FUKUOKA is home to Japan's most highly paid female singer, the waif-like Ayumi Hamasaki, and the heady aroma of tonkatsu ramen, or pork bone broth with noodles, is pervasive on its streets. But there is much more to this breezy port city of 1.5 million people, and capital of Kyushu island, than just these.
Fukuoka's JR Hakata station is the last stop on the Sanyo Shinkansen (bullet train) route, which begins in Tokyo.
But few travellers regard it as the proverbial "end of the line".
The city is more a gateway than terminus - an international airport handles flights to 20 major Asian cities and is only 10 minutes by train from downtown, and a hydrofoil service delivers passengers to South Korea's Busan in under three hours.
Fukuoka grew from two independent cities: a port town called Hakata run by merchants, and a town ruled by the samurai, called Fukuoka. And though they merged in 1889 and took the name "Fukuoka", each district has retained a piece of its original character.
Hakata is still the financial hub and home to lively entertainment quarters, while "old Fukuoka", which lies across the Nakasu River, is known as Tenjin and brims with up-market department stores, restaurants and chic bars.
However, it is not until you boarda city bus and head for the seaside district of Momochi, 30 minutes away, that
a real tale of two cities unfolds.
Beyond Tenjin and the docks of Hakata Port over a pan-flat expanse of reclaimed land, a new city has emerged
in the past decade. The spacious leafy streets lined with sleek and curiouslyshaped buildings here are Fukoka's
answer to Tokyo's Odaiba and Kobe's Rokko Island reclamation projects, albeit with some unique differences.
One of the first things you notice is the lack of overhead wiring. Hakata and Tenjin's streets are strung with
telephone and electricity wires, but in Momochi, high-speed optical fiber networks are neatly tucked away underground - a rarity in Japanese cities.
But glimpses of the future of urban planning lie above ground. Office towers that could be spaceships, apartment
blocks that look like extra-terrestrial villages and private businesses whose vibrant colour schemes make them appear almost edible - these are the designs of some the world's most dynamic architects who have taken advantage of Fukuoka's building boom to showcase their ideas.
A leisurely 60-minute stroll along the Momochi beach shoreline will take you past the creations of Cesar Pelli, Steven Holl, Oscar Tusqu'ts, and Rem Koolhaas, to name just a few. Slicing the Hakaka Bay breeze like
a huge fin at the east end of Momochi beach is Cesar Pelli's Sea Hawk Hotel, the largest hotel in Kyushu with 1,052 guest rooms.
Pelli, who designed Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers, let wind and water themes shape his creation, adding a vast typhoon-proof glass atrium that resembles a cone shell opening on to the sea.
Doubling back towards the Sea Hawk will take you past the silver silosized modules of the Hyatt residential apartments. There is also the Baroquestyle Marizon wedding venue, which extends out on a causeway from Momochi beach.
Fukuoka Tower is another building of note on Momochi's skyline. Its swordfish-like profile and the 8,000 reflective glass panels, which resemble scales of a fish, were designed by the Japanese firm, Nikken Sekkei. You can get a 360-degree view of the city from a 123-metre-high observation deck.
Japanese film buffs may recognise the tower from the 1994 sci-fi flick Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla. And even
if you didn't, it doesn't matter - the architecture alone in Fukuoka is out of this world.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on July 31, 2008.
