Foods

At many Yakitori-ya (restaurants specializing in grilled food on skewers) you can eat sparrow. It's not nearly as bad as it sounds because although the birds are cooked whole and eaten bones and all, they lose their shape without their feathers and are coated in a thick brown sauce. The taste is so-so.

       One night, I was inan Izakaya (Japanese-style pub) with some friends after a long night of drinking. Someone got hungry and asked for a menu. He pointed to the menu and everyone suddenly started laughing and chattering and looking at me. They called the waitress over and said, "Sakana no Ikizukuri please". Of course I asked what it was, but they just gave me funny looks and said, "Wait and see!"
     In my years in Japan I have eaten octopus, squid, seaweed, and even fried grasshoppers, so there is little on a menu that will frighten me. I was however, completely shocked by what the waiter brought that night.
     On a little plate there was a 10 inch long fish suspended an inch above the plate on two vertical sticks, which were driven through its body from stomach to spine. The fish looked fresh from the sea except that several big hunks of its flesh had been cut out of its sides. The strips of flesh were on the plate in front of it. This isn't so bad, I thought. And then the fish wiggled! I thought that my eyes must have been playing tricks on me, but then it wiggled some more, vainly trying to get itself off the stakes, and I realized it was still alive. They gave me a piece of meat, and I had to eat it with the fish's big eyes staring at me as if it was thinking, "Hey you! What are doing to me? Give me my flesh back! What? You're eating me? You're eating me? You sick bastard!" I figured the fish was a goner anyway, so I ate it, and I have to admit, it was about the best fish I have ever tasted. It certainly was fresh anyway.

If you want to try Fugu, here are some addresses of fugu ryotei. Reservations are often necessary:
Ajioka: Open 5-10:30pm, closed Sundays and holidays. New Comparu Bldg.6F, 7-7-12 Ginza. 03-3574-8844. Ginza Station near Chuo Dori.
Ikesu: Open 11:30am-2pm, 5-11pm. 1-5-25 Higashi-machi, Kichijoji. 0422-21-1438. Near Kichijiji Station.
Shunsagami. Open 11am-10:30 pm. Odakyu Manhattan Hills 13F, 1-1-3 NishiShinjuku. 03-3343-4885. Near Shinjuku Station, west Exit.
Tsuketei. Open 4-11pm, closed Sundays and holidays. 1-39-1 Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku. 03-3986-3321. Near Ikebukuro Stn, west exit, behind Tobu department store.
Fuguyoshi. Open 5-11:30pm. 2-13-8 Ikebukuro. 03-5951-1929. Near Ikebukuro stn, west exit.

Japanese food, I'm convinced, is the best in the world. It is nutritious, low in fat, pleasing to the eye, and above all delicious. That said, it is centuries behind the west in the junk food/dessert department. Green tea flavoured ice cream, bean paste (anko) filled cookies,and seaweed crackers just doesn't make your mouth water! But the king of strange snack foods is Yakiimo (baked sweet potatoes). Aside from being a little bland, the sweet potato would be nothing more than an uninspired snack food choice, but it is the way that they are sold that makes them one of Japan's quirkiest foods.
The Yakiimo man is the Japanese equivalent of the ice cream man. He drives around in a little truck selling snack foods, mostly to young people, but that is where the similarities end. Let's contrast Japan's most popular mobile snack vendor, the Yakiimo man,with America's most popular mobile snack vendor, the IceCream Man .

THE ICE CREAM MAN	*THE YAKIIMO* MAN**
THE VEHICLE: Spotlessly clean with a state of the art refrigeration system. Plays happy music that sets children running.	THE VEHICLE: No, that thing in the back of his truck is not a pileof scrap destined for the junk yard. That is the oven in which theYakiimo are cooked.
THE MAN: Friendly man with a big smile in a spotless white uniformor an old, Italian style traditional ice cream parlour get-up. Loves children. Tends to be a little overweight due to too many samples of his product. Ice cream men exude wholesomeness and fun.	THE MAN: Although I don't want to stereotype Yakiimo men,they seem to have more than their fair share of squinty, smelly, unwholesome looking men in their ranks. The man in this picture is the most wholesome Yakiimo man that I've ever seen. He has about 28 more teeth then the nation alaverage, and he is not smoking, bent or wizened. Yakiimo men exude evil.
THE FOOD: A Picture says a thousand words.	THE FOOD: A picture says a thousand words.
THE MUSIC: Happy, melodic tunes that send children running andlaughing into the street.	THE MUSIC: Fried sweet potatoes Delicious Fried Sweet Potatoes Sweet Potatoes Fried on stones Delicious! Mournful music, somewhat reminiscentof a Muslim call to prayer. The first time that I heard theYakiimo man's song, I thought that there was a funeral in the neighbourhood. It is sort of haunting and beautiful but...

QUIRKY FOOD RELATED PAGES
The web's first Japanese Pizza Home page is is dedicated to a Pizza Lover's worst nightmare. Check out this sample:
Japanese Style: "The Flavorof Seaweed and Shiso Makes it All the Better!"
Toppings: Shredded Pork, Shimeji Mushrooms, Bamboo Shoots, Nori (seaweed), Shiso (perilla) Leaves
Click here for the TheWeb's First Japanese Pizza Page.