Entertaining Food!

One of the greatest pleasures in Japan, if not the greatest, is the food, of course. 

On our first evening in Osaka, for our very first meal on this trip, we went for grilled beef. Really good wagu beef.  The tongue was surprisingly tender.  

The meat was even better, more flavourful, rich and juicy. That was a great start, on a cold, wet, windy evening.  

The following morning, we strolled through a walking street, eating interesting snacks along the way.  We had a plate of very tempting puffer fish sashimi.  Of course, puffer fish can be dangerous, and people have died eating puffer fish.  We are also told that, when prepared properly, it is quite safe.  Indeed I have had it a number of times before, and survived.  At one point, I had swallowed puffer fish skin rolled inside out, with the scaled outside of the skin thus wrapped inside. And survived. We survived this time as well. 

A few minutes later, we encountered a live puffer fish inside a water tank. It turned to look at me.  As if it knew that I just ate his cousin.   

A day later we took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima.  We went there to pay our respects at the Atomic Bomb Memorial.  We also ate some of the famous oysters. I have to confess they do not taste much different from oysters from elsewhere.  But it was something that we kind of have to do in Hiroshima.  

We watched a show of the making of the shintenchi. It was basically fried noodles with vegetables, eggs, some seafood, pork, spices and sources.  But the process of stir frying all the ingredients on a flat hot plate is educational, and fun. 

Most impressive was that a multi-storey building was filled with dozens of eating places all serving shintenchi. 

Eating in Japan is certainly educational, entertaining, and satisfying adventure.