I ate Willy...

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Japanese Vocabulary

kyuushoku・給食: School lunch
kujira・鯨: Whale
tabe-chatta!・食べちゃった: oops! I regretfully ate it!

食べちゃった！ Well, not Willy, but a relative of his, the minke whale. It was a cultural experience!!! I had to!

On Wednesday, January 30th, the kyuushoku menu revealed an interesting entree, underlined with squiggly lines...くじらたつたあげ, kujira tatsuta-age....in other words, fried whale. Ick.

Before coming to Wakayama even, I had read that they were known for whale watching...but apparently there is a bit more than just whale watching going on! I had heard the rumors from other JETs that sometimes kujira appeared on the lunch menu, and finally after six months of anticipation, my time had come...or rather, the whales time had come. I had decided....to eat, or not to eat?

So after an intense bout of internal struggle, I ate the whale. I kind of just inhaled it down before I could think about what I was doing...I didn't even take a picture. It didn't actually taste bad, it just was a weird feeling, consuming whale...I didn't feel so good about myself afterwards either...so all in all, it was a memorable experience, but with all the yummy guilt free fried things to choose from, I don't think I will be craving whale anytime soon!

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Photos

minke whale...yum yum...
hmmmm...so apparently the whale that is consumed for school lunch is the Minke Whale...here are it's stats...

swimming free
A minke whale, swimming free in it's natural environment...

fried whale...
soooooooo...here is the final result of battering and frying...I was surprised at how dark the meat was...it's pretty dense too and is hard to classify as far as flavor...maybe sort of beef-like if anything...

Comments

[Brent]

fried whale
it doesnt look so tastey and it must have been mucho money. you should bring to them, fried cheese!

[Alan Schwarz]

Wow!
I knew that Japan, along with Norway and a few other nations, is more famous for whaling as in whale-hunting than whale-watching. I think the UN imposed a whale-hunting moratorium a decade or so, except for cases of scientific research. Of course.