David @ Tokyo

In my usual supermarket today and surprised because whereas I thought they didn't sell any whale products I found out that I was wrong:


My, we are well stocked this summer aren't we?

UPDATE 2010/09/04: And I was at the supermarket the other night again and saw that they have whale bacon too. How did I ever miss it?

Labels: whale gourmet, whale meat market

A few months ago when I peeked in a near-by supermarket I found the shelves were almost bare of canned whale products. What was the situation I wondered?

Were the products so popular they were selling out quickly? (Well whale is tasty, but it's no "miracle" product - just a type of meat - albeit much better than that nasty cow meat from Australia)

Or were the products unpopular so they weren't being restocked? (But then empty shelves in Tokyo supermarkets are not good at all for profitability)

Neither idea really seemed to make good enough sense.

So I was in the same supermarket yesterday, and found that not only were the shelves now packed full of whale products, there were also a couple of products I hadn't seen before, so I picked up a can each.

First up is "KUJIRA YAKINUKU":

The description on the can notes that this item is produced from whale by-products from Minke, Bryde's and Sei whales of the western north pacific and antarctic, sampled under Japan's special permit programs. The labelling on my can here in particular indicates that the whale inside came from an Antarctic minke whale.

Second up, is SANRIKU KUJIRA CURRY:

This can doesn't have such precise information about the origins of the whale, but the homepage of the company in Ishinomaki that produced it notes that they handle mainly research whaling by-products. Can't wait to try this one sometime, I love Japanese style curry and with whale it should be pretty good too (usually I use pork).

Anyway, now I have another idea about why the supermarket shelves for whale products were almost bare a couple of months ago, but packed yesterday. When in the supermarket looking at the shelves, one forgets that whale overall is limited in supply by how the volume of by-products eventuating from the research programs, and particularly with the Antarctic research being hampered again last winter, one expects that the whale meat supply this year is again down. But with it being August now, what by-products were available from last season's Antarctic research will now be available to the markets at least in part, and quite possibly the companies producing these canned products had put production on hold until such a time as they had more base products to work with, hence the lack of supply a few months ago versus now.

Labels: Ishinomaki, whale gourmet, whale meat market

I went to another local restaurant for dinner this evening, and ordered a standard "Katsudon" bowl meal, basically fried pork cutlets and egg on top of rice.

The restaurant staffers, a friendly elderly couple, know that some of the other regulars in the area and myself enjoy a whale fest together from time to time, and very once in a while they serve whale sashimi on their own menu themselves. I guess I've had it there a couple of times, and I remember that the operator of the nearby Lawson convenience store himself is a whale fan and always asks them to save a portion for him.

Anyway tonight after starting on my Katsudon order, the master suddenly blinked as he remembered - "oh hey, we have minke whale on the menu today"

I hadn't checked the daily part of the menu they have up posted up on the wall in the shop, but indeed they did. The restaurant is small with 5 counter seats and two cramped tables seating another 4, but it was uncharacteristically empty tonight (at least when I arrived) so I snapped some pictures:


Of course I added the whale sashimi (600 yen) to my Katsudon order:


I chatted with the master briefly about it and he said that today (at least) they were selling the minke sashimi at cost price, no profit. 600 yen for 6 slices does seem like a good deal as far as minke sashimi goes. He also said that minke whale is "not usually available", where ever it is he gets it in from.

I'm not familiar with what goes on in distribution, but perhaps the sashimi products that he gets are from the coastal research whaling ops that are conducted up off Sanriku (and Kushiro later in the year). This would explain why he isn't able to serve whale sashimi normally, if it is fresh product that hasn't been frozen. There is of course frozen whale meat inventory from the offshore research whaling, but the sashimi tonight was soft without a trace of being frozen that the tongue could detect.

They were also pleased that the "head Sea Shepherd guy has been arrested" (well, they hadn't quite got the details right, but obviously the Sea Shepherd fiasco has been big news here).

