February 23rd, 2010 Posted in culture, life, travel | No Comments »
I recently visited Japan on vacation, and as always, it was a very interesting experience. Last time I was in Japan was 2½ years ago, where I was introduced to how insulin pen needle tubes were made (very interesting for the nerd in me btw, but I won’t bore you with the details as would probably kill yourself in boredom and valueless information).
During the trip I was invited out to eat traditionally Japanese cuisine (paperhut type enclosures and everything). I was offered a Japanese “delicacy”…. Afterwards I was told I had just eaten salted Octopus intestine – which apparentely *IS* a delicacy?!? So I thought, well, you have to try everything once, right? (I would liket o emphasize the “once” part of this, as I have no intention (whatsoever!!!) of eating it again. Tricking someone to eating it next time I bring someone else to Japan? absolutely! 
Cod semen – a heading I didn’t think I would ever have to write
Alright, well this time I was there something similar happened… but before I get to that, I’ll have just briefly mention my trip to Tokyo. I all started in Copenhagen Airport, where the airport security people wanted to inspect my bag…. and in doing so they accidentally (they claim…) dropped my laptop on a concrete floor, breaking my screen and damaging the laptop enclore so I currently have an option insurance claim against them. 
They were cool about it and handled it very professionally, but kind of a crappy start. When I landed in Narita airport in Tokyo, was so stupid as to inform the customs officer that I had some insulin pen prototupe devices with me, and they almost didn’t let me through, but because I had piece of paper stating “it’s ok, he can bring this into your country”, signed our department assistant, it went ok. My travel companion had not prepared such document, which meant we got to spend another 1½ hours in customs (where whenever I tried to sit down, I was politely asked to keep upright), until ultimately they had to destroy the 500 insulin pen needles he tried to bring into the country – which they had to count in front of him (despite him telling them that “IT’S OK, JUST THROW IT ALL AWAY”)……TWICE. Oh and to top it all off, it had apparently escaped me that in Japan they use a different cellphone system (unless your phone uses 3G…which my blackberry bold does not), so my phone didn’t work…ffs…
Let’s review: In CPH, my laptop was damaged, in Narita my colleagues samples we were to use in a meeting with our subsidiary was confiscated and my phone wouldn’t work for the duration of our stay. Fantastic… Luckily things went better from there on out. We stayed at the Royal Park Hotel and was upgraded to Executive Rooms with complimentary back rubs every morning.
So when are you going to get to the cod semen?
Oh yeah, after the meeting, which despite having our samples confiscated went very well, we were invited out to eat by the affiliate because I had ensured that a product I had been commercially responsible for developing and introducing, won the prestigious G-Mark (Good Design) award.
To celebrate, we went to shijō for world class sushi. It was tuna festival, so we had the full variety of tuna, from red tuna (akami) to otoro – truly a mouth watering experience. but..but..but… As they did last time, this time they also served something they wouldn’t tell me what was, other than “you have to try it and you have this delicacy”. When two of the people at the table (my Danish travel companion as well as the local Group Product Manager) both ate it and told me “go on, it tastes creamy”, I decided I would. It looked like a small brain btw, so they joked that it was the brain from a mouse, but as you have probably already guessed, it was something completely different – cod semen (Japanese term to beware of: shirako)…
I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be another one of those “try once“. A funny side note was the the (Japanese) person to my one side tasted it 15min later and apparently hadn’t been listening when I tried it, because when she was told what he had just put in her mouth she became VERY surprised and a little embarrassed it seemed..hehe…
I love Japanese 17 year olds - whiskeys that is…
I wanted a memory from this trip. My Danish colleague (who has lived in Japan for many years) thought I should get a Japanese whiskey, of which he recommended two good brands, Hibiki (blended) and
Yamazaki (single-malt), both from Suntory. He recommended the blended as being very smooth and so I took his advice and got me a 17 year old Japanese Hibiki whiskey, which
won gold at the 2009 ISC awards. He was right, and you are welcome to stop by my house and share a glass with me.
)
