Whale Meat
This is the real whale heaven
I ate whale meat today. It tasted okay. Nothing special, really. It’s sort of like salmon sashimi when it’s raw, and sort of like beef when it’s cooked. Hayden Panettiere is crying now.
I’m actually staying at Sakura Hostel in Asakusa, Tokyo right now. I was in Hakone before this. I will be blogging more about things from Osaka and Hakone when I have the time.
It’s whale meat
The shop specializes in whale meat and set meals (定食) go for anywhere between 1,000 to 2,000 yen. They contain very little whale meat relative to the rice serving. There are also sashimi sets with meat from various parts of the whale body and they cost more, going from about 2,000 to 4,000 yen.
Scientific whaling is delicious
The set I ordered (raw red whale meat on rice) cost 1,050 yen. There were actually bits of whale skin in the miso soup too. They tasted rather nice. That said, whale meat doesn’t taste nearly as exotic as I had imagined it to be. It’s certainly not worth the premium over regular beef/salmon.
This particular shop is located near the tourist trap Kaminarimon at Asakusa. There are some other izakaya around the area that serve whale meat, but this is the only specialized eatery I found.
I also dropped by Ghibli Museum in Mitaka and Kabuki-chou in Shinjuku today and took some pictures. Will talk about them in posts to follow. Someday.
P.S. I’ve been accepted by Stanford University via Early Action! It almost made up for the disappointment of not being able to get my hands on Maaya Sakamoto’s upcoming concert ticket.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Botan’s one of the handful of places that serves whale meat in Singapore. O: Should pop by and check it out soon.
Congrats on getting accepted by Stanford!
December 18th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
The whale katsu is shitz. And it’s 1/3 onion >.<
December 18th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Stanford! Awesome! Big grats dude.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Congratulations on Stanford U. I’ve a friend (well, a friend’s sister) who got in via Early as well.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Hey DM long time no see, still helping out on the G00 TL? I had stayed in one of Sakura Hostel’s guest house last time, and almost my whole body was itching with cockroaches roaming the house… Try something else next time, (For Example: Super Hotel), trust me, for the price they charge, it’s a real ripoff.
I am now living in Tokyo BTW, drop me a line if you are around. see ya :)
December 18th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I like how you casually slipped in that Stanford bit at the end. C’mon… it’s Stanford!!! Congratulations! Any idea what you are going to major in?
I think whale meat is pretty tasty when cooked well, but it’s so expensive! That’s probably a good thing though because I’ve heard that there are high levels of mercury in whale meat, so it’s not a good idea to eat it frequently anyway.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:16 am
It’s people like you who create fake demand for whales.
December 19th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Congratulations on Stanford.
I have to like, say that I am against whaling though, and as you just proved, whale meat is probably not worth commercial efforts to mercilessly hunt down whales for the sake of meals. Not as aggressive as Alisa up there about it, but I would just like to point that out.
December 19th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Hmmm whale meat. Been wondering how it taste for so long. But by ur post it seem not that special.
Anyway congrats dude on Stanford.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:44 am
Barbaric. What’s next, jew meat?
December 19th, 2008 at 4:55 am
How fascinating that you equate eating another species to eating humans. Are you vegan? If yes, then I can understand where you’re coming from.
If not, then you’re one of those ‘slippery slope’ people – and that’s a logical fallacy. At no point was ‘eating Jewish people’ proposed, so your implied slur that DarkMirage is considering cannibalism is uncalled for. D:
If that’s all whale tastes like, then I’ll stick with all the different ways you can cook meat arising from animals which aren’t endangered. For “small” portions of seafood, the synthetic stuff passes off just fine. Of course, nobody’s been able to make fake crab which resembles real crab when eaten in large portions. -_- Not yet, at least!
December 19th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Congratulations getting a place at Stanford! Should be fun for you once you move out over there to study!
December 19th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Hey darkmirage, just curious, would like to ask how much you spend in total barring non-expenses related stuff you buy in Japan, ie. airfare, food, lodging, transportation? am planning to go to japan in march with a friend, and some heads-up on such info would be very much appreciated in my planning.
December 19th, 2008 at 6:30 am
and congrats on getting into stanford. no surprise though, since you are from the college that wears all-white, however grudgingly i say this, haha
December 19th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Scientific whaling is malicious, sorry about the bad rhyme.
Anyway congratulations on getting accepted into Stanford.
December 19th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Congratulations on getting accepted to Stanford! I also got early action last year, too.
If you decide to come here, join the Newtype Anime Club!
http://anime.stanford.edu/
December 19th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Well whale meat is pretty normal tasting, so my final conclusive is that whaling is not worth the trouble, even though it’s hardly an issue worth debating.
That said, I don’t believe that whales deserve any special protection versus everything else we eat. Minke whales are not endangered, and larger types of whales have not been proven to be any more intelligent than cows.
December 19th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Well o_o Guess I’ll see you in Palo Alto…
Cons here suck though, Fanime is crap compared to what you just had.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Im starting to be preeety hungry now. XD
December 19th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Congratulations on your Stanford admission. :]
I’m glad you reported whale meat wasn’t all that tasty, hopefully the many readers who visit your blog will notice that and give it a miss when they visit Japan.
