Do the Japanese really eat poisonous fish?

I mean the blowfish or globefish. They call it fugu in Japanese. Eating this fish can be deadly, causing death by paralysis. The poison is contained in the liver and ovaries. These organs have to be removed by a licensed fugu shef. Then the fish is perfectly safe to eat and is considered a great delicacy.

Japanese eat fugu only in special fugu restaurants. You shouldn't eat fugu unless it's been prepared by a licensed fugu chef. Each year some people die from eating fugu that has been prepared by a non-professional.

It is expensive because training the chefs is expensive. They have to pass oral, written, and practical exams to get licensed. Your life can depend on their skill. Also, the presentation of the fugu sashimi is very elaborate - this adds to the excitement of eating it, and to the expense.

Do Japanese really eat raw fish?

Yes, they do. Most Japanese like it a lot. They call it sashimi. I know that it seems strange to most foreigners at first. But once they taste it they usually like it. It doesn't taste "fishy" at all - just fresh and delicious. Fish used for sashimi has to be very fresh - maybe that's why it's so good.

They use almost any kind of fish for sashimi. Tuna, flounder, shrimp, abalone, squid, octopus. Many others too. Some kinds, like shrimp and octopus, may be cooked slightly.

How do they eat sashimi?

They dip the thinly-sliced fish fillet in soy sauce and a little hot green horseradish. Another way to eat raw fish is on top of bite-size ovals of vinegar-flavored rice. It's called nigiri-zushi.

Have you ever eaten WHALE MEAT?

Yes, I have. (or, No, I haven't.) Most Japanese have eaten whale meat at one time or another. Whale protein used to be an important part of their diet. At least five percent of all the meat they ate, including fish and fowl, came from the whale. It was used in different ways - as steak, in sausage, even sliced as sashimi. But this is changing.

Is that because of the restrictions on whaling?

Yes. Japan has tried to abide by international agreements: first the lower quotas, and then the moratorium.

Don't you think it's cruel to kill whales?

They understand westerners' feeling that whales are a special category of mammals that should be protected. But they always thought of them just as a source of protein. Remember, they don't have the land for large herds of beef cattle that many western countries do.

Beef in Japan

Beef is so expensive that few people can afford to buy much. A pound of sirloin can cost between fifteen and twently dollars in Japan. That's between thirty-five and forty dollars a kilo. And that's the price in a supermarket. You can imagine how much it costs to order beef in a restaurant. To them, beef in other countries is really inexpensive.

Although they do have beef cattle in Japan, it's costly to raise them. They have to import the feed grain. They don't have the large areas of pasture land necessary for large-scale beef production. That is why it's so expensive in Japan.

Most people like pork and chicken. And since they both cost much less than beef, they eat them much more often. But still the price of pork and chicken in Japan is about double what it costs in the United States or Europe.

Coffee in Japan

Yes, Japanese drink coffee. Japanese are tea-drinkers, but they drink a lot of coffee too. They usually like it thicker and stronger than in the States - it's more like European-style coffee. Although many people brew fresh coffee at homes, others use instant coffee. They can get the western brands as well as Japanese brands in any supermarket.

Coffee is not usually served in japanese-style restaurants. But you can get coffee whereever western food is served. And there are coffee shops everywhere in the cities.

The coffee shops are probably more European than American. They're more for relaxing over a cup of coffee than for grabbing a fast snack. You can sit in the coffee shop for a long time - even read a book there, and you won't be asked to leave.

Dessert in Japan

Japanese don't eat dessert the way people in other countries do. Dessert is not part of a typical Japanese meal. But they do like fresh fruit in season. They might have a mandarin orange, a few strawerries, a small piece of melon, or a few slices of apple at the end of a meal. You could call that their dessert.

There are many western-style desserts available in restaurants. They have ice cream or sherbet available for dessert. And you can get cakes and pies and similar things in bakeries. But they'd probably have that kind of thing with coffee or tea - not after a meal.

There are many kinds of traditional Japanese sweets, like sweet bean paste and sweet rice-flour cakes. But they eat them with tea, or when guests come, for example. They're more for between meals than for dessert.

Fruits in Japan

Japanese fruits are basically temperate-climate fruits, with a few exceptions. In summer they have peaches, plums, loquats, cherries, and watermelons. In fall they have really good persimmons, grapes, pears, and a special kind of pear called nashi. In winter there are apples and mandarin oranges, In late winter and early spring there are big, beautiful strawberries.

Japanese import bananas, pineapples, grapefruit, and lemons. And they import some kinds of oranges, like navel oranges and temple oranges.

It's expensive. And, it depends on the fruit and where you buy it. Good melons, for example, are expensive. You could pay fifteen dollars or more for a muskmelon at a neighborhood store. Or you could pay a hundred dollars for a gift box of two melons and a bunch of grapes at a Ginza fruit shop.