The master also said "I heard that there's a plan to permit Japan to catch minke whales in our coastal area again". I told him that I've heard of this too, but added that I think the negotiations don't stand chance of success. The Japanese print media has been running stories about this, and the Minister (Mr. Akamatsu) has been positive towards the plan in some respects, but the reality is that there is not a snowball's chance in hell that Japan will be able to negotiate a deal that will be acceptable. E.g., Akamatsu wants to negotiate to get a quota of more than the proposed 200 abundant Antarctic minkes a year, whereas the anti-whaling nations are only interested in negotiating towards a catch quota of 0 abundant Antarctic minkes a year.


In relation to that, former Japan Commissioner to the IWC, Masayuki Komatsu has also been reported in the media criticising the IWC proposal. He reportedly said that "there is a big problem with them trying to legalize the commercial whaling moratorium for another 10 years".

A good point. Komatsu has in the past noted that he looks forward to the day when the IWC's issue can be sorted out in a court; this plan would see his hopes dashed for 10 years.

Komatsu was also on radio recently, saying that there are 3 problems with the new IWC proposal:
1) It ignores science
2) It ignores law (International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling)
3) It shows no consideration for nations supporting sustainable use.

Point number 2 is it for me. The reason we get these strange ideas that everyone can't agree with coming out the IWC is because there is no agreement on policy (described in the ICRW). But why don't we have a policy agreement, since all these IWC contracting governments have supposedly adhered to the ICRW?

The answer is simple - because a bunch of them are not adhered to the ICRW in good faith. This is the root problem and until it is resolved one way or the other, the IWC isn't serving it's purpose and is useless.

Labels: whale gourmet

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that a local drinkery was advertising whale on it's menu, with a topical comment related to Sea Shepherd putting thoughts of whale dishes in Japanese consumers' minds.

I popped past again this evening to see if they were still doing whale - and they are:


The signboard has been modified since, and this time the whale in the image on the right (sorry you can't see the whale picture due to the bright light) is saying "an arrest warrant for Sea Shepherd".

It's not clear whether this is in reference to the arrest warrant for Peter Bethune, or the arrest warrant for Paul Watson following reports of Peter Bethune implicating Watson in Bethune's boarding of the Shonan Maru #2 and other related offences, but the arrest warrant for Watson has been featured heavily in the news here in recent days, so that's probably what it is.

Also noted on the menu is "sakura shrimp" and "sea eel sashimi". They focus on sea food.


So yes, I did get along to the restaurant on April 20, together with isanatori (who may very well be Tokyo's number one whale eater).

Here are the whale items that were on the menu that day.

First up - fin whale sashimi. Asked the chef about their food sources, and he said they get their marine products through Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. We figured that this fin whale is more likely than not some of that exported in from Iceland, courtesy of Hvalur hf. Our thanks to Kristjan Loftsson and company if that is the case!


Whale bacon (minke):


Fried fin whale (tatsuta-age style):


Fin whale shoga-yaki style (kind of stir fried with ginger):


Here's the menu. It's not a cheap place - the fin whale sashimi was going for 1,500; the minke bacon for 1,600 and the fried whale for 900.


I mentioned to the chef that I had seen his signboard and blogged it - attracting the attention of the odd person of the anti-whaling persuasion (see here). He was happy for me to take pictures of the food and joked that I should pass on his gratitude to Sea Shepherd for their (I suppose unwitting) contribution to his business, and so there you have it.

His whale picture on the signboard (see prior post) had apparently been popular with other customers. He said he was eager to keep serving whale for a while.

Labels: Iceland, whale gourmet

A new restaurant in Tokyo's downtown Akasaka district that opened late last year serving whale gained some attention in local media in February, when it fully kicked into business.

Here's an article (in Japanese) from the Akasaka Keizai Newspaper. Magonotei is apparently run by the same operator as the Akanedoki restaurant in Shinjuku, which opened 3 years ago.
After Magonotei opened, they started by doing some test marketing for three months to study the preferences of Akasaka diners. At the end of this period they fixed their grand menu and kicked off on February 17.

