By Andrew Bender – To know Fukuoka, you first need to know its geography. At the north end of Kyushu, Japan’s most southwestern main island, it’s the nation’s closest big city to the Asian mainland. That location has made it a trading port with Korea and China for some 2,000 years. Now in the 21st century, Fukuoka still looks both inward and outward for business, tourism and popular culture.
