Tempura ayu

I am waiting for pictures from my friend who went with me to Nagoya before I post about it. So, in the meantime, I give you:

My lunch, today. At KJH. We had, fish.


you may notice, that's a whole fish. A WHOLE FISH.


I have dreaded this day. I had a feeling it was coming, what with their love of skewering fish and roasting them whole and all, but I just hoped it might work out that I would somehow miss it. Look - you can even see his little mouth there, all glued shut with batter.

Nope. I waited until the kids started eating to find out how, exactly, one eats a whole fish, until I saw that you just pick it up with your hashi (chopsticks) and dig in. "oishi desu ka" (is it good?) I asked to the boy next to me. He grinned back with a mouthfull and said "hai" (yes). Not to be outdone by a 12 year old, I picked up my hashi. From the smiles on their faces as they watched, I could tell my students got a kick out of my expression as I raised the little guy to my mouth, gazed into his vacant eyes, and took a bite...

It's actually not that bad, if you don't think about the fact that you are eating a head while you chew.

So I ate it. Head, eyes, tail. Fins.

Yep.