1. Shirako 「白子」(Fish Sperm)
Shirako is the male genitalia of fish, a sack that contains its seminal fluid. A popular dish at most izakaya (Japanese pubs) and sushi bars. A few years back I had my own encounter with fish ejaculate that didn’t end too well.
2. Inago no Tsukudani 「いなごの佃煮」 (Grasshoppers)
“Inago no Tsukudani” is a traditional Japanese insect cuisine popular in the inland rural communities of Yamagata, Nagano and Gunma prefectures.
“Inago” is Japanese for “grasshopper” and when you stew your mouth-watering locust with “tsukudani”, a sweetened soy sauce simmered with mirin, you get the delectable bug banquet – “Inago no Tsukudani”.
3. Basashi 「馬刺し」(Raw Horse Meat)
Due to its deep pink color raw horse meat is called “sakura” or “sakuraniku”. “Sakura” means cherry blossom, “niku” means meat. However, when your equine is ponied up raw in thin sashimi slices it is called “basashi”. The prefectures of Kumamoto, Nagano and Ōita are famous for basashi, and it is common in the Tohoku region as well. Nice with some ranch dressing.
Straight from the horses mouth, there is also a dessert made from horse meat called basashi ice cream.
4. Nattō 「納豆」(Fermented Soybeans)
Nattō is a powerful smelling, strong flavoured, sticky web of fermented soybeans typically served with a Japanese breakfast.
5. Fugu 「河豚」(Poisonous Fish)
“Fugu” is the Japanese word for pufferfish and is a delicacy in Japan. The kanji characters used to write fugu literally translate as “river pig”.
Fugu flesh is edible, but the skin, liver and ovaries contain lethal amounts of the poison tetrododoxin. If any of these elements are consumed, then the poison paralyzes the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious, and eventually dies from asphyxiation.
Restaurants can only serve Fugu if it is prepared by a fully qualified Fugu chef. So, if you enjoy playing Russian roulette, chow down on a Filet-O-Fugu today.
Or maybe try some deliciously deadly poisonous “Fugu no ransou” (Puffer Fish Roe) that apparently, if cooked correctly, has all of the deadly poison removed.
6. Hachinoko 「蜂の子」(Bee Larvae)
When your local pub runs out of beer nuts and you need a hit of protein there is nothing like some crunchy, maggotty bee larvae to do the job.
Apparently one of the late Emperor Hirohito’s favorite foods was fried wasps with boiled rice seasoned with sugar and soy sauce.
7. Zazamushi 「ざざ虫」(Aquatic Insects)
Another widely available product in Japan, both canned and in restaurants, is zazamushi, the name for aquatic insects inhabiting gravel beds in rivers. Zazamushi is not a single variety of insect, but is a catch-all name applied to the larvae of insects that live at the bottom of rivers. The name “zazamushi” means insects (mushi) that live in a place where the river makes the sound “zaazaa” as it flows.
8. Kujira & Iruca 「くじら & いるか」(Whales & Dolphins)
Scientific evidence collected by Japan’s Whale Research Program can be consumed throughout Japan, even as a Whale Burger. The image below shows some whale sashimi.
Even the cute “iruca” (dolphin) ends up on the shelves.
9. Shiokara 「塩辛」(Fermented Seafood)
Shiokara is Japanese fermented seafoods with a fishy and salty taste.
10. Shirouo no Odorigui 「シロウオの踊り食い」(Dancing Icefish)
Shirouo are very small transparent fish that are eaten alive. They dance in your mouth whilst being eaten (“odorigui”).
Check out 10 Cool Japanese Foods for more tasty morsels of Japanese culinary goodness such as yakitori, sukiyaki, ramen, yakiniku, kushikatsu and more.
This article is a submission for the Japan Blog Matsuri hosted by Muza-chan’s Gate to Japan.
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Cool list
I’ve only tried the Icefish as they were part of my wedding meal, can’t say i’m in a massive hurry to try any of the others 
How were the dancing icefish? They say they dance in your mouth but I can only imagine that they are squirming in their attempt to escape death.
Over the years I’ve tried 8 of these 10. The one I like the best is shiokara. A really good shiokara is just the thing sometimes, especially with some nice nihonshu.