From their experience at Akanedoki they were able to secure a supplier of high quality whale meat, and much knowledge of whale recipes. And so it was that they decided to branch out to Akasaka. A representative for the operator is quoted saying "Although Akasaka is in the center of Tokyo, we are the only ones who can offer such high quality whale meat at reasonable prices".

"I'm of the last generation that had whale cuisine served in school lunches", the quote in the article continues. "These days there are many younger people who've never eaten whale. For Japan's ancient traditional food to disappear, even though I know the wonderful taste, would be unfortunate. I want younger people especially to eat cheap, good quality whale meat and get a surprise about how delicious it is." His PR pitch continues, "Whale meat is low in calories compared to cow meat and pig meat, and low in cholesterol. And on top of that it's rich in protein, so I expect women will be pleased."

Included on the Grand Menu is sashimi (780 yen), tatsuta-age (fried whale - 720 yen), kujira cutlets (1,080 yen), kujira hot plate steak (1,180 yen), sarashi kujira (480), and other peculiarities such as whale tongue (720 yen). Apparently all items use fresh minke whale, according to the article, although one imagines it must have been frozen first.

"Especially now, the whaling issue is being taken up in the news and I feel that interest in it is heightening. We've had more customers here debating about whaling over their drinks", the quotes note.

Magonotei is open from 11:30 to 14:30 on weekdays (catering to the Akasaka lunch market), and is open for dinner from 17:00 to 23:30 Monday to Thursday, until 04:00 on Fridays and days before holidays, and from 16:00 to 23:00 on Weekends and holidays.


Food Stadium (Tokyo Food News Online) also has a similar article. In this one it notes the restaurant is "aiming to become an izakaya where every item on the menu is delicious, and customers want to come here everyday". They also have specially selected foods besides whales selected, included domestically produced vegetables and so on.

The article also mentions the restaurant interior, which has a nostalgic atmosphere of an old folk house in the countryside.

"There are many people who have a bad image of whale, but its a foodstuff that is healthy and rich in nutrition so I really hope to have women and younger people it. I'm sure once you eat it you will recognise its appeal." The article wraps up saying that whale is worth checking as 2010's "health and beauty food".


And so, the pictures! I went twice in March. If you go, be sure to check for the menu coupon in Hot Pepper etc, you can choose either a free plate of 5 whale items or others such as drinks discounts etc. (Check Gurunabi here: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/a636504/, Hot Pepper here: http://www.hotpepper.jp/strJ000760684/). We went for the free plate of whale, picture included below.

First here's the menu. The section on the bottom right (enlarged) is espousing the nutritional value of whale.


And some of the wall decoration, a piece of baleen:


And a variety of dishes we had:


This one below is the free one we got for having the coupon:


Whoops, looks like we had half eaten this one before I snapped the photo.


Sashimi:

They don't skimp on the whale here (or they just treated us good - it was my second visit there plus I've been to Akanedoki several times), check out how thick they cut the pieces (from above):

This one below is a hot plate of whale steak and fried potato. Looks delicious, even with the poor photo quality of my mobile phone camera.


Another type of sashimi:


Whale, Carpaccio style:


And finally kujira cutlets:


Magonotei, like Akanedoki, is a great restaurant, and as noted in the articles they serve items besides whale too, if whale ain't your thing. But if you are reading this blog, I guess it is :)

Labels: Magonotei, whale gourmet

Yushin, the antenna shop for Kyodo Senpaku, closed down earlier this year as previously announced.

It looks like the last meal I had there was a fried whale donburi set meal.


I miss Yushin's steak recipe. That was fantastic.

Labels: whale gourmet, Yushin

These are from an outing around five months ago, but here's some more pics from an outing to Taruichi in Shinjuku.

I don't remember exactly what each dish was now, but let's see what I can recall. I think this first one was whale heart:


This next one looks to be some kind of whale bacon.


This was probably some of the really good stuff - onomi from the tail perhaps.


A whale / rice dish:


Whale sushi:


And finally some of the ads outside the shop.

Labels: Taruichi, whale gourmet

I already had other plans for dinner tonight, so I won't be eating at this local restaurant that I stumbled across in my local neighbourhood this evening, but the signboard really caught my eye.

