Top 5 great and/or strange foods to try?

Really weird taste.. for a while I just couldn't decide wether it was tasting good or bad.

I don't get what's the fuss about horse meat though. It's been a long time, but I've eaten horse beef two or three times. Tastes fine.. dark red meat that's a bit sweet by itself. Just from the local butcher here in Holland.

Hypercool gum can be bought at almost any convenience store (7eleven, AM/PM, Lawsons, etc). I recommend getting the little plastic boxes with the large pieces of gum

. . . seen chicken testicles in Japan. I believe that's China or somewhere in the Far East.

In most the gift shops in Hokkaido they sell canned bear meat. Also wild boar curry.

Also someplaces up north (Matsumoto for example, also north of Takayama) a specialty is bee larva; they can be served in ryokans but I've also seen them in jars in the souvenir shops.

I just moved to Tokyo from New York about a month ago, so here are a few food items I found interesting (though maybe a little tame compared to some of the items others are listing):

1) Raw egg. It might just be because growing up I got lectured about not eating cookie dough because I could get sick from the raw egg, but I found it strange at first that it's typical to dip cooked meat into a bowl of raw egg when eating shabbu-shabbu, or to crack an uncooked egg over a bowl of soba. The idea grossed me out a little at first, but I have to admit, it tastes really good once you forget the idea that you aren't *supposed* to eat raw eggs

2) Interesting chicken parts at a Yakitori joint....when you order chicken, you'll also get skewers that include cartilidge, fried chicken skin, and in some cases various chicken organs.

3) Horse sashimi - my boyfriend tried it the other night and described it as "really chewy" I wasn't brave enough to try it - I like sushi, but raw horse/beef are a little more than I'm ready for.

4) I don't know the name of the restaurant, but a friend of mine has gone to a place where your table is basically on a platform that rises out of an indoor pond structure - you literally fish for you dinner, and when you catch it, they prepare it at the table - if you choose to have sushi, the fish is supposedly so fresh that the nerves are still reacting and it kind of twitches on your plate!

We bought live sea snails (turbo?) in Hokkaido. Okasan cooked them in soy & sake, they were good.
I saw whale meat in the frozen food section of the supermarket we shopped at. Neither my wife (who remembers having it in school lunch as a child) nor Okasan like it, we did not buy any.
There's lots of other things that are strange to us that you can find, just wander around the grocery store!

Hey, I've read all the posts on the front page and I think some of them are really weird, but fish sushi is good. I don't know if Japan sells fish sushi there but its a must have, especially with a side of rice and some soy sauce to go with it...

. . . off topic but in regards to getting really fresh seafood, in Hakodate at the big fishmarket there, you can hook you own ika (squid) and they will cut it into sashimi for you.

Also, you haven't lived until you've eaten live oysters. They are really plump. There is a roadside stop in Hokkaido (I forget), where you can pick live oysters and shellfish from tanks and grill them in a restaurant next door. You can also buy mushrooms and fresh veggies to grill along with them.

I ate an oyster don (shoyu oysters over rice) and you can't believe how much fatter and firmer live oysters are. After all, most the ones you eat are dead, even raw ones.

Here's my lists:

This list is of my favorite dishes that you must try. They aren't necessarily weird, just my favorites of what I've tried in Japan:

1. Umeboshi - pickled plums
2. Toro - fatty tuna sashimi
3. Dobinmushi - matsutake mushroom soup
4. Katsuo no tataki - Bonito in a sharp tataki sauce
5. Wagyu - Japanese beef
6. Basashi - horse sashimi
7. Uni - sea urchin
8. Ikura - salmon roe

Here's a list of strange things I've eaten (some aren't strange depending on where you're from):

1. Horse - recommended above
2. Whale - didn't like the taste
3. Grasshoppers - not bad
4. Fugu - not much taste
5. Motsu - Tripe - intestines
6. Inoshishi - wild boar - better than pork
7. Shika - deer - ok
8. Natto - fermented soy beans - not great, just ok
9. Shirako - cod milt - recommended

Below I haven't tried but would if its in front of me:
1. Goat
2. Dolphin
3. Sea Lion
4. Bear
5. Bees

i remember watching a japanese show about food and there was a restaurant that served tiny tiny white fish in some kind of brown tsuyu. The fish were actually alive and swimming in the sauce, and the girl just slurped the whole thing down.

Does anyone know what this dish is called and where i might be able to try it?

oh my goodness, that sounds gross! :)

Did someone really ask earlier whether you can buy sushi in Japan?!! haha!

Anyways, all I'd say is, if you've never experienced Japanese food before, nearly everything you eat will appear quite unusual (and indistinguishable as to what it actually is!) Also, something which takes a bit of getting used to is breakfast (if you're not staying in a western stlye hotel that is) Fish & rice & miso soup etc first thing in the morning can be a bit much, but it certainly keeps you going till lunch! Perfect for those long days of sightseeing! Only thing I'd beware of, and have experienced first hand, is be mindful that some Japanese don't really understand fully the concept of vegetarianism or allergies, so go prepared.

shiokara. minced squid intestines. Very salty and slimey. Quite popular with serious sake drinkers. I think this is what Blanc was served.

Yanagawa, stinky river fish.

nama shirasu. Fresh raw baby sardines. Very difficult to find fresh, probably only in Shizuoka Pref.

Fresh raw sakura ebi. Uncooked tiny shrimp.

I could go on...

I love japanese food overall, but some of the things that have been listed gross me out.. horse meat... raw chicken (i thought you cant eat raw chicken because causes this virus???)
I think you should have uni (raw sea urchin) its really nice

In certian areas of northern Okinawa dolphin is popular and common. Slightly less common and less popular is goat sashimi....but not just the meat is served, the testicals of young male goats are also served sashimi style....what about mimi-ga...jellied pig ears....Okinawa knows how to use every single part of every animal ;)

Live fish that is prepared for sashimi. You can see the fish twitching as you eat its meat (sashimi).

Tai (red snapper) and others are prepared this way.

How about eel? It's live till the poke a nail through its head and then fillet it. Can't be as fresh as that!