Weird Japanese food, and my collected wisdom from living in Japan

Japanese food is famous for containing things not usually eaten by Westerners, something which I was reminded of when my mother and nephew were staying with us. The Japanese eat a lot of raw fish in the form of sushi (raw fish on rice) and sashimi (cut raw fish eaten by itself), and such delicacies from the sea as ika (squid), tako (octopus) and ikura (salmon roe) are not on the menus in most American homes. Another interesting food the Japanese eat is natto, fermented soybeans, which are very good for you -- my kids know I hate it, so they come and breathe natto breath on me as a joke. Although not common, I've eaten basashi (raw horse meat), a delicacy from Kyushu, and I've also had deer, turtle and alligator at exotic Chinese restaurants, too. Some people also enjoy inago (cooked locusts) and hachinoko (bee larvae, ugh). My wife loves to eat miso soup with whole crab inside, and she scrapes the kanimiso or crab's brains out so that it mixes with the soup. Perhaps the most bizarre food in Japan is shiokara, the intestines of squid, sometimes pickled in saltwater. If you ever come to Japan, don't worry about these odd foods -- there are plenty of normal alternatives for you to eat instead.

During my time in Japan I've picked up various knowledge, some of it pretty useless. Totoro is originally based on the troll from Billy Goats Gruff, and Mei and Satsuki are both born in the month of May (Satsuki is the old Japanese name for the fifth month of the year, and Mei's name comes from the English word May). Alien Baltan, the crab-like creature that Ultraman battles, gets his name from the homeworld of Mr. Spock, since Vulcan and Baltan sound very similar in Japanese, and Godzilla's many-headed nemisis King Ghidorah's name comes from the fact that "Hydra" in Japanese is pronounced "hee-dora." Char's Counterattack, the film in which the two heroes of the Gundam universe have their final battle, should really be called Char Strikes Back, since its title in Japanese sounds similar to the Japanese title of the Empire Strikes Back. Spielber's film E.T. is almost certainly based on a Japanese fairy tale called Taketori Monogatari (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), about a couple who find a baby in a bamboo forest which turns out to be a princess from the moon. And although I didn't know it at the time, the small hibachi we used to cook hamburgers on our apartment balcony when I was a child is a Japanese word -- but in Japan, a hibachi is a great hearth found in homes dating back a hundred years or more.

The most famous dog in the history of Tokyo is Hachiko, an Akita dog who was owned by a university professor in the 1920's. Every day, Hachiko accompanied the professor to Shibuya Station, and in the evenings, the man would come back to find the dog waiting faithfully at the station, a happy expression on his face. This continued for years, until one day, the man died suddenly. Loyal Hachiko waited for his master to return for ten years, wagging his tail in front of the station every day until he, too, died. Tokyo residents have erected a bronze statue in Hachiko's memory, which you can see at the Hachiko exit of the station if you're ever in Tokyo. It's so famous, it's very useful as a meeting point for friends -- "Meet me at Hachiko."

Here are today's "really cool products" that I thought were especially noteworthy. Note: the J-List links below may be for adult products and should probably be considered "not safe for work." To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.

	Kanji Quiz Toilet Paper. This is one of our most popualr products: joke toilet paper that helps you learn kanji while you poop. Very popular with people studying Japanese, and presumably those giving gifts to them. My mother took some back from Japan with her.
	Whole Strawberry Chocolate. With all the war and famine in the world today, what we need is more delicious snack foods from Japan, right? This is a real strawberry that has been dried, coated with white chocolate, then dipped in milk chocolate. Man it looks good...
	Ero Pon -- Series Vol. 1 ~ Ujou Harada. Bondage photography is very big in Japan, and here's a rare item: detailed figures based on Japan's famous bondage scenes. It's really something special for collectors.
	Nihongo Journal June 2004. We were happy to see that the issues of Nihongo Journal, a monthly magazine that helps gaijin learn Japanese, was popular: we nearly sold out of the first issues we posted last week. Here are some more.
	Lady Balloon - Balloon Fetish from Japan. Just when you think you've heard of all the Japanese fetishes, there's another one: balloon bursting by pretty girls who sit on the balloons until they pop. On a rudeness scale it's quite tame, and we can understand the fascination some men might have with this. The best part is when they show the balloon bursting in slow motion.
	Marusan Plastic Model Collection. Talk about bizarre -- the Japanese have created a set of miniature plastic models that are themselves replicas of popular "pura-models" sold in the 1960s and 70s. Dude! That's out there.
	Sakagura Kikou Series 2 -- Individual Box. Miniatures from Japan are very cool, since they're so good at it making little toys that look like the real thing. These are tall bottles of sake (called isshobin or "a bottle you can drink all your life since it's so big") that comes with the box to put the sake in, but also delicious food served at a Japanese eating establishment.