Eating fresh, raw whale meat in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo, Japan

* Note: This action is solely my personal decision and has absolutely nothing to do with my sponsors for this trip.

I had been curious about whale meat for quite some time now. Those who have been following my blog would have realized that I’m game to try exotic/out-of-the-ordinary food as long as it doesn’t kill me. Heck, I even ate fugu (blowfish/pufferfish) laste year in Osaka, all warnings be damned.

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Eating whale meat in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo - rebecca saw blog-010

Just yesterday morning I went out to Tsukiji Market on my own. I queued for Sushi Daiwa, just so I could compare it to the superb Sushi Dai meal I had last year. After my meal, I wondered around the market in search of more food and more photos.

A day earlier we had a tour arranged for us by our sponsor (the hotel) and I went past a stall selling raw whale meat. However that was for sale only and they do not serve it as a meal.
By some stroke of luck I stumbled upon this shop on the outer part of Tsukiji Market yesterday morning. This is the part where the vendors are selling cooked items and dried goods. I don’t read Japanese but the pictures told me everything that I need to know.

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Eating whale meat in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo - rebecca saw blog

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Fortunately for me there is a girl working here that speaks a little English. She’s the kind soul who helped me shoot this video and also some of the pictures seen here.
Note: For those who are against whale meat consumption, do yourself a favour and don’t watch or read this post.

Eating whale meat in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo - rebecca saw blog-012

Yes, like I mentioned in my video, it tasted like beef. But while there’s a certain pleasant flavour to beef, this was just chewy, raw and intensely bloody. The girl asked me to eat it with the soy sauce, saying that it would give it a better taste, which I understood why now. It is obviously to disguise the real flavour of the meat!
I certainly can’t develop a taste for whale meat and I won’t be craving for this anytime soon.

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Appearance-wise it’s a deep, dark red. I had thought it would at least resemblance tuna in flavour (being similarly reddish in colour) or at the very least, fishy. But no, it didn’t taste like fish at all. (Yes yes I’m aware that it’s a mammal, not a fish.)

The meat came from this whale (the one in the middle) and I believe it’s an acceptable species to catch and eat. After all this was in Tsukiji Market and selling in the open.

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For the sashimi experience, you would have to come inside the shop and a chef would slice some fresh ones for you. As for the fried ones (deep fried whale meat & whale meat korokke) on display outside, you can buy as take-aways.

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The menu. I don’t Japanese. What does it say? Anyone?

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I bought some of the fried ones as well. These were much more palatable.

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Here are the frozen ones. I wonder what parts of the whale are these?

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Eating whale meat in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo - rebecca saw blog-003

* More details of my weird eating adventures on www.RebeccaSaw.com/travel
1. Live octopus in Jagalchi Market, Busan, Korea
2. Live sago worms in Sibu Market, Sarawak
3.  Fugu (pufferfish) in Genpin, Osaka 

So, I have tried horsemeat in Belgium, raw and smoked herrings in Amsterdam, smoked weed, ate those creepy crawlies in Bangkok. What else, what’s next? 😀

This Post Has 13 Comments

  1. Marcus

    looks like beef. tastes like beef. like the beefy spare parts eh, bloody like raw liver. hmm.
    how did the cooked parts fare? any clue?
    looks really interesting, very much a must do in japan, man.

    1. Rebecca Saw

      Yes a must do in Japan if you do not have issues with eating whale 🙂
      The cooked ones are gamier versions of beef. 😛

  2. Rungitom

    Interesting story, I might wanna try this if I get to Japan. 🙂

    1. Rebecca Saw

      Pls do! If you have no issues with eating whale meat, then by all means do try. It is a unique experience for sure! 😀

  3. ulric

    I wonder how it will taste like lightly-grilled…hehe =)

    1. Rebecca Saw

      There’s whale meat specialty restaurants in Tokyo 🙂
      We can have a full course meal & all kinds of whale meat preparation haahha!

      1. ulric

        Haha…whale kaiseki…shud be a bomb…just like the crab kaseki I had during my previous trip there =)

      2. Rebecca Saw

        What crab??? Snow crab (is that frm Japan ahh..) , King crab?

      3. Rebecca Saw

        Yes yes for sure from Hokkaido but species.. well the ones I had I verified with Andy himself, he said King Crab 🙂

  4. AnimuX

    Absolutely terrible. Japan annually kills endangered fin whales, endangered sei whales, vulnerable sperm whales, rare Brydes whales, common minke whales (many from the vulnerable J-stock), and Antarctic minke whales. Not to mention up to 20,000 small cetaceans like dolphins including rare beaked whales and a Dall’s porpoise slaughter called clearly unsustainable by scientists. The government of Japan funds the killing of these whales during an international moratorium on whaling, within the boundaries of an international whale sanctuary, all while the International Whaling Commission repeatedly calls on Japan to stop killing whales.

    What’s next on your menu? Poached mountain gorilla with a side of blackened rhino followed by grilled tiger?

  5. Anime1992

    The poor whales: (I did not make a stop whale whales killed

  6. Mee

    Heh, everyone knows you shouldn’t eat poached mountain Gorilla. It should always be broiled.

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