The restaurant's main menu (out of sight in this photo) was also on display, but what really grabbed me was the huge "KUJIRA" writing on the signboard, pictured.

The text says something which would translate as "Whale, which you are familiar with due to Sea Shepherd". This shop is obviously trying to draw customers who may have seen news recently about Sea Shepherd's latest efforts in the Antarctic, including the arrest on 5 charges of (my, sad to say, fellow New Zealander) Peter Bethune. This has been making headlines in Japan in recent months.

Just a 5 minute walk from home so, needless to say, I will be popping in there sometime soon for a bite.


On the menu they have items such as Fin whale sashimi and tatsuta-age (fried whale), and their very own Minke whale bacon, amongst others.

Labels: whale gourmet

More news from Japan, this time from Yokohama, in Kanagawa prefecture just south of Tokyo. This story again from Tokyo Shimbun.

Bring back vigor to "Whale Row"
Restaurants in Noge district, Yokohama city aim to create a speciality with new menu development

This is how the headline from the article dated 2009/02/05 reads.

In Noge district of Yokohama city's Naka ward, there is an area lined with restaurants for common people, and there the restaurants are cooperating together in an effort to create a guide map and new menu items. Noge became lively after the end of WWII when a "Whale Row" of restaurants serving whale meat formed there. The restaurant operators there today are looking to liven up the area once more with whale.

The Whale Row was located in the vicinity of Sakura River New Road, in front of the JR rail station of Sakuragicho. The New Road was made by filling in the river there. In those days, the riverside was packed with restaurants selling whale cutlets and so forth, and the air was thick with the smell of cooking whale meat. Supposedly it was packed with people as at that time of food shortages whale was a precious source of protein. But with the filling in of the river, the "row" disappeared, and the increase in diversity of food, along with the banning of commercial whaling for resource conservation [says the article], shops dealing in whale dwindled.

The arrival of the Black Ships [of Commodore Perry] led to the opening of Yokohama port 150 years ago in June, and this event is regarded as resulting in the USA choosing to establish Japan as it's base for reprovisioning it's whaling vessels. With that historical background, last year 9 shops developed speciality menus such as gyoza and Japanese style curry using whale meat. In a taste testing event these items were popular, and as such the "Noge Restaurant Association" decided to expand the menus through the whole area.

According to the plan, a "Noge whale map" illustrating all the restaurants in the area with whale cuisine will be produced by April. With whale meat limited in distribution volume, the association aims to purchase whale meat on behalf of all shops, so as to ensure whale is available at cheap prices with stable supply.

On January 30, a whale meat taste testing event and cooking lecture were held. The article quotes a Mitsuo Ono (69) who runs a sushi restaurant as saying, "I think I'll use the red meat for nigiri (hand-rolled sushi) at my shop". The head of the association, Masanobu Tai (53) is quoted saying "There are people who are against whaling, but whale cuisine is Japan's precious food culture. I hope that we'll be having people say 'Let's go to Noge, and eat whale'".

Noge has a web page with more information about the plan and the recent cooking event (in Japanese) at the link below:

http://www.noge.biz/guide/kujira.html

It sounds like some port opening commemoration events will be held from April, which is why they are targeting April for the completion of the map.

Labels: Noge Whale Row, whale gourmet, whale meat market, Yokohama

There's a few restaurants along side the Yamanote line on the north west side of Shinjuku station that serve whale amongst there other offerings. I digitized one of the advertisements (seen on 2009/2/22) as below.

The Japanese text labels the product in the center as "kujira sashi", so there's no doubt what it's supposed to be, but the misspelling as "WHEEL" put a smile on my face.

This meat (683 yen) doesn't look too good to me though (nor do the grubby restaurants there beside the train tracks) so I don't plan on visiting this place. You can't go wrong over the other side of the tracks at Akanedoki or Taruichi in Kabukicho, just a couple of minutes from there.

Labels: whale gourmet, whale meat market

As with the western media, the IWC Future draft rose some eyebrows in Japan as well.

