Food adventures.

Different areas of Japan have what is called "meibutsu" or specialties... usually in the area of food. Example... Sendai, a fairly large city in northeastern Honshu (the main island) has cow tongue as one of its meibutsu. Cow tongue was kinda interesting. It just looked like a darker cut of beef... a bit tougher too.

Another example of meibutsu is bee larva from Nagano prefecture, an area just north of Tokyo. Yeah, the taste of honey pretty much drowned out all other flavors, so it wasn't bad.

Then there are just flat out weird things out there. Example, pan fried locusts. Yum. Haha. In Yamagata, northeastern Honshu, the people eat pan fried locusts (inago). I remember a lady coming to church with a black plastic bag hoisted over her shoulder like Santa Claus. The bag was full of locusts. An image I will not forget easily. How were they? Ehh, they're not bad. They're cooked in soy sauce and sugar so it tastes like... surprise surprise, soy sauce and sugar. The locust itself doesn't taste like much. Just gives that appealing crunchy texture, and antennae and legs that get stuck in between your teeth. Felt like John the Baptist eating the stuff.

Sea snails (tsubu). They aren't much to look at... especially after taking em out of their shells. But they tasted surprisingly good.

Well, just recently, I got to add another item on the list. I was eating a Japanese hot pot (nabe) and I saw this white thing that looked like brain. It was all coiled up like one. I decided that it was better to ask what it is after eating it, so I braved it and took some. Didn't taste like anything. After dinner was done, I asked what the white stuff that looked like brain was. After a few minutes of explanation, and a lot of laughs, I figured out that they were in fact, fish testicles. Funny. I never knew that fish had testicles. Well, now I do. And I can say I ate em too.