Clear the Hakata Local Quiz and earn the Hakata Local title. Want to know Hakata even better, or already confident? The tougher courses are next.
When someone asks "totto to?", would you answer without missing a beat? The Hakata quiz stretches from tonkotsu ramen, the kaedama refill and the culture of the yatai stalls to the Hakata Gion Yamakasa and Dontaku festivals, from shrines and temples like Kushida Jinja and Shofukuji to the gold seal and the Mongol invasions, and on to place names like Zasshonokuma that stop first-time readers cold. The handiwork of Hakata-ori weaving and Hakata dolls waits somewhere among the questions. Beneath many of them runs the tale of two towns, merchant Hakata and samurai Fukuoka. Before you sprint like the Oiyama, take one breath with the practice questions.
Q1.Known as a specialty of Fukuoka and Hakata, what is the food made by curing Alaska pollock roe in chili pepper?
Kazunoko (herring roe)
Karashi mentaiko (spicy cod roe)
Ikura (salmon roe)
Tobiko (flying-fish roe)
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerKarashi mentaiko (spicy cod roe)
Karashi mentaiko is Alaska pollock roe cured in a chili-laced marinade. Rooted in Korean food culture, it was refashioned in postwar Hakata to suit Japanese tastes and became a local specialty — now a fixture on rice bowls and in souvenir shops alike.
Q2.Known as a hallmark of summer in Hakata, which spirited festival features 'kakiyama' floats racing through the city?
Hakata Gion Yamakasa
Hakata Dontaku
Hojoya
Hakata Okunchi
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerHakata Gion Yamakasa
Hakata Gion Yamakasa offers decorated floats to Hakata's guardian sanctuary, as a hallmark of Hakata's summer. A nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, it was inscribed by UNESCO in 2016 among Japan's float festivals. One origin story traces it to a Kamakura-era prayer against plague.
Q3.In Fukuoka City, what are the mobile food stalls that line the streets at night called?
Asaichi (morning market)
Yatai (food stall)
Yomise (night stall)
Demise (festival booth)
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerYatai (food stall)
Fukuoka is Japan's yatai capital, said to hold roughly forty percent of the country's street stalls. At dusk they assemble along Nakasu, Tenjin and Nagahama, serving ramen, oden and yakitori shoulder-to-shoulder. A pioneering 2013 city ordinance protects the stalls as civic assets.
Q4.During Hakata Gion Yamakasa, which summer vegetable are those involved in the festival said to avoid eating?
Cucumber
Eggplant
Tomato
Okra
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerCucumber
During Hakata Gion Yamakasa, participants traditionally avoid eating cucumber, said to be because its cut cross-section resembles the gion crest (mokko) of Kushida Shrine, the festival's home shrine.
Q5.At the climax of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa, which event takes place in the early morning of July 15?
Oiyama
Nagare-gaki
O-shioi-tori
Shudan Yamamise
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerOiyama
Oiyama is Yamakasa's climax. At 4:59 a.m. on July 15, a great drum sends the first float charging into Kushida Shrine; after the singing of 'Iwai Medeta' it bursts out into the streets. Each team runs a course of roughly five kilometers in around half an hour, against the clock.