Yomiuri newspapers published editorials (offline now) welcoming the plan to an extent, at least so far as urging Japan to continue to with the negotiations for a compromise.

On the other hand, one Fisheries newspaper put together a detailed article cautioning strongly against it, ultimately urging Japan to get back to the basics of resource management based on compliance and science, and restore whale resource management functions.

Fortunately there was also media coverage of some of those who would be most directly effected by any compromise proposal. Up in north-eastern Honshu, the Sanriku Kahoku news paper ran a story at the beginning of February covering the thoughts of people related to coastal whaling in the region.

Report accepting coastal whaling released (2009.02.04)
IWC Small Working Group
Continued whaling not guaranteed - "Frankly not pleased" Katsushika, Ishinomaki

The article reports that the chair of the IWC's SWG, De Soto, released his report which suggests allowing coastal whaling that Japan has been requesting in exchange for Japan scaling back its special permit whaling in the Antarctic. It noted that this is a compromise plan to address the conflict between whaling and anti-whaling nations, however at the whaling town in Ishinomaki city's Katsushika area:

... the report's contents have been taken in with complicated feelings. "We're not able to throw both arms up in the air in delight about this".

The article mentions that the report notes that for 5 years, 4 Japanese whaling towns including the one in Katsushika would be permitted to take an as yet unspecified number of minke whales, under conditions such as the whaling involving day trips with less than 5 vessels engaged.

As for beyond the next 5 years, the report described two options of banning whaling or continuing it.

On the other hand, as for Antarctic special permit whaling, two plans were described including the gradual cessation of minke whale catches and the total ban of fin whale catches.

Keiichi Endo, the 51 year old president of Ishinomaki's "Ayukawa Hogei (Whaling)" company which was established last year in February, said "At the current time I can't say that I agree with the report. Will Japan be able to accept the total banning of research whaling in the Antarctic? The report doesn't guarantee research will be continued from the 6th year onwards", he points out.

Mayor of Ishinomaki city, Kimio Doi, expressed a cautious position, saying "I can't comment at this stage. I'll be following developments in the debate at the IWC".

Mayor Doi had attended the June 2007 meeting of the IWC in Anchorage. The next month in July Ishinomaki city held the first national whale forum, where the "Ishinomaki declaration" was adopted, requesting Japan to unilaterally allow a resumption of small-type coastal whaling.

To that extent, the region welcomes the resumption of coastal whaling, however there is dissatisfaction as well. "Since the 1988 commercial whaling moratorium, there has been no progress at the IWC towards resuming whaling."

In another article at the similarly named Kahoku news site (seems to be offline now, but the title was "「期待せず」「議論見守る」沿岸捕鯨再開ＩＷＣ報告書"), both were quoted again.

Keiichi Endo, president of "Ayukawa Hogei" based in Ayukawa port that owns two of the small-type coastal whaling vessels rejected the report, saying "I can't expect anything from it". He expressed concern that on top of either scaling back research whaling or stopping it in 5 years, from the 6th year onwards there was still the possibility of small-type coastal whaling being banned as well.

"I do agree with reducing the number of whales caught in research whaling and increasing the quota for small-type coastal whaling, but that's not to say I'm for reducing research whaling to zero. Continuing both is best", he asserts.

Mayor Doi is quoted here again saying similar things.


It doesn't bode well for the IWC discussions if even those in Japan such as Mr. Endo, who would possibly gain most from a compromise package, are not happy with it.

If free time eventuates I'd like to introduce the Fisheries newspaper article mentioned above, in a future post, but perhaps what develops in March will preclude my motivation to do this - let's see.


So what are the pictures included in this blog? On the weekend after this report was released by the IWC, I was on the snowy slopes of Mt. Zao bordering between Miyagi and Yamagata prefectures, and coincidentally a friend of mine was also in Sendai, Miyagi's capital at the same time. Originally from Hokkaido where they often eat whale at New Year's, she's one of a "whale eating" circle we started up a few years back.

Anyway, she spotted whale on the menu at a Sendai izakaya restaurant (Kochira Marutoku Gyogyobu) and sent me the pics and shop location.

