The IDE-VRF study tour in the Kumamoto Prefecture has not only been beneficial, but also a memorable one. Among others, I learned about inspiration, effort, and commitment towards a vision. Kumamoto is a city full of vision, and everyone in the city is inspired towards achieving the vision. For me, Kumamoto is essentially a reflection of a true Japanese work culture where hard work, good planning, perseverance and honesty pay at the end of the day.
We arrived at the Aso-Kumamoto Airport at around 11:30 am. It rained the moment we arrived, but time was always on our side due to good planning and full cooperation by all members of the tour. After checking in at the Kumamoto Hotel Castle, we had lunch at the nearby arcade. After having lunch, we took a ride on the City train to the Kumamoto Prefectural Government Office. We were provided with a lot of materials on the Kumamoto Prefecture that helped to enhance our understanding about the social and economic activities in the prefecture. We were told about Kumamoto’s “dream” to become a designated city by April 2012 which would offer more autonomy and financial resources. The prefectural government is fully supportive of the Kumamoto City to become a designated city as it would provide overall benefits to the area. While the dream and vision were being presented, the challenges in achieving the vision were also highlighted.It was still raining the time we went back to the hotel. After resting for about 45 minutes, we gathered at the hotel lobby for dinner. We had dinner in a very cozy near-by restaurant and we had a nice and tasty dinner with a lot of food to eat. The night ended at around 8:45 pm with everyone being reminded that the next day program would start at 8 am.
The day started early on the second day of the study tour – 11/12/2009. After having breakfast, we started the journey to the Kumamoto Dairy Co-operative Association in Toshima, which is about 40 minutes drive from the hotel. We felt honoured to be received and briefed by the Chairman himself, Mr Takatoshi Yoshida. Mr Yoshida highlighted several plans for expansion and how the market perceived their products. At the same time, he also highlighted several challenges that the co-operative faced in doing the business such as the custom procedural complications in expanding overseas.
Our next destination was the Kumamoto Prefectural Kikuchi High School which was established since 1908. The school which had its centennial celebration last year was recently re-built by incorporating the eco-friendly concept. In fact, the school is aiming to be the first eco-friendly school in Japan. As such, the school featured, among others, an internal wood finishing and a solar-generated electric supply system. 
We had lunch at a road-side restaurant named Joyfull Restaurant on our way to the next destination. We arrived at the Kumamoto Water Science Museum right on time at 2:00 pm. Here, we were enlightened on how the Kumamoto city, which also being known as the “City of Water” is blessed with the supply of natural underground water. We were told that the underground water of Kumamoto is special and even healthier due to the fact that the Aso Mountain has erupted three times throughout its history, providing layers of nutritious minerals being absorbed into the water supply.
From there, we moved on to our last destination which is the Kengun Water Source station. The Kengun Water Source supplies one-fourth of the Kumamoto City water supplies, or specifically, 60,000m3 per day. According to the source, there are about 35 water-pump stations and only two has natural mineral water springs, and one of them is the Kengun Water Source station. At this station, there are 11 wells, of which seven are natural spring water and the rests are driven by pumps. After a long day of study tour, we arrived at the hotel at around 4:50 pm. At 6:00 pm, we gathered at the hotel restaurant for dinner. Again, the food was nice and everyone seemed to be concentrating on the food and drinks since we were given exactly 100 minutes to eat as much as we could at the buffet dinner.
On the last day of the tour – 12/12/2009, we had to check out by 8:15 am and leave our luggage in the bus. Our first destination is the Kumamoto Castle, one of the three most famous castles in Japan. I was impressed with the detailed and magnificent architectural design of the castle which was built more than 400 years ago. Each and every aspects of the castle were built with detailed planning to meet specific objectives. For instance, the outward curving stone walls around the castle area were specifically designed to repel invaders. The castle which was built by the warrior, Kiyomasa Kato, stand the test of time, reflecting Japan’s growing pains, the struggle that the forefathers went through, to become a matured society and culture.
After about 1:30 minutes at the Kumamoto Castle, a 1:40 minutes ride brought us to another human genius masterpiece called the “Tsujunkyo” stone-arch aqueduct bridge which was built based on the reverse siphon principle. Located in the Yabe town, the stone bridge was built in 1854 to solve the draught problem in the area and provide irrigation for the nearby farming area. Today, after about 156 years, the bridge is still being used to provide irrigation for about 250 acres of rice farm.
We had a seafood lunch at the nearby restaurant and after that, we were so glad to be able to enjoy the magnificent view of a waterfall which Mr Ueno has suggested us to visit. However, it was such an endurance testing journey to view the fall since we had to climb up and down small steps which were quite challenging for some of us.Dr Salina H. Kassim
IDE Visiting Research Fellow
November 2009-April 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment