It doesn't taste good in my opinion, but whales have been eaten by Japanese people since a thousand years ago (or more).

Today, you can taste it in restaurants, or buy the canned/preserved meat.

In ancient times, whales are preserved only in salt, or pickled.

© Hasegawa Tomoko

Click here if you're wondering what else is there to eat in Japan besides Moby Dick.

And click here for pictures & history of how whales started to be on the Japanese menu; it all began from a samurai's wild idea.

I don't like this tradition, but it is a tradition of Tosa. It is dog-fight, in which religious rituals are done like in Sumo wrestling.

Tosa dogs are the native dogs of Japan, and they are 'fighting dogs', not pets. In the past they were kept only by samurai and ninja.

© Hasegawa Tomoko

Click here for indigenous and imported Japanese animals which were supposed to fight -- but not each other.

Click here for what happens when dogs are superimposed on lions by Shintoism, and what that means to the Japanese.

Click here for dog amulets.

Do you know what this sign is?

It is a bus-stop!

© Hasegawa Tomoko

A mean chef as a restaurant sign in Tokyo.

© Hasegawa Tomoko