Some of the coolest places in Fukuoka

September 9, 2023

🎉 NativShark released 4 Units, including Unit 100 of Phase Three this week 🎉

Combine that with the 166 Units in Phase One and the 347 Units in Phase Two, and that's 613 complete packages of Japanese learning material that will help you break down the barriers of Japanese used every day, with more being made every week.

Anyway, the lesson in Unit 100 is about Hakata Dialect and I'm pretty excited to have it on NativShark because it's what I'm always speaking with my friends here in Fukuoka ^^

Go check out the lesson here and...

...don't forget to press that → → Study Now ← ← button!! Showing up is the most important step

Once you go learn the dialect you'll be all set to make friends here, but where should you go once you reach Fukuoka?

Some of my favorite places in Fukuoka

Wandering in Tenjin and Daimyo

There are some really cool 商店街しょうてんがい (shopping streets) in Tenjin which include 新天町しんてんちょう (Shintencho) and the 地下街ちかがい (Chikagai) which are both located very close to the subway station 天神駅てんじんえき (Tenjin Station).

If you're walking around randomly after getting off at 天神駅, you should be able to find them and many more places to shop around without too much of a problem, so just wander and enjoy ^^

That said, you do have to make sure you make your way to 大名だいみょう (Daimyo) which is a really unique-looking area of Fukuoka:

By the way, Fukuoka is known for its delicious food Ty spelled this emoji incorrectly. @ him in our discord xD

I've talked to a lot of people, Japanese and not, and the general consensus in my experience leans towards Fukuoka being the overall tastiest prefecture 👀

It's difficult to go wrong no matter what restaurant you walk into.

Daimyo is no exception. All of the restaurants are good choices.

Whether it's ケバブ (kebab) which you can see on the flag on the right side of the above picture, or even Mexican food from Fukuoka Craft, which is a fantastic brewery and restaurant in Daimyo.

Make sure you get the french fries there, they're insanely good. We always end up getting a second plate whenever I go with friends ^^;

Japanese food is also on the menu though! There's some really good 焼やき鳥とり (skewered chicken), along with plentiful 居酒屋いざかや (izakaya) and 焼肉やきにく (Japanese barbecue) places in Daimyo too.

Daimyo is definitely the hangout area of the city by the way. If you go there at night, it'll be completely different than if you went there for lunch, for example.

Most places are open mostly at night as well, so that might explain it haha.

Canal City

Canal City is a mall with free water shows.

Sometimes there are performers or they'll project an anime video on the glass to the left and have the jets shoot out water synced to that as well!

It's a really fun time especially in December when there's a lot of イルミネーション (decorative lights) all around.

By the way, the top floor here has ramen from all over Japan, so go check that out if you're curious.

If you’re in Fukuoka though, you need to try the 豚骨とんこつラーメン (pork bone broth ramen) as it's one of Fukuoka's famous dishes.

There's a type that you'll see called 博多はかたラーメン (Hakata ramen) as well so you should go for that if you see it.*

*I will be honest and say I prefer the miso ramen I found in Hakata station to the ramen I found in Canal City though hehe

Marine World / Umi no Nakamichi

マリンワールド海うみの中道なかみち (Marine World Umi no Nakamichi) is an aquarium here that's nice ^^

Resisting my urge to overload this email with pictures, there's a dolphin and sea lion show along with a lot of really cool exhibits.

They have another exhibit full of jellyfish and they use lighting that make them look so cool, you have to see it.

Once you're done with that, you can go to the nearby Umi no Nakamichi Park and walk around there. They have tons of gardens and lots of beautiful areas to walk around.

You can even rent multi-person bicycles, electric scooters, and segways to get around the park quickly or just enjoy the ride.

Big recommend from me.

Be sure to look around to see what flowers are blooming and make sure you don't miss them like I did on my first time there! There will be signs and stuff everywhere for them, and it'll be on the pamphlets as well.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There's also Ohori Park, Maizuru Park, Itoshima, Dazaifu shrine + other cool shrines, lots of hiking spots, beaches, La La Port… I could go on forever.

So if you want more suggestions for things to do in Fukuoka, let us know by replying to this email!

I hope you enjoy Fukuoka^^

Weekly writing prompt:

You're planning a trip to Fukuoka soon and are excited to tell your friend who is from there. You send them a text letting them know you'll be visiting and ask them a question or two.

Post your responses here and let's talk about them! I'll answer what I can in Hakata dialect and we can have some fun ^^

Feel free to ask for help if you want to say something specific as well. Both myself and other students will be in there offering advice and help~

By the way, I also made a channel for requesting situations that you would like to practice and share your Japanese with, so please feel free to make suggestions for future writing prompts here.

Some cool Japanese

Let's get some 博多弁はかたべん (Hakata dialect) in here:

This comes from Unit 100 in Phase Three, in the Hakata Dialect lesson.

There's an explanation of what all these words are based on in the lesson so you can understand them easily.

If the above Japanese is too difficult for you, all you need to do is keep hitting the Study Now button, and you'll understand it when you get there. Especially when using a study resource like NativShark, you'll be fine as long as you show up as much as you can.

NativShark goodie bag

The content team released 4 new Phase Three Units this week.

We're now in the triple digits for Phase Three~

New Phase Three Units

Unit 100

Contains the lesson:
Hakata dialect (← This lesson makes me happy )

New Podcasts Episodes:

The Konnichiwa Podcast

New Jingle? -Spotify

Hope you enjoy Fukuoka ^^
Ty