To see each one of Fukuoka’s attractions, you’d need weeks! But with your local insider leading the way, you can go on a whirlwind experience of the city’s most iconic central districts in just eight hours. Travel through time, from ancient temples and shrines, like Tōchō-ji and Kushida, to ultra-modern streets around Naka River, where you’ll join stylish locals sipping flannel drip coffee (a Japanese specialty) at hipster Cafe Bimi. See pretty, plum tree-flanked Tenman-gū Shrine in Dazaifu, where university students pray for good results (or join students in celebrating their results at a no-frills tachinomiya standing bar). Hungry? You don’t want to miss out on Fukuoka’s rich tonkotsu ramen – and your host knows the best place to get it.

Tick off 15 items on your Fukuoka bucket list as you follow your host through the streets of the city’s central districts, from tech hub Tenjin and its yatai food stalls snaking along the Naka River sandbank to the neighboring capital of cool, Daimyo, home to vintage clothing stores and trendy twenty-somethings. Explore the city’s central park, Ōhori, visit Gokoku Shrine in restaurant-lined Ropponmatsu or see Fukuoka through your local host’s eyes three miles west in Nishijin – either high up, from Japan’s tallest seaside tower, or on the ground, trawling the traditional shop-lined streets for bargains. And if the buzzing central districts get too much? Just take a 30-minute train west to the sleepy seaside or south to lush mountains.