May travels- Final leg - Fukuoka

Fukuoka, a.k.a. Hakata is located on the South Western tip of Kyushu island and is physically nearer to Korea than Tokyo. Unfortunately (for me), Malaysian Airlines does not fly there. So I ended up taking a flight from KL to Singapore Changi and then a past midnite flight to Fukuoka. Not sure why travel desk arranged for me to spend up to 7 hours in Changi airport, so I ended up admiring the orchids in the garden within the airport. KLIA also boasts of a similar garden within the terminal, but it is out of bounds to travellers. Changi has the garden in an open space and many travellers were seen taking photographs amidst the orchids and other greeenery. And there is an O'Briens outlet in Changi - but for my Muslim friends, I don't think it is halal. I am sure the crispy turkey ham that Malaysian outlets served was originally pork bacon in the O'Briens outlets outside of Malaysia.

The team meeting that I had in Fukuoka went well. All the team members participated actively, providing animated discussions and seeking clarifications. But what the hell, a picture paints a thousand words - so here are a few thousand words to show where my team went - mainly Shinto shrines. First thing we learn is that before entering Shinto Shrines, you need to wash your hands and rinse your mouth in the watering whatchamacallit strategically placed outside the shrine. We visited 2 different shrines and at both, there were statues of a bull placed near to the entrance. Was this a precursor to the stock market? Merrill Lynch in Wall Street copied this and added the Bear? Who knows?

Also visited a Hakata museum ( Hakata Machiya Folk Museum to be precise) and some of the statues there are so lifelike. Don't believe ah?? see here and here. heh heh

Last but not least, my Japanese colleagues brought us for seafood. He says, the seafood is very fresh. But you wouldn't believe how fresh!!! We had most of the seafood sashimi style and when they say fresh, they mean fresh!!.

When the squid was served, it was so fresh that when you poked at it with one end of the chopsticks, there were muscle spasms (maybe even from the diners!!). The poor thing was looking at us eating parts of it's body. We had 3 different types of fish served sashimi style and for 2 of them, parts of the head and tails were still moving. The red headed fish looks like one ugly toad. Its mouth was still gasping open and close. The gills was still trying to flap. If you could understand fish language, it may probaly be saying " why are you eating me? put me out of my misery"

The darker color fish (supposedly a snapper) tail was still waving about even as we took slices of it's body, dipped in soy sauce and wasabe and savoring it's exquisitely fresh taste. Some years ago (like more than a decade ago), there was a hue and cry when in Malaysia, a restaurant served up fried fish where the head of the fish was still alive. If we had served what I had in Fukuoka, in Malaysia, I am sure many animal right activists would probably be so disgusted as to bring the press in to build up vocal opposition to such a practice.

Before I end this blog, I would like to highlight one practice in Japan that should be emulated by all countries and everyone - the culture of recycling. Waste are sorted by recyclable categories. People actively walk when they can and use bicylces to move around if they could. Bicycles are made by famous automobile manufacturers like Peugeot, Chevrolet and would you believe it - even Hummer. That's the civilian version of a Humvee.The Hummer is a dream possession of many a nouveau rich in China. So I would like to end this blog to show my Chinese colleague with his dream hummer!! Aixin - buy one and bring it home. You will be the envy of many Chinese.