Okinawa Trip Part Loku ...

And finally ...

So the last day of our trip to Okinawa we headed to the famous market off of the Kokusai Dori. Weren't quite sure what to expect (these markets always kind of freak me out), but we figured we would grab something edible (my standard of edible anyway) & max and relax considering our flight was at some ridiculous time in the morning.
So, here we go.

First the seafood section. Everything was in Japanese and so everything I'm writing is 'to my knowledge'. :)

These shrimp were literally two feet long.

The largest, most colorful lobster I've ever seen. Sitting next to a

ginormous crab and a electric blue fish.

This fish is called a 'harisenbon' in Japanese. I think it's a porcupine fish. I know that whatever it is they had to skin it first before they can sell it because it has 'many pokers' (as translated from Japanese). Sick, huh?

After checking out the underwater selection we moved on to all that is pork, and I'm not talking bacon & pork chops.
Let's start here ... at the taste testing counter. Inside those 8 little cups are samples of parts of a pig that I had never dreamed of eating. Intestines, tongue, foot, cheek, heart, some sort of unheard of muscle, nose (that's right, the snout), and some other inside parts that made me want to vomit. I tried one. Any ideas as to what I ate? You'll most likely never guess it, so I'll just tell you.

FACE! That's right, pig face. I ate a piece of a pig's face.

And you could pick up your own pig's face for roughly $15.

I thought about sending one home for shock value but I couldn't handle the thought of having it in my luggage. No, it didn't taste good & it smelled equally as bad.

Apparently there's a variety of flavors, but I am not uninterested in comparing.

Intestines. A combination of large & small. Sounds good, eh?

The chopping block... where all the action happens.
Luckily I didn't witness any 'action'.Want to buy a whole leg? Apparently it's fresh.

And finally, the sickest thing by far.

& his friend Sickette.
Wrong, just wrong.

And let me tell you what it was like standing BEHIND the beheaded 'buta' (Japanese for pig). It was just as disgusting as you can imagine. I could see the whole inside of it's head & it was gross and haunted my dreams for like a week. Never again.

That's all for Okinawa folks. Thank goodness. Now I can move on to the other wild and crazy things I've been up to.

much love

tara

xx