It seems this discussion has taken a turn for the worst. lol

no personal opinion is attach to the below picture. just happened to pass a shop which had this flag/banner outside

I definitely don't agree with eating whales or dolphins, and this whole 「クジラは日本の食文化」stuff is a weak argument.

Are Japanese people so arrogant that they think they can get away with cruelty to animals in the name of culture??

There is no reason why they should kill hundreds, even thousands of dolphins and whales in such a despicable, cruel manner every year.

This year i'm going to Taiji to demonstrate against the cruelty to dolphins. The way they stab them like that, and cut their fins off while they're still alive makes me go crazy. Then they feed dolphin meat with a dangerously high content of mercury to their school children. Yeah, way to go.

Anybody who doesn't know about the Taiji thing just check you tube for 'Dolphin slaughter in Japan'

Whereabouts in japan do you live? In all the years i've been here i've only really seen whale meat on the restaurant a handful of times, and I eat out 3 times a day.

Not in Tokyo, so I can`t really speak for things around there... But here you`d be hard pressed to find any 居酒屋 or 一品料理店 that doesn`t at least have 鯨ベーコン on the menu. It`s even on the local karaoke place menu.

Does anyone buy it and eat it? I have no clue, but it`s there. Maybe it`s a popular おつまみ in these parts? It isn`t really used in normal cooking, just as a small side dish.

It`s also sitting back behind the fish in pretty much every grocery store I`ve paid attention in.

We once bought a pack on sale, and it tasted like complete and total crap...

Ah right. But Izakay's make up a pretty small prercentage of restaurants, even where you live right?

The only grocery stores we really have here in Tokyo are 7-11, Sunkus, AM PM, Family Mart etc... None of which sell whale.

Btw, you don't need to type all the Japanese words in Japanese. I can imagine it might be quite annoying for someone reading the post who doesn't read Japanese.

I guess now that I really think about it, pretty much anywhere that serves alcohol has it on the menu. I can even recall spotting it on a family restaurant menu. I doubt they serve it at French, Italian, etc restaurants... But the common ramen place or the like - pretty common.

There have to be some kind of regular grocery stores around there. Normal families do buy food and cook, and I greatly doubt they`re shopping at convenience stores for everything. (The local 7-11, by the way, does have whale something or other by the alcohol.)

Actually, with the number of Japanese learners on here, I`ve been asked quite a few times to avoid romaji and write Japanese in Japanese. Plus, chances are, if they can understand ippinryouriten then they`re going to be able to read it.

Good point.

I was just saying that, i dunno about where you live but there are 10,000s of restaurants in Tokyo that don't. So it shouldn't be any problem finding places to eat that don't serve whale. Unless you go to some like weird countryside town.

I don`t doubt it. There are countless restaurants around here too... But I`m guessing the おつまみ culture is different in some way. It seems that whale really is a staple for old drinking guys. I don`t know anyone under 50 who actually eats it though, and it really never seems to be used in actual cooking.

The most whale meat I`ve ever seen in one place was in Tokyo station a couple years back though. One of those souvenir shops was literally stocked from floor to ceiling with whale something or other.

Anyways, Nyoroin. Have you seen those Taiji videos?? That stuff really gets me upset. I've seen lots of other videos that suggest Japanese people are cruel to animals.

Actually, the night I joined this forum I had just watched a bunch of stuff, which explains why i was in such a negative mood about this place (Japan that is)