returned to Kyushu bearing both Zen scriptures and tea seeds. He would go on to found Japan\u2019s first Zen temple: Shofukuji in Hakata. The temple continues to train monks to this day \u2014 and still practices one of the oldest forms of tea ceremony in Japan.<\/p>\n

8. Every Fukuokan has just enough beach to dip a toe<\/strong>
\nFukuoka City boasts an impressive 133.6 kilometers \u2014 83 miles \u2014 of seashore. That works out at 9.1 centimeters per inhabitant. We\u2019re calling dibs on the golden sands of Ikinomatsubara.<\/p>\n

9. Eat out every night for the next 25 years<\/strong>
\nWith 4.2 restaurants for every 1,000 people, Fukuoka is second only to Tokyo for the highest concentration of restaurants in Japan. In fact, in those terms it beats Singapore, New York, Hong Kong and most other major cities in the world. TripAdvisor currently lists 9,398 restaurants in Fukuoka \u2014 which means that if you dined at a different one every day, it would take you around 25 years to try them all.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d also have to eat a heck of a lot of motsunabe<\/em>, the offal hotpot that\u2019s a specialty of Fukuoka: the city has more motsunabe<\/em> restaurants per capita than any other Japanese city. It\u2019s also got the second most gyoza<\/em> restaurants, the third most ramen<\/em> restaurants and, more surprisingly, Japan\u2019s highest concentration of Spanish and Mexican restaurants.<\/p>\n

\"eat<\/p>\n

10. Fukuoka is no place to be a chicken<\/strong>
\nFukuokans are Japan\u2019s biggest chicken-eaters, with each household purchasing an average of 21,446 grams of the meat per year. And that\u2019s just the stuff they cook at home: Fukuoka has some 660 restaurants that specialize in yakitori<\/em> \u2014 grilled chicken skewers \u2014 to feed the city\u2019s poultry habit.<\/p>\n

\"no<\/p>\n

11. Centuries at sea<\/strong>
\nHakata has centuries of history as one of Japan\u2019s most important ports. In the 12th century, it was the heart of Japan\u2019s trade with China, and by the 17th, it was a point of entry for the earliest European seafarers, who marked it on their first maps of Japan as \u201cFacata\u201d. Today the port welcomes more long-distance travelers than any other in Japan, hitting a high of more than 1 million ocean-liner passengers in 2015.<\/p>\n

\"centuries<\/p>\n

12. A young city<\/strong>
\nFukuoka has one of the sprightliest populations in Japan: 19.5 percent of its residents \u2014 nearly one in five \u2014 are aged between 15 and 29. And there are more on the way. With 9.6 new babies per 1,000 people, Fukuoka has one of Japan\u2019s highest birth rates.<\/p>\n

13. Fukuokans are always immaculately groomed<\/strong>
\nOr at least, we should be. The city has the highest concentration of beauty salons of any Japanese metropolis: 8.38 for every 10,000 female residents. And women certainly aren\u2019t the only ones visiting them, as a glance at the ads for men\u2019s shaves, facials, massages and \u2014 gulp \u2014 body waxing will prove.<\/p>\n

\"beauty\"<\/p>\n

14. Sumo wrestle blindfold? A Fukuokan can!<\/strong>
\nEvery year in early December, a sumo<\/em> wrestling match takes place at the Masue Goro Inari Shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture \u2014 with a difference. These wrestlers are fully clothed, for a start. And they\u2019re women. And they\u2019re blindfolded. No one\u2019s entirely sure where the tradition comes from, but it\u2019s supposed to symbolize life\u2019s uncertainty and struggles, as well as the importance of relying on others for help. Why only women, though? Apparently because men\u2019s egos would get in the way.<\/p>\n

15. From toilet to tank<\/strong>
\nSince March 2015, Fukuoka is home to the world\u2019s first hydrogen refueling station powered by\u2026 sewage. That\u2019s right: the city collects wastewater, separates out the sludge (genuine technical term), allows it to ferment and turns the resulting gas into hydrogen \u2014 which can then be used to power clean cars. The process produces enough hydrogen to refill around 65 fuel cell vehicles every day.<\/p>\n