I have only tried 4 out of the 10. For 2 of them (the fish sperm and the fugu) I was deceived into eating. My wife told me the fugu was chicken and this is my shirako story.
Based on your comment, the shiokara is now on my to do list.
Just make sure it is *good* shiokara. Nothing worse that bad shiokara. Get to a serious nihonshu place and they will probably sort you out . IIRC Chirinbou http://池林房.jp/is a good bet near Shinjuku. And, as an added bonus, that is the first ever non-romaji URLs I’ve seen in the wild.
What about umeboshi!? that’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever tasted!
Thanks Will. I have got a number of feedback on missing items on the list. Enough for a second instalment/part 2 article. Stay tuned.
I particularly enjoy eating fish sperm, grasshoppers, horse, and whale. Sounds funny when it’s all said in English but it’s all true =P. Shirako deep fried is especially good but whale is my favorite thing to eat on this list.
Thanks for your comment Shay. Deep down I wish I was adventurous enough to consume all of these items. I have only done the fish sperm, horse, rancid soybeans (natto) and puffer fish. 6 to go! Not a big fan of insects though.
Love the list dude! Making me hungry actually…that horse looks pretty good (-:
Natto for the win!
eww that first one is pretty nasty. In fact they’re all pretty….strange, to say the least.
Horse ice cream?? I don’t know if it’s because I don’t usually see horse meat consumed here in the US, but that sounds pretty….gross. Maybe it’s just me.
I’ve tried the Nata, in Japan but nothing else.
In China however I have had
Deep fried Hummingbird (whole)
Cockroach – done in a similar way to the grasshopper above
and worst of all Cockroach Lavae marinated in something undescribable – that was truly horrible
Very interesting article …
But in my mind, any food that has to be described using one or all of the following words: genitalia, squirming, sack and/or seminal fluid, should not be consumed!
Great list. I imagine that many Japanese would think nothing of most of these. As for me, I’ve tried six of the ten and can only say that the horse ice cream is off my future plans and that’s only due to an intolerance to milk. The bee larvae I had weren’t fried, I guess they were raw. They tasted like little lumps of honey, I didn’t even notice the skin/wings/whatever.
You can’t really escape the fish milt sacks, they’re in so many soups. I eat natto several times a week and I find whale pleasant if fatty (though there’s a sushi place near here that serves it served in some sort of thin flakes that’s not at all fatty/oily). Can anyone recommend a place in central Tokyo that carries the grasshoppers?
I agree that many Japanese would think nothing of most of these, however a number of feedback on Twitter to this article from Japanese is along the lines of ‘I love them all except no insects please’.
I’ve had five of ten (basashi, fugu, natto, kujira and shiokara). It initially surprised me to see natto on the list because it’s so common. But yeah, it IS a bit strange when you think about it.
Fugu is actually delicious, btw. You can feel the poison tingling on your tongue! Can’t help but feel the dancing fish should be higher up on the list (number one position, perhaps?).
Probably one of the strangest things I’ve had in Japan was cornflake salad. I understand if it doesn’t make a future list though!
I have to put up with the smell of rancid soybeans every morning as my wife and kid hook into their daily dose of natto and rice. This has been a daily ritual for many years and I still can’t get used to the smell, let alone the taste. My wife rebuts with complaints about the foul-smelling Vegemite that I enjoy.
By the way, in retrospect, I agree that the Dancing Fish should have been promoted higher on the list.
Gross. I remember the time I tried fish sperm. Almost threw up. Natto was okay, but not my favourite. The fugu I ate was quite good but the whale wasn’t very fresh so it wasn’t what I expected. The other time I almost couldn’t swallow was eating live shrimp. As I popped the thing in my mouth, the tail was still moving, in an opening, closing movement. Ah, such weird food we eat. The other strange food that I’ve tried is snake. And yes, it tasted like chicken.
Great list! Here I was thinking I’m pretty much cool with all the food Japan can serve me with the exception of natto, and then I see this list. Out of all that I think I only tried the horse meat, which was pretty good actually.
Will eat basashi when at the izakaya. As much as I’ve tried, I can’t develop a taste for natto.
