As for balex, he had this big "Meron Pan"(Melon Bun). Such buns were always this big in Japan.
Our breakfast was taken in Shinkansen, this time to Yamaguchi(山口
The bun was so inviting for fred to steal a bite.
Anyway, according to what we've planned, we were to take the shinkansen to Asa, before switching to another train for another place(I forgot the name already). However, upon reaching Asa, we realised that the train that we were supposed to take would only be coming at.. a few hours later.Yes, all arrival timings for ALL trains in Japan are listed for passengers.
While thinking of what to do at the station, we were quite amazed by how deserted the place we were at was. We had actually travelled to the suburbs, where it wasnt really profitable to set up train stations for this handful bunch of passengers.Frustrated by the long wait, we amended our trip, n travelled to Shimonoseki(下関
Finally, we set our feet on the land of Shimonoseki, the largest wholesale market for Fugu(otherwise known as Pufferfish/Porcupinefish/Blowfish) in Japan. For the story on the notorious fugu meat, u can read up on it from wiki.
Being best known for this 'fatal' delicacy, the gates of the train station were decorated with such cartoons to welcome passengers.. 
Plenty of fugu related food were available for fugu-lovers to buy back home too..
We walked around the area for a 'popular' fugu restaurant, but most of the shops were closed. Thinking about how dangerous it was to eat at restaurants which might not prepare fugu properly, we decided to opt for a restaurant found in a shopping centre nearby. Look how creative my pose was! ^_^
Again, the same with whale meat, we tried 3 types of cooking methods. This is tempura..
The 'katsu' method of cooking..
and this was mine! Fugu sashimi! Fugu sashimi, were all sliced to the extent that you can see the design of the saucer beneath.
This was perhaps my most daring bite of my life. If the poison of the fugu attacks a human, it was said that the person can DIE in 10 seconds. I had called my parents the previous night, and i think i msged my sis as well. If anything happened to me, this was to be last shot of me alive too.
Fortunately, I survived the meal. The fugu cartoons could be seen everywhere on the plates n bowls.
The fugu shop was also the place where we received the BEST service in Japan. Everytime when the waitress(a young one) came by to serve our food, or to take back the plates, she would say 'Shitsure shimasu', meaning 'excuse me'. Anyone experienced that in SG before?After lunch, we were to take a train to somewhere(i forgot the name again), supposedly the nearest we could get, of a view of Sea of Japan. The train we took terminated at this particular station, and we were to switch to another train. Unfortunately, after 1.5hours of waiting, the train never came. We were told that a bus would be catered to bring us to our destination.After 1.5hours of fruitless waiting, we still managed to force a smile out.
Anyway, as we were waiting during the 1.5hours, fred happened to 'talk' to this ah-pek. He he's the one sitting nearest to the door in the picture below. He mumbled on n on in Japanese, thinking that fred understood, only to realise that we were actually 'Gaijin'(foreigners). He even surprised us by showing that he knew 1 to 10, in Mandarin. Oh, look at the stunned faces of the passengers in the station too. By the way, most of them were elders, and our lives, for a moment, slowed down.
A picture of the small yet beautiful train station. Look at fred's 'irritated' look in the picture.. haha
Bored to tears, we started exploring the vicinity, and this was a 'garden' we spotted nearby. I'm a flower boy! :X
I probably stole the limelight from the flowers, so.. here were some close-up pictures of the beautiful flowers..
We decided against travelling to that unknown station, but still managed to take a picture with the Sea of Japan fortunately, at this station.
Yet another change/addition to our itinerary. We travelled all the way to Kyuushuu(九州)! If u don't know where it is(I didn't know b4 i went there), it's actually an island west of Honshu, the island that we were travelling for the entire trip. It's way out of our entire trip, but our JR pass really helped, in subsidizing our unplanned part of the trip. Our shinkansen terminated at Hakata(博多), and i took a picture with this building, to 'prove' my landing in Kyuushuu.
It was near dinner time, and we 'randomly' chose this ramen shop.
Balex said that the shop sold 'sapporo ramen', which sounds wierd. Sapporo is located in Hokkaido, on the extreme east of Japan. The shop owner is an obasan(auntie) in her 50s(i think), and though the shop was almost empty when we entered, the ramen we had was heavenly.
After dinner, we shopped in Yodobashi Camera building(again), near to Hakata station, and it was there that I splurged for the first time on myself for this trip. I bought Panasonic FX30, endorsed by Ayumi Hamasaki. I had actually struggled quite a bit since the time i went to Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku. Cameras in Japan were sold way cheaper than in Singapore. So tempting. Though the warranty i had was valid in Japan only, but.. products made in Japan can be trusted ;) I spent $400+ for that camera, n according to my frd, it's sold at $600+ in Singapore. Good bargain i suppose?Okie, i 'cheated' death on this day, and i wouldnt want to have such a 'close' encounter with it again. I have to be responsible for my actions, and i still have a family to account to. Amazing attempt at rare foods though! Exploring suburbs where most cant speak English was also a big challenge for us! I will want to explore kyuushuu, especially Kagoshima!
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