1 / 6Motsunabe and gomasabaPhoto: pelican from Tokyo, Japan / CC BY-SA 2.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 6 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Offal hotpot in a garlic-and-chive broth, and raw mackerel dressed in sesame. Mackerel is normally cooked because it spoils fast; this city is close enough to the boats to serve it raw. Ooyama’s main store opens at 16:00, so the hotpot suits a late sailing.
- 3 hr door to door needs a 5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Motsunabe and gomasaba is famous
Motsunabe is a hotpot of beef offal, cabbage and garlic that started as cheap post-war food and became the thing Fukuoka orders when it is cold. Gomasaba, raw mackerel in sesame, is the other local peculiarity: mackerel spoils fast, so most of Japan cooks it, and Fukuoka serves it raw because it comes in so fresh.
Three places, three different answers
The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.
The name most visitors are sent to, with miso and soy versions of the same pot. Opens at 16:00, so it suits a late sailing.
Open in Google MapsWhere locals goMotsunabe Rakutenchiもつ鍋 楽天地A mountain of garlic chives on top and a much older Fukuoka feel.
Open in Google MapsClosest to the berthHakata Motsunabe Yamanaka博多もつ鍋 やま中Near the station, and the one that tends to convert people who were unsure about offal.
Open in Google MapsRoutes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
Eat · ~2.5hA yatai on Nakasu, after dark
Around a hundred licensed street stalls — the majority of every yatai left in Japan — set up at dusk on the river and are gone by dawn.
See the detail
Eat · ~2hHakata tonkotsu ramen
Pork 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.
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See · ~4hDazaifu Tenmangu
Sugawara no Michizane was exiled here in 901 and died two years later; a series of disasters in the capital convinced the court he had become a god.
See the detail