Inquiring as to the whereabouts of English-language bookstores in Fukuoka, the person at the Rainbow Plaza information center's desk straightaway handed me a printout of English listings, maps and directions. This, I began to realize, is a well organized city.
Despite the riches they ooze, Japanese cities in general have not become comfortable environments in which to live — except for the very wealthy. Ordinary people must endure overcrowding, "rabbit-hutch" homes, commuter crushes and a relentless urban clamor. In the 1960s, the British architect J.M. Richards called such Japanese environments "terrifying wirescapes."
In contrast, Fukuoka strikes the visitor as a carefully reimagined city, an urban center designed for living, where the sidewalks are broad, the amenities good and the "wirescape" at a minimum.