They have a chain of restaurants centred in Miyagi, but they also have restaurants in Yamagata, Akita and Morioka (main cities of surrounding prefectures) as well.

On the web (Japanese)

Labels: Ishinomaki, IWC Normalization, Japanese media perspective, whale gourmet

Well, I've been a busy busy of late - who isn't in December? But I did have time to snap off some screenshots of an FNN (Fuji News Network) online news article with accompanying video in early December, which came up when Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah spent a couple of days on a Sea Shepherd cruise down the east coast of Australia (A Sankei newspaper journalist subsequently noted on his blog his surprise at the speed at which Hannah departed the crusade).

Unlike Greenpeace, who have been expending great efforts trying to gain sympathy for the arrest of the "Tokyo Two" (more aptly, the "Two Tokyo Thieves") following their committing acts of trespass and theft in pursuit of their anti-whaling propaganda agenda, the Sea Shepherd organization has actually been getting some media coverage here in Japan.

Not that it's been particularly good for them.

The FNN video gave some air time to Hannah's airhead nonsense about whale "assassinations" and so forth. Paul Watson himself gets a few words in at one point when staff member Taro Kimura is shown in a phone conversation with him:

As seen in the subtitle of the video, Kimura is saying to Watson: "You injured Japanese crew members".

Watson's response, shown in the image below is "No we didn't".

Kimura continues: "No, you did".

And that was it for Watson. Perhaps he'd get more airtime if he stopped telling porkies.

Young announcer Koji Oana continues the report with some comment from the Japanese side. Oana was apparently born in Nagano (an inland part of Japan) in 1982, the year the commercial moratorium was agreed to, and being of a young age and coming from a non-coastal part of Japan is unlikely to have had much chance to eat whale meat during his time on earth.

His report covers the negative impact on whale consumers from Sea Shepherd's obstruction - prices have gone up 6% and the Kyodo Senpaku antenna shop, Yushin, is likely to close in 2010 as a result of the obstruction.

A part of the caption in video reads "whale terrorism: the aim...".

Oana heads of to the Hatsumomiji restaurant in Shinjuku to find out more about whale meat:

And so here is a whale dish, says young Oana.

Can we get a closer look at that, please?

It was a couple of weeks ago that I watched the video, but I think this is the "kanako" part of the whale. It's meat from the lower jaw of the whale, and this cut is one of those that fetches a high price.

No doubt Oana was putting this one on FNN's bill. But it's not just for looking at. Oana tries it out:
That's right, dip it in some soy sauce...

As the video cuts away to show more close up shots of the meat, Oana comments that the whale is "delicious".

With respect to both Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, it's hard to see how their actions are likely or even designed to bring about a change in the sustainable use policy of the government here. On the contrary their actions do often appear to be working against their purported aims.

Labels: Japanese media perspective, Koji Oana, Sea Shepherd, whale gourmet

Long time readers will possibly recall some older coverage I did of Hananomai, a typical Japanese izakaya restaurant, which put whale dishes on it's permanent menu a few years back.

Unlike other whale specialty shops I've introduced here from time to time, Hananomai is a chain restaurant, and can seemingly be found in various places around Tokyo, and probably other centres as well.

We had some visitors come and stay with us earlier this year, and as you do we tried to show them some things unique to Japan, including a morning visit to watch a Sumo wrestlers training session (at Musashigawa-beya), and following along with the Sumo theme we also took them to Ryogoku (where the National Sumo Stadium is located) that evening for dinner.

There is a Hananomai restaurant there at the train station with a big Sumo wrestling ring in the middle of place, encircled by tables for diners. I'm pretty sure it's not a regular thing they do, but at least on the evening that we went an ex-Sumo wrestler was up in the ring - singing (pictured).

Anyway this was my first time to actually dine at Hananomai, and of course I was curious to see these upgraded whale dishes that were supposedly to be found.