Will definitely pass on the fish sperm, but whale bacon is freakin’ tasty! Ate it unknowingly for school lunch about 5 years ago.
Fermented soybeans looks like something that was blown up in the Gremlins.
Yeah, true. Looks a little like the gremlin that got roasted in the microwave.
I’ve always been a bit puzzled as to people’s reluctance about natto. It tastes like, and has the same texture as, cheese. I eat it most mornings, actually, mixed with brown rice and a raw egg with some green onion.
(My two year old son eats it, too, though we don’t give him the raw egg, and he seems to have gone off of green onion recently.)
hint: take a whiff lol
I’m with Loco on that one. The wafting stench of rancid soy beans, it is like an impenetrable force field to me.
In saying that, my 4 year old hybrid loves the stuff. He is ambidextrous as he loves Vegemite too!
Horse meat and whale are delicious! Shirako isn’t as bad as it sounds.
And natto is positively harmless next to shimotsukare (a.k.a. neko no gero). The name tells it like it is: it looks like vomit, smells like vomit and tastes like vomit.
Hi AnnaTrouble, thanks for dropping by. I had to look up shimotsukare and it seems like a dish that should have been on the list. I read that it is made by simmering soy beans with salmon head. Hmmm…
Yeah, soy beans, salmon head (and other body parts), carrots and radish and other assorted odds and ends. Husband loves this stuff.
After seeing Shirako posted here I had to try it. Earlier this evening I gave it a go. The stuff is actually really good!
I haven’t been able to go near if after being traumatised by it 10 years ago.
I tell you, the thought of eating bugs doesn’t generally weird me out (though live worms is somehow worse than tiny live fish), but something REALLY gets me about those fish semen sacks. Like they look as if they should be a nice pasta or something, but no. Semen sack.
Wow, great list! I’m full Japanese but I’ve only tried about four of them in your list, which seems quite less compare to others who commented (and probably not Japanese)! Many of them were quite familiar to me, although I don’t really have any courage to try them out… I’m sure they wouldn’t taste as bad as it looks!
Natto is VERY common in Japan, but many Japanese seems to dislike its strong smell and the taste. I just thought of a thing you should have added in to your list – cow’s tongue. I don’t know if this sounds ‘weird’ but I guess it does. It tastes nice, and its very chewy. We often eat it by grilling it with salt and pepper and dip it into a squeezed lemon juice.
Mmmm, gyuutan! I don’t think that cow’s tongue is all that unfamiliar outside of Japan. Europeans eat it smoked among other ways.
But I have to say the Japanese version is delicious. It’s almost unavoidable, too, if you go to Matsushima.
Have always wanted to try fugu…
I was opposed to eating it based purely on principal. Why play Russian roulette with your life? But my wife tricked me into eating it telling me that it was chicken. It was actually quite tasty so I lifted my embargo on fugu after that.
Tried most of these, except for the larvae stuff. Especially now with more western foods, a lot of young Japanese aren’t too fancy about insect ones. But hey, they you larvae in Italy to make cheese, right?
Now with the racist (yes I think it’s racist) backlash at whale hunting and all, makes it hard to say that I eat whale meat, but I still say it anyway. Seriously, this is getting out of hand, especially when other nationalities hunt them too. All this ruckus does is make me crave it more. I’m definitely ordering 2, 3 plates of this and basashi (esp basashi, love them!) next time I visit Japan.
Nattou is a regular part of my diet now. Healthy!
thanks for dropping by J.
i don’t necessarily agree that the opposition to whaling is ‘racist’.
personally, i think that the objection arises from the fact that japan, a member of the IWC, are not observing the moratorium on commercial whaling and hiding behind the scrumptious scientific whaling exemption.
further, japan are engaging in whaling outside of their traditional waters and sometimes in the sovereign waters of other nations.
therefore, to me, it’s not so much the consumption of whale meat. heck, i’d try a whale burger – for sure. it is perception of contradiction and deceit i.e. why be a member of the IWC if you are not going to observe it’s policies?
Wait, I’ve been eating the leftovers of a science program? It’s poutine all over again…
maybe you are the science program.