MEDIUM RARE

Fukuoka, Japan’s sixth largest city. Laid back, compared with the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, or with the touristy Osaka. Fukuoka, call letters FUK, gateway to Japan.

We landed in Fukuoka, too late to catch the cherry pink of the season of cherry blossoms, too early to earn a glimpse of the golden flame of autumn. Which is not to say that the weather was not lyrical in its own way.  For there was just enough sun, mellow, and enough chill in the air, coolish, to make every day of our five days there a real escape from the “habagat” monsoon threatening the Philippines.

I counted exactly five Caucasians and no more, all looking like tourists, in Gu, one of the bigger shopping malls. In the restaurant where we had ramen and mackerel, a group of pretty girls in flowing robes, seemingly from the Middle East, were toasting one another with cups of tea. And still I wondered what kind of an appropriate dessert would be available, there being no menu in English on hand.

What to do in Fukuoka? For nature trippers, a forest of mountains and valleys lies north of the city, less than an hour away by car. Surrounded by trees, sky-high bamboo and wild flowers, the visitor is reduced to silence; even the coffee shop is quiet.

Shopping for clothes was out of the question as all the fashion merchandise on display were for autumn and winter. Which was okay with me, because I was more interested in looking for gift-wrapping paper – three or four years ago a design I found so enchanting was good enough to be framed like a painting, and it was, for since then, it has been hanging on one wall in the living room.

Actually, what I like most about shopping in Japan is its paper products – note pads, diaries, cards, stationery, origami paper even for those like me who don’t know what to make of it or with it.

Thus my luggage weighed just about the same coming home as going there. Plus, I had a nice time chatting with the PAL pilots, whom I thanked for an A-plus landing in the rain. Moreover, Capt. Paulino de Andes and Capt. Angelica Sy were “guapo” and “guapa,” and I told them so.