December 19th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Whale meat? After this one, I think boiled shrimps do one better with my beer.
Congratulations on scoring Stanford. ;)
December 20th, 2008 at 4:19 am
I thought whale meat was illegal…hmmmm
It still looks pretty good to eat though…
Now I’m hungry…
December 20th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Congrats on being accepted into Stanford. But wait. What about the Army? lol
December 20th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Whale meat in general isn’t illegal, certain species of whale meat are. This is because countries under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling are given whaling quotas for scientific research, and the rules of the treaty stipulate that the resulting whale carcasses are to be fully utilized commercially so as to prevent wastage.
The entire clause is of course one huge excuse for Japan to continue whaling (limited to Minkes and other non-endangered species) in spite of IWC’s global ban. Interestingly though, Japan is actually operating under IWC regulations (including the consumption of the meat), whereas Norway has declared itself “in protest” and is currently killing Minke whales every year for the sole purpose of consumption.
The fact that the international “green” movement prefers to pick on Japan over Norway, or even IWC which set the rules in the first place, is something I find rather distasteful and somewhat contradictory to its stated goals.
Trackback from
December 20th; it’s my friend’s birthday today! « Traversian ComlogDecember 21st, 2008 at 1:35 am
[...] for my AP Environmental Sciences program, I’m gonna cheat, and put in that article where he ate whale and said that “Scientific whaling is [...]
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
If you aren’t accepted by Early Action, are you automatically enlisted in the regular application, or will you have to apply again?
December 23rd, 2008 at 3:11 am
Many grats on scoring Stanford!
Also, on whale meat, if it tastes like raw salmon sashimi then I’m all for it!
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Congratulations on Stanford, I’m a student there myself and would love to say welcome!
December 23rd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Arghh, no DM, why have you decided to go to ‘The Farm?’
Sorry, Cal student here, we all call Stanfurd ‘The Farm’. :P
Congrats!
December 25th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
well, since everyone has said the cliche ‘c’ word and not sure if you are bored of it yet, i won’t repeat it ;)
But really curious what courses you planning to do in university?
p.s. ah, whale meat, nonetheless i haven’t tried it before, but my impressions of it seem to be similar to your experience. but i guess should still give it a try when chances come.
p.p.s. well, even it’s cliche, i think achievement deserves the superior feeling. Congratulations ;P
December 26th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Keiichi: It depends on Stanford. They can either defer your application to be reconsidered for the normal round, or they can reject you outright, in which case you have to try again in one more year.
Chao Yang: I cannot matriculate until two years later due to compulsory military service. Stanford allows for deferment, Berkeley doesn’t. It is difficult for me to apply two years later (problems with school forms and teachers leaving), so I have to apply now and then defer my admission. Unless by Cal, you mean Caltech, in which case I did apply for Caltech under normal decision and the results aren’t out yet.
Cancer: Thanks. I’m planning to study computer engineering and political science. I currently have no idea how Stanford’s system works (I kind of find out these things as I go along), so I’m not sure if I can do both of them as majors.
December 30th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Hey congrats on Stanford! (does that mean you’ll be doing coverage of AX 2009?)
Must try whale meat the next time I go to Japan…
December 31st, 2008 at 4:25 am
‘wow’ stanford, I thought you had to be smart to be accepted there?
Anyone who eats endangered whale meat from illegal whalers, has to
be dumb!
December 31st, 2008 at 11:56 am
As I said…
1. Consumption of whale meat produced by “scientific” whaling is obligatory under international whaling conventions, ostensibly to prevent wastage. You can argue that Japan’s whaling programme is not scientific, but it is an intellectually-dishonest appeal to ignorance to call it illegal, since it isn’t.
2. Minke whales are not endangered.
3. Norway, not Japan, carries out commercial whaling for the sole purpose of consumption.
4. People living in glass houses who can’t differentiate “your” from “you’re” and “to” from “too” should not throw rocks.
5. It’s a common misconception that good schools only accept smart people, so you have a point there. :)
February 22nd, 2009 at 3:43 am
Hi DM. Glad to hear you’re having fun in Tokyo. I still plan to make a trip there sometime or another. I’m actually getting ready for a trip to the Philippines to visit my wife’s family. Tomorrow I’ll be checking out boarding costs for my three cats. -_- That’s probably gonna cost over a hundred bucks. Oh well. Can’t just… wait. I’m getting sidetracked.
What I wanted to say is that one day I’d like to have a taste of whale too. I actually just had some shark fin soup today for the first time. It wasn’t as good as I’d hoped either. When you hear of something being a delicacy you think it’s going to be a great great thing.
I apologize for the idiot who posted in #33. I just had a conversation about Americans who embarrass themselves in front of an international crowd with my wife yesterday. Makes me want to speak with a different accent sometimes.
June 6th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I live in Louisiana so when it comes to eattin different things I’m always up for it! Most of you have prob never had aligator, crawfish,frog or turtle but down here it’s very common! However I also hunt but to kill a whale that’s been ok this earth longer than man is completely wrong. And it take very sick indiviuals to do something like that! I just hope none of y’all go to seaworld anytime soon! What will japan eat next they got cockroaches,dogs& cats down! I dnt see why they wouldn’t start coming for humans!