Not too chicken to eat this fish!

Call me crazy, (it wouldn't be the first time) but I was looking forward to eating a notorious, poisonous fish.

Fugu is the Japanese name for blowfish, a fish that is lethally poisonous if it isn't prepared correctly. Chefs have to have a special license in order to serve this Japanese delicacy.

The most popular dish is fugu sashimi (raw fish), which is sliced so thinly that you can see the plate through the meat. Here is the plate of sashimi that I dared to try on Monday night...

I learned that only fugu is presented this way; other fish aren't sliced so thinly.

It was my friend Kenji who invited us ALTs to a restaurant near my apartment to try this. He likes to take ALTs who are about to leave Japan to eat fugu as a "last supper." Ha.

According to Kenji's rules, the youngest person has to try the fugu first. Guess who was the youngest in the group? Yep. Coincidentally, (or not) Kenji was the oldest person in the room.

So. Here I am, being the brave youngest...

I don't know about this...

Here goes...

OK. :)

Harriet was next...

She agreed with me that it was actually quite tasty.

Julian also liked the fugu dipped in a special sauce. His reaction (and I quote) was, "Mmmmmm." :)

After eating the sashimi, we had fugu prepared two other ways: fried (called karage) and in a hot pot with vegetables (called nabe), which looked like this...

The leftover nabe was used to make a rice soup called zohsui.

At the end of dinner, Kenji had a special farewell gift for the four ALTs who are leaving within the next few days...

Boxes of chocolate of the "Julian variety," the "Ebun variety," the "Oliver variety," and the "Harriet variety." Very cool!

I'm happy to report that all of us who ate the fugu are alive and well, and there was no need for FINAL goodbyes.