~2h — the round trip from the gangway, with the 60-minute margin kept aside.
Tap a photo to see it large. 5 photographs, each credited.
A decorated Yamakasa float stands here all year. In July, one-tonne versions are raced five kilometres through the city starting at 4:59 in the morning, by teams that have trained for it since childhood.
One tonne, five kilometres, at 4:59 in the morning
Kushida is the shrine of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa, a festival running since 1241 in which teams race one-tonne floats through the city at dawn. One decorated float stands at the shrine year-round, which is the only way to see the craft without being here in July.
On 15 July, at four fifty-nine in the morning, a one-tonne float leaves Kushida Shrine carried at a run by twenty-six men, with hundreds more rotating in along a five-kilometre course. Seven teams follow at five-minute intervals. It is over by six, and it has run for roughly 780 years.
Hakata’s tutelary shrine, traditionally dated to 757, and the anchor of the city’s merchant half. A decorated Yamakasa float — a tower of figures several storeys high — stands in the grounds all year, replaced each summer, so you can see the thing whatever month you arrive.
In July the racing versions are different: stripped down, about a tonne each, and carried at a run over five kilometres through the city starting at 4:59 in the morning on the fifteenth. UNESCO listed the festival in 2016. The teams are neighbourhood associations and men train for it from childhood.
A monk carried through a plague-stricken town
And still do
Up to ten metres, and photographed by everyone
One tonne, five kilometres, seven teams
Whatever month you arrive, go to Kushida Shrine — a full decorated float stands there all year.
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare on a 6-hour stop ashore.
Yes. A full decorated float stands in the grounds of Kushida Shrine all year and is replaced each summer, so the object is visible whatever month your ship calls. The racing floats — about a tonne each, carried at a run — only appear from 1 to 15 July.
A festival running 1–15 July in which neighbourhood teams race one-tonne floats five kilometres through Fukuoka, with the final run starting at 4:59 in the morning on the fifteenth. UNESCO inscribed it in 2016, and the teams are community associations whose members train for it from childhood.
Each one is a finished day we have walked and timed, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
3 hr 30 min for bothSpicy cod roe, brought from Korea and reinvented in this city in 1949.
See the detail →
3 hr 30 min for bothJapan’s largest seated wooden Buddha, over ten metres, with a dark walk-through passage beneath it representing hell.
See the detail →
4 hr for bothPork bone boiled until it emulsifies, thin straight noodles that cook in seconds, and kaedama — a second helping of noodles dropped into the broth you have left.
See the detail →No typing needed — jump straight in:
Just docked? — the gangway toolStart from your shipThe ride from every berthAsk the editorGlossary