Shopping centre with an indoor water canal, dancing fountains, cinemas and ramen restaurants; free access.
Canal City Hakata is the most original shopping centre in Fukuoka and one of the most striking in Japan: a complex of 250 shops, restaurants, hotels, a theatre and a cinema built in 1996 around an artificial water canal 180 metres long that runs through the centre of the building. The design by architect Jon Jerde turns the interior space into a kind of city within the city, with colourful facades, terraces over the canal and a central dancing fountain that puts on water-and-light shows every hour. The complex has a floor of restaurants specialising entirely in ramen, with a dozen establishments of different styles (hakata, sapporo, tokyo, kyoto) to compare the different regional broths of Japan. The Amphitheatre fountain is the favourite meeting point of the people of Fukuoka: semicircular steps descending to the canal with room for 2.000 spectators at the free concerts and cultural events. Access to the shopping centre is free. It is a ten-minute walk from Hakata station or on the direct bus from Tenjin station.
