Lonely Planet Review

A five-minute walk from Hakata station brings you to another of Fukuoka's architectural showpieces, with the postmodern theme extending to spacious well-appointed rooms and lounges. A park with modern sculpture opposite the entrance seems like a perfect extension of the hotel.

Built in 1993 during the last days of the Japanese economic bubble, the Hyatt Regency exemplifies just how much fun imaginative architects with big budgets can have. The circular theme begins in the marble and wood lobby where the hotel's first four floors are visible beneath a natural skylight. Rooms are spare and modernist, with large beds, satellite TV, two phone lines and Internet access. The hotel's 248 rooms are divided between standard twins, larger deluxe rooms with queen and king-sized beds on the upper floors and several junior and executive suites. Every floor has a lounge for hotel guests only, stocked with drinks and reading materials. A 1st-floor bar called the Rotunda continues the circular theme. Two swank restaurants offer Japanese or European fare.