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Kugura? Whale
Japan Diary by Betsy Herzog
 I eye the lunch tray suspiciously. Today’s selections include a cube of boiled pumpkin, a square of freeze-dried tofu and a purple-speckled tuber ominously called “devil’s tongue.” There is also one half of a baby octopus that is sliced open to reveal a nice view of its innards (which look surprisingly like angel-hair pasta). My chopsticks poke the main course – a black hunk of unidentified meat. I glance at the menu on the wall: kujira. Whale. I think I’ll pass.
What I wouldn’t give for a soggy slice of square pizza and a Little Debbie Cake from the Cullowhee Valley School cafeteria. Don’t get me wrong; I adore Japanese cuisine. It was practically the only thing I knew about this country eight months ago when I arrived in Japan to teach English. But even my wild imagination and steady stomach did not prepare me for some of the foods I have been offered. The high school at which I work had a welcome party for me last summer. My super-serious principal pointed expectantly at the try of raw chicken and said, “Betsy-sensei, douzo” (“Miss Betsy, go ahead”). All I could do was weakly mutter, “Tori influenza” (bird flu) before choosing what seemed like the safer option: raw liver.
A common stereotype about Japanese cuisine is that it includes a lot of raw fish. This is true. It’s an island nation, so fresh fish (sometimes squirming on your plate) is part of every meal, even breakfast. After eight months, I can confidently say that raw fish, called sashimi, is absolutely delicious. The flavors are subtle and smooth and stand on their own, without the overwhelming additives that characterize American menus. A fresh cut of tuna, salmon, squid or eel tastes exactly like ... fish – not lemon, or garlic, or even salt. The only condiments are a drizzle of soy sauce or a dab of potent green wasabi that accentuate the textures and fresh flavors without masking them.
Betsy Herzog of Cullowhee has discovered that her school lunch trays in Japan have a different look than the ones she remembers from her days at Cullowhee Valley Elementary and Smoky Mountain High.
Another stereotype I had was that all Japanese food is healthy. One wide-eyed stroll through the grocery store later, I learned the truth. Maybe traditional Japanese cuisine is healthy and subtle, but the modern version is mostly fried and greasy. Okonomiyake is a Japanese pancake filled with cabbage, bacon and eggs, fried on a griddle and doused in sweet sauce. Tonkatsu is a pork cutlet that has been breaded and deep fried. Dripping with hot lard, karaage is the culinary equivalent of buffalo wings, but even worse for you. Sukiyaki is meat cooked at the table in a pan of lard, soy sauce, sake (rice wine), and sugar. This is often served with the famed Kobe Beef which comes from cows raised on beer and given massages daily. But at $128 per pound, it won’t be near my chopsticks anytime soon.
I recently got to taste another absurdly expensive delicacy: the much-feared fugu. It’s a silvery green blowfish whose liver contains a potentially fatal neurotoxin. Nearly 200 fugu eaters die each year in Japan. Chefs have to be licensed to prepare it and, with all this work, it costs between $50 and $200 per fish. I watched anxiously as Mr. Nagasaki, my neighbor and host, took a nice big bite. I waited a few moments, and when I saw that he didn’t keel over, I took a nibble. It was flakey and mild. And, most importantly, I lived to write about it.
(Editor’s Note: Betsy Herzog of Cullowhee, a 2005 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is spending a year teaching English in a Japanese high school. The Herald will feature monthly columns by Herzog through July, when she returns to the United States for graduate school.)
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