The Least Useful Guide to Fukuoka

What do you think they are doing? Committing suicide? Actually, they are gathering clams, a blessing of the sea.

Our picking and gathering season has started.

While walking along a beach, I found there were the clam pickers and thought I might pick some clams. I squatted down and tried to pick up barehanded at the water’s edge. There are some rules and regulations in clam picking, one of which is that you mustn’t pick up clams smaller than 3 centimetres. So I chose them carefully not to get the underage clams and not get arrested.

After a 30-minute attempt, I managed to get a handful of small but not illicitly small clams. Enough for 2 bowls of miso-soup.

Now they are going to be soaked in salty water overnight to spit out sand. Ideally, the water should be seawater so that the clams literally feel at home in the water and spit out as much sand as possible…not knowing their fate.