Play, Eat, and Have Fun in this Popular Recuperation Spot, [Tenjin Chuo Park]!

Tenjin Chuo (translating to central) is a park that can be found to the East of the Fukuoka City Hall and the South of the ACROS Building. In recent years this little oasis of green in the middle of the city has become known for its proximity to the aforementioned buildings as well as the Meiji era Kihinkan (or distinguished guest house) and the new store in Nishi Nakasu, Hareno Garden.

Opened in August of 2019, Hareno Garden is divided up into an East and West portion. It features a popular bakery and coffee shop and is popular for those looking for a place to relax.

With the words FUKUOKA placed in front of the Kihinkan, this is a highly popular photo spot!

Hareno Garden: making picnics easy since 2019

Hareno Garden features 4 highly regarded cafes and restaurants, each of them providing diners a view to accompany their snack or meal. However, since many of the stores offer take out, why not pick something up to go and head over to the river for a light picnic?

TOFFEE Park is one of these stores, and is a café and bar set up by the popular tofu specialists at Mihara Tofu. In this case TOFFEE refers not to the confection, but to their specialties of tofu and coffee.

As this play on words suggests, they primarily sell a variety of healthy sweets and drinks and use high quality soy milk and other tofu-related products.

TOFFEEpark
Tel: 092-791-9839
Business hours: 10:00-22:00 (Food L.O. 21:00, Drink L.O. 21:30), Sunday 10:00-18:00 (L.O. 17:30), On Holidays 10:00-20:00 (L.O. 19:30)
Closed on Mondays

One of the other stores in the line-up is a restaurant by the name of Noodle Café de Meikyo Shisui, who, as their name suggests, function as a both a high-end purveyor of ramen noodles and café. Their ramen dashi is a light but umami-laden broth of bonito fish, kombu, and shiitake mushrooms, and apart from ramen they also offer sweets such as parfaits. They have a take-out menu available, so feel free to ask the staff when you come in!

Noodle Café de Meikyo Shisui
TEL: 092-401-1372
Business hours: 10:00~22:00 (L.O. 21:30)
Closed: Mondays

The next restaurant on the list is called A TAVOLA!!, and it is the branch location of SACCO, a popular Southern Italian restaurant in the Ohashi area of the city. The food on offer attempts to capture the essence of a sea-facing villa in southern Italy, the menu featuring an assortment of pastas, main courses, and appetizers. Enjoy the rustic flavors of Italian home cooking!

A TAVOLA!!
Tel: 092-231-8866
Business hours: 11:30 ~ 14:30, 17:30~22:00 (hours may vary at times)
Holidays: Monday and Tuesday

Lines at this store are almost as much of a surety as the excellent bread and coffee on offer at Pain Stock, a member of the Stock chain of bakery-cafés that is already quite renowned throughout Japan for sandwiches like its “mentaiko france”. Together with Coffee County they opened up this collaborative coffee shop and bakery. Please be aware that when they sell out they close the store!

Stock
Tel: 092-406-5178
Business hours: 8:00~19:00 (closes upon selling out)
Holidays: Monday and the first and third Tuesdays of the month.

Enjoying the streets of Hakata… by boat?

A recent addition to the Tenjin Chuo Park, this is a new way to do some sightseeing in the area. Departing from the wharf at the foot of the Fukuhashi Deai Bridge is a river boating service doing trips through Nakasu up to Hakata Bay.

Almost every day the Nakasu cruise runs from 11:00 to 21:00, with 15 boats in that time while the Hakata Bay cruise offers 2 trips per day between 17:00 and 19:00. Daytime and Evening have their respective charms: if you depart in the day you can enjoy a refreshing view of the city during the day, while at night the Nakasu cityscape transforms into a bright world of neon lights.

The nighttime cruise offers passengers a truly spectacular sea of lights to feast their eyes upon.

Views of Canal City Hakata, yatai lining the streets, Paypay Dome, and Fukuoka Tower are all visible from the boat, so why not join and get a new perspective on these places?