JAPAN THE LAST SUPPER FINALLY SOME GOOD BARBECUE

I am coming to the end of our Japanese adventure and judging by the decline in readers over the last couple of days, it is probably a good thing. Today’s story is about the last dinner we had in Japan hosted by (JL), good friend of Deysi’s whom she had met during our time there. This family were wonderful people and could not do enough for us. Deysi, by now, spoke a couple words of Japanese and her friend spoke about the same amount of English. This meant, the English/Japanese dictionaries were used 99% to converse with. They got very good at this and could hold some limited conversation.

The ladies enjoyed each other’s company and JL doted on our little girl. Anyway along comes the going away party and we are braced for what is ahead, food wise. Up to this point in Japan I had been fed and ate many, many exotic foods. Much of which were raw. Some of it I loved, other things such as the raw horse, raw squid and raw octopus I found a little more challenging, to acquire a taste for. But let me say, I thoroughly enjoyed my eating experience in Japan. I came away with a far broader range of foods that I could eat, than when I arrived there. I also came away knowing, that lost at sea or in any coastal area, I would never again be at risk of starvation. So the night arrives and off we go.

We arrive at Deysi’s friend’s home and after a couple of drinks, lots of bows and much exchanging of compliments to each other we are seated, on the tatami mat at the kotatsu. The host brings out an hibachi full with red hot coals, places it on the table and sets beside it, a plateful of meats. I did not recognize all of the pieces, but my heart sang out. Tonight I am eating cooked meat without the sign of anything that looks like it had just crawled out of the ocean. Wahoo! In any event the husband cooked the pieces of meat which had a representative of every part of the cow. Starting from inside to out.

The sauces were wonderful, the meat exquisite, the rice, sour pickles, misu and edamame were delicious. The drinks were flowing, both beer and sake and I am truly enjoying myself. I might say I was taking on quite a load of food! The conversation was lively and the girl’s were swapping dictionaries like they were sharing family photos. The eating was slowing and everyone had filled themselves well. Ahhhhh I thought this is how to eat in Japan. Now it’s probably getting time to leave these people, and let them get on with their life, and get our daughter to bed. Not so fast you say? What could possibly be next?“

Again, a flurry of hardcopy exchanges, JL announces that she has a special treat for us. Her husband worked for the post office in Fukuoka and had brought home a special treat for us to commemorate our leaving. What, might I ask myself, could this be? The Japanese, as I have mentioned many times in my earlier posts, were kind and very generous. If they said they had a special treat, then it could be “big”. And it was! It seems that it was a special time of year in Fukuoka and a special time for the spawning of a special fish. A fish that was served only on special occasions and that was very traditional in the culture of this area.

Wow I can hardly wait, fire up that hibachi and let’s get a couple of these badboys cooking. Our host put the cover on his hibachi and all hopes of a barbecued fish vanished. Deysi’s friend disappears into the kitchen and returns in a minute with two plates, each containing the fish roe sacks from 3 fish! They were brightly coloured with a hot looking deep red powder and nothing else. Hold it now, where are my fish? Well it appears that after ripping the roe sacks from the pregnant fishes stomach, the fish went into the garbage. Well, what you gonna do?

This was obviously a very special gift from our hosts and I murmured my delight and anticipation. I passed my plate around, but it soon became clear that these special gifts were for Deysi’s and my mouth only. Ok here goes. I pick up my first one, it’s about 1/2″ in diameter and about 4″ long. I plop it into my mouth and with one mighty swallow I gulp it down. Now that thing went down about halfway in my throat and then came back up. I swallowed it again, same thing. The third time I swallowed it my eyes started to tear up. Deysi quickly grabs her book and after some fumbling tells them “look how happy he is he’s crying”.

The third one stayed down. Now I only have two to go. I can do this! I give Deysi a look and tell her “I can eat my share if you can do yours”. She gives me one of her sweetest looks. Then pushes her plate toward me and says “it’s alright dear, I can see how much you love them, you can have my share also”. Well I’m not going to have a fight in someone else’s home so I just suck it up and down all of them. Six of these specialities took a combined total of 15 swallows to get down. Now I am ready to get home!

I loved this phase in my life! I loved Japan and I loved the people. Most of all I loved the lessons they taught me. In this short time I had become one step closer to being an international traveller. I will never forget this period of our life. Both Deysi and I felt so blessed to have had the opportunity.