Raw!

As everyone knows the Japanese do like their food raw. And for the most part I'm perfectly ok with that. There's nothing better than a nice bit of salmon sashimi - it just melts in the mouth. But you can find some raw meats, or very close to raw at least, in Japan that would be unthinkable in most parts of the world. One example of this is chicken. Back in Ireland you wouldn't dream of eating chicken that was still pink in the middle; we all know the dangers of salmonella!

But take a look at the photos of the chicken from a meal myself and Saori had at local izakaya (bar-cum-restaurant) recently.

The two above photos are of half cooked chicken and the one below is of duck.
It sounds like I'm complaining but I'm not really. I think it's fantastic that the quality of the food is so good that they can get away with cooking it so rare. Personally I do prefer chicken cooked through but the duck was very good.

Having said that, such is the desire of some people here to eat their food nice and bloody that they do put themselves in real danger. I've heard of hunters eating freshly caught wild boar raw and actually dying. Also I once knew a Japanese girl to whom the sight of raw meat was so irresistible that she devoured a fillet of raw pork she found in the fridge. She came down violently sick but survived to tell the tale.