THE crowd at Akatan, a narrow, standing bar in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, thickened as each glass of sake and shochu was poured. By midnight, strangers had swept my husband, Dave, and me — the only Western faces in the smoky bar — into alcohol-fueled conversations that, with the language barrier, often devolved into comical pantomime. Every time we explained that we were visiting Fukuoka as tourists, the same question arose: “But why?”

Our four days in the low-key city this spring provided plenty of answers. Fukuoka has chic boutiques, laid-back bars, a fantastic high-and-low dining scene and beaches nearby. Nearly equidistant to Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul, it sits on the northern tip of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

Despite its many assets, relatively few tourists have discovered Fukuoka. But with a multitude of new transport links, that may soon change.

Cruise ships began docking in the port three years ago, joining ferries from South Korea and China. In 2011, the Kyushu Shinkansen high-speed rail line was completed, linking Fukuoka to Kagoshima, on the southern tip of Kyushu. And this year, two new low-cost airlines, Peach Aviation and AirAsia Japan, have started flying to Fukuoka from Osaka and Tokyo, respectively.