Top 5 great and/or strange foods to try?

Hello!

I'm visiting Japan in November, and I love to experience new things. Can you guys please list your top 5 great and/or strange foods that I must try when in Japan?

I saw a tv show where they ate poisonous blowfish (fugu) and frog sashimi...so i'm willing to try anything :D But the octopus balls and yakitori and all the other more "normal" stuff I want to try too! Thanks in advance!

I've never tried it and never will but horse meat might be something to try.

I'm not from Japan, but I am Japanese-American. I love Natto (fermented soybeans), which many Japanese seem to turn their nose up to.

Furu/Funyu, which is fermented tofu, is another *ahem* acquired taste.

that one seafood where orange stuff is scooped out of the shell and dumped on sushi or served by itself raw. what was the name? totally acquired taste, and be prepared to gag if you're not used to it.

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fish eggs on anything

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squid+mayo pizza

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McDonald's ebi burger - because we all love Ebi (hara that is - ebihara is the cutie in their ads advertising the ebi, shrimp patty, burger). see stage6.divx.com and search ebihara for the ads.

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izakaya (? i'm sleepy - forget all my spellings). like the usual 'yakis, but more homey. grilled foods for the common folks.

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tokyo banana - only because they advertise it so much at the stations. Kit Kat - see how different they can be.

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takoyaki/okonomiyaki's

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oooh, i'm hungry now...

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Chu - alcholic beverage.

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xylish hyper cool gum - just be prepared to spit it out! the main effect only lasts about 30 seconds, so if you're tough enough to brave it that long....

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japanese style breakfast.

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It is considered as the ultimate Japanese cuisine, not cheap though. Seafood donburi is another great!

Horse sashimi is really good and if you're American it will freak the people back home out :-)

1. chicken sashimi (raw chicken meat)
2. uni sushi
3. horse sashimi (raw horse meat, but i like the kumamoto cured horse meat best)
4. tororo rice
5. tarako

and of course, natto! good luck!

and for must-try food...

1. wagyu yakiniku
2. unagi in rice
3. okonomiyaki
4. oden
5. onigiri

Japanese people LOVE testing foreigners with their weird and wonderful foods, I was spoiled rotten by my family and friends :)

Sorry, I don't know all the japanese names tho...

Sharks Bones (actually cartilage - and it is :P in chili type sauce) WEIRD

someone might be able to hlep me with the name, some weird clear, peas sized jelly thing with a T shape green stalk, I think they were plant based, and very slimey, I think they're quite a delicacy if you can handle the texture (reminded me of small eyeballs)

I'll have a think for some more.... :)

oh man i hit the jackpot asking here! :D

How do I find out where to eat these things? Is it all over the place?

I also heard you can get whale meat, but now i'm really interested in trying horse hahaha

I'll eat anything i tell ya...i saw a show where the guy had frog sashimi (the frog was alive when they prepared it), and then he ate the still beating frog heart. I *HAVE* to try this stuff hehe

If you can advise me how to locate these little culinary jewels I'd appreciate it!

I realize you want to try these things in Japan, but I thought I'd mention if you're in America and have access to a local Japanese grocery store (small chance, but you never know), you should have access to a few of the things mentioned above. Of course, most of them need preparation, but natto doesn't really. You can just buy a small package of natto for $1 or less (although many brands come in 3-packs). I like to put some, straight from the package, on some rice with a bit of soy sauce & chopped green onions. You can also sometimes find natto sushi in restaurants.

yeah, i have access to some of this for sure...but I'd rather enjoy it for the first time in it's "native environment" hahah

plus, natto is one thing, but HORSE MEAT is another!!! bring on the horse meat! :D

Jud,

Frogs are not traditionally eaten in Japan, so you will need to go to a high-class Chinese restaurant if you want to try it. I've never heard of anyone eating raw frog, though. That sounds like some Jackass stunt.
Whale meat is not that hard to find in supermarkets, but despite the fairly high price, it doesn't taste that good. If you hunt around, you can find cans of dolphin meat too. While I've never tried it, I hear it is about as tasty as cat food - and is often used in cat food.

If you still need some gross
delicacies to sample, look out for fried locusts (they taste pretty bad) and wasp larvae (too gross for me).

. . . with Dave in that I've never seen frog sashimi in Japan (catfish maybe). It's probably because large frogs (like green bullfrogs in the US), are not commonly found.

I have seen whalemeat sold at a 7Eleven-type convenience store, in a small foil package cooked in a shoyu sauce. It didn't taste too bad, but it spoils fast. I only saw it at a store in Mitaka City area (Tokyo suburb), interestingly enough. Nowhere else since. Whale meat can be found raw at supermarkets.

Couple of other things I can add to the list are mentaiko or hot fish egg sacs, sea squirt, shiraiko (looks like brain tissue), grasshoppers pickled in soy sauce (some ryokans serve this). I've also tried shark heart.

Uni doesn't taste that bad if it's really fresh. It has a briny, oyster-like taste.

I also recommend carp sashimi (not in China though). The slices have a gray sheen to it and an unusual texture. It's somewhat crunchy. Komoro City is famous for carp (it's raised in the river) and there is a restaurant across from the train station that has an excellent lunch set which includes sashimi and carp stewed in a miso broth.

I believe you can actually eat bears in Hokkaido, just to throw in another controversial one.

The most disgusting things though would be the really slimey dishes. Think there is one with some kind of squid in it. Wouldn't call it a delicacy at all but was given this to try as a 'chef's appetiser'. Had to pull a Mr Bean and hid them away under the seat, the soya sauce bottle and the lady's handbag sitting next to me...

if you want to try something relatively cheap/easy to find - try the squid ink (black slimey) sushi, found in most sushi bars. I sat next to a couple of german guys in a sushi place in omotesando (tokyo) and they were daring eachother to eat weird things. The black squid one was a bit too scary looking for me, but german guy tried it and ended up with black trails all over his chin - def has the "eww" factor (for me anyways) Horse meat isn't that rare across other parts of the world - the french eat it on a daily basis I believe, and although we don't tend to eat it in Britain, we do export our horse meat to france. It's meant to be very tasty, but nothing unusual with regards to taste/appearance.

Raw horse - Basashi
Also,some people eat the eyeballs of certain fish (bream - tai ,etc)...the actual eyeball is like cartlidge, and you suck the jellylike eye from around it...yum

My father was once offered during a business trip to Japan, a chance to try chicken testicles? Do they even have any? Or would it be ovaries?

Pretty sure it was raw as well. Really delicious offering apparently pity I did not get any leftovers in a takeaway box as a souvernir.

Where can I get this hyper cool gum?

I tried the octopus balls in Tokyo. They looked so good - like meatballs but they smelled liked burned hair and tasted awful. I�fm open to all kinds of food. I've tried squirrel, sea urchin, kangaroo, crocodile, menudo, beef tongue - but the octopus balls are one of the only foods I can say I disliked. I ate all six though and washed them down with beer. The Japanese love them and seem to line up wherever they are served, sort of the same way Americans line up outside of ice cream stores.