"Kujira", the Chinese character for whale emblazons this section of the menu, consisting of two choices. "Our popular tatsuta-age", says the subtitle next to the Fried Whale offering (714 yen including consumption tax). "Goes great with Shochu", says the one next to the similarly priced Whale Bacon option, encouraging customers to also order a drink of Japanese spirits. At Hananomai the amount of kilocalories per dish is also clearly labeled.

We didn't order these for our non-Japanese speaking foreign guests. They were already suffering from a bit of culture shock after finding an unexpected crunch in the fried chicken cartilage that we had put in front of them, so I resisted the urge to order whale on this occasion.

Labels: Hananomai, whale gourmet

One of the most well known whale restaurants in Shinjuku, and indeed all of Tokyo is Taruichi. Often featured in western coverage of the whaling issue in Japan, I had the distinct pleasure of having a meal at Taruichi recently, and didn't miss the opportunity to snap some mobile phone photos for a blog entry.


First, some photos of the exterior.


There's some more when you arrive on the 5th floor:


And above the entrance is this big sign board:

I couldn't stand far away enough to get the "ichi" of "Taruichi" into the picture, but more interesting on the left is the picture of a whale and some Japanese text, which I will translate as something like...
Inside, one finds that Taruichi is larger than one expects from it's exterior, and at least on the Saturday night that I went the place was pretty much packed. We hadn't bothered to ring and book a table in advance (there are other whale restaurants nearby which you can fall back on), and so we found ourselves limited to about 2 hours until just before 9 p.m. when another reservation had been made.

Taruichi is apparently a 2nd generation restaurant now, and the interior is true enough to this. There are several tatami mat rooms available, and also lots of whale related decoration. Take the lamp displayed to the right. Maybe the whale attached as the base of the lamp will catch your eye first, but take another look at the lampshade - that's baleen that it's made out of.

There are also whale illustrations on the walls and door, as you see in the picture below, so you can enjoy some whale watching as well as enjoy your whale meal.


Moving along to the actual food. Japanese whale cuisine culture proponents love to illustrate that with whales, every part you can imagine is used for something (as also seen with the baleen lampshade). Here's a page from the menu pointing out the names of different parts of whale, all of which are available on the menu. Below it is the menu from one section of the wall in the room we were in.


The array of dishes on offer here is rather overwhelming. Even though other restaurants also have a variety of different meats available, Taruichi seems to have the greatest range that I have seen. Whale parts available on the menu include the normal meat you can find in any whale restaurant (red meat, bacon), and additional choices include whale heart, whale brain, and whale phallus.

Below is a picture of one set of dishes we ordered. There's "kujira tatsuta-age" (fried red meat) at the back left, a salad (can't remember if there was any whale in it, but there may have been), and "kohhaku ozohri" (a dish of whale sashimi including both red and white meats). The whale bacon (the white slices with the pink tinge) had more oil in it than any whale bacon I've ever had before.


Again if you take a close look at the sashimi plate, you can see a piece of baleen used for decoration, more easily identified in the "after" shot below.


As I mentioned above, there were various dishes using various whale parts on the menu. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what these two items below were.


One other thing that caught my attention was a sticker on the wall, which for some reason is partially damaged. What we can make out from the remains is:


But I digress.

Overall, although our time at Taruichi was unfortunately limited, we were able to sample 8 different types of whale dish, and if you happen to have any non-whale eaters with you there is also more typical fare on the menu, such as plain old fried chicken.

Taruichi's dishes generally have a traditional look to them, and it gave me a sense that the menu items there are true to the restaurant's history. Other newer restaurants, such as neighbouring Akanedoki a few minutes walk away that started serving whale items and courses 2 or 3 years ago, appear as if they have put effort into producing dishes for the 21st century whale diner, rather than sticking with older traditional style dishes. But when it comes to items such as whale sashimi there is essentially not a great deal of difference. It's the other dishes such as steaks with sauces that provides the distinguishment.


Official homepage: www.taruichi.co.jp

Address: 5F, Daiichi Asakawa Bldg., 1-17-12 Kabuki-cho Shinjuku-ku Tokyo
Google Maps link

When to go: Any day except Sunday and Holidays

Labels: Taruichi, whale gourmet