\"from<\/p>\n

16. Somewhere to sing about<\/strong>
\nFukuoka provided the unexpected inspiration for one of the biggest Latin music hits of recent years: Bachata en Fukuoka by the Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra. He penned it after performing here in 2010: so surprised was he by the crowd\u2019s enthusiasm \u2014 apparently they knew all the words and even more impressively, all the dance moves \u2014 that he wrote a tribute.<\/p>\n

17. Fukuoka has Japan\u2019s crappiest museum (literally)<\/strong>
\nWe don\u2019t mean it\u2019s bad. In fact, we\u2019re pretty proud of it. It\u2019s Japan\u2019s only museum dedicated to\u2026 toilets. As anyone who\u2019s used the high-tech facilities here will know, Japanese toilets are a wonder to behold (and bestride). Toto, the company that invented the famous built-in bidet model \u2014 and the world\u2019s largest loo-maker \u2014 has had its headquarters in Fukuoka Prefecture for nearly a century, and last year it opened a museum to document its achievements. Attractions include some of the earliest flush toilets, an extra-wide model designed for sumo<\/em> wrestlers and famous bathrooms that once served the prime minister\u2019s office and state guest house in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

18. Startup central<\/strong>
\nJapan isn\u2019t especially known for its startup scene, but Fukuoka is doing its best to change that. The city already has the highest rate of new startups in Japan (7 percent) and, by offering incentives that include Japan\u2019s first and only Startup Visa for foreign entrepreneurs, it hopes to attract even more. So far, made-in-Fukuoka ventures include Ikkai, a \u201ctask marketplace\u201d where students sell their services, and anect, developer of a flea market app.<\/p>\n

\"start<\/p>\n

19. Our baseball stadium is the stuff of science fiction<\/strong>
\nFukuoka\u2019s Yahuoku! Dome, home of the SoftBank Hawks, isn\u2019t always a dome: its glittering roof can be retracted to convert it into an open-air arena. When it was built in 1993, it was the first stadium in Japan to feature the mechanism, which explains why it made it into a science-fiction film. The Dome has a cameo in the 1995 monster movie Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, when scientists lure man-eating pterodactyls inside the open-topped stadium in order to close the roof and trap them inside. (Closing the roof in real life takes around 20 minutes, so we assume they took some artistic license.)<\/p>\n

20. Japan\u2019s second Valentine\u2019s Day began here<\/strong>
\nIf you\u2019re new to Japan, you may not be aware that here we celebrate romance twice a year: once on Valentine\u2019s Day, like the rest of the world, and then again exactly one month later. March 14 is White Day: the day that men reciprocate the Valentine\u2019s gifts given to them by women. The tradition reportedly has its roots in Fukuoka, where, in 1977, local confectioner Ishimura Manseido dubbed March 14 \u201cMarshmallow Day\u201d and began marketing the gooey white candy specifically to male customers as a gift for the lady in their life.<\/p>\n

21. Commuting\u2019s a breeze…<\/strong>
\nThe average Fukuokan spends a mere 34.5 minutes getting to work or school each day \u2014 that\u2019s a precious four minutes less than the nationwide average. Hey, a lot can happen in four minutes.<\/p>\n

\"commuting\"<\/p>\n

22. Home of the world\u2019s heaviest strawberry<\/strong>
\nSeriously. It weighed a whopping 250 grams, measured 25-30 centimeters around and was grown by Koji Nakao of Fukuoka in January 2015. He holds the Guinness World Record to this day (as for the strawberry, Nakao let his daughter eat it; she says it was delicious).<\/p>\n

Compiled by Jessica Phelan
\nMost facts and all the illustrations presented here were sourced from the \u201cFukuoka Facts\u201d website: http:\/\/facts.city.fukuoka.lg.jp\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally published in Fukuoka Now Magazine (fn211<\/a>, Jul. 2016)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Fukuoka! You might not know it, but you\u2019re in the city of startups, salons, sci-fi stadiums, strangely large strawberries and, um, snazzy sewage treatment. Whether you\u2019re a first-time visitor or a long-time local, there are always more things to discover that make Fukuoka fabulous. Read on for some facts about our fair city that you won\u2019t find in a guidebook….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"87976","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-others","location-fukuoka-prefecture","en-US"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/trivia-header.jpg?fit=650%2C341&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99426,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87976\/revisions\/99426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}