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Fukuoka's second-largest festival, drawing up to a million spectators, is famous for the Oiyama parade float race. The elaborately-decorated yamakasa floats, around 5 m tall and weighing up to 1 t, have no wheels; they're picked up and carried by teams of loincloth-clad men, each team representing one of the seven historic districts of Hakata. The race takes place on July 15; teams line up around 01:00, and at 04:59, drums signal teams to begin in 5-minute intervals. The 5-kilometer race takes about half an hour for the fastest teams. Much larger kazariyama floats, which are up to 13 m tall, are on display at street corners across the city, and are displayed indoors for the remainder of the year.
This area is next to Tenjin and is Fukuoka's red-light district, with over 3500 restaurants, as well as ramen stalls (yatai), shopping, pubs, hostess bars, rooftop beer gardens in summer, one surviving movie theater, and sex trade. The neon lights on the Naka River are famous with over 60,000 visitors a day, and it has the busiest street in Kyushu.
This area has several historical shrines and Buddhist temples, including:
The 8th-century Kushida Shrine is starting point for the annual Gion-Yamakasa Festival.
It has a 10.8-m wooden Great Buddha.
Japan's first Zen temple.
The ACROS building has a terraced roof that merges with the park and contains some 35,000 plants representing 76 species. It is 809 steps to the top. Just east of ACROS is the former Prefectural Guest House, featuring turn-of-the-century architecture.