Day 9: "King of Ebi"

My boyfriend called about ten places throughout Miyazaki before finding a place that served what he refers to as "king of shrimp", or ise ebi. Normally, the waters surrounding the prefecture in southern Kyushu are teeming with the succulent creatures around the end of November; this season, however, was a difficult one for the fishermen. If it hadn't been my birthday, he may have had given up. Yet there we were, driving up a winding mountainous road leading towards what was apparently the only restaurant in the entire prefecture that was able to catch the delicacy.

Ise Ebi meat, served on ice with cucumber and lemon

When we arrive, it seems as though the hostess knows exactly what we came for. Shortly after we are seated, two whole ise ebi are brought to our table. The bed of ice and cucumber ring around their "whiskers" suggested that they were caught very recently; it seemed as though they were just pulled from the ocean.

My boyfirend's Ise Ebi

My Ise Ebi

Now you can't see the my boyfriend's ise ebi's eyes, but if you look at mine's you can see that he's not going down without a fight. And fight he does:

Many people of non-Asian decent would view my ingestion of a technically still living creature as cruel, maybe even barbaric. But it is not uncommon for Japanese and Korean people to enjoy eating shellfish like ise ebi and abalone in this state, and honestly, I can't see anything unnatural about it. Come on, when was the last time you switched on the nature channel and saw a bear enjoying a salmon that's been sitting on the river bank for days?

Ise Ebi Miso Soup

In the tradition of "mottainai" (don't waste anything), the waitress took away the remains of our ebi only to bring them back in a boiling pot of miso broth. At this point, the battle was over, and I  was the clear winner. The principle of macrobiotics, based on the eating habits of Japanese people during the Edo period, suggests that when we consume any living or once living plant or animal we take in not only the vitamins it provides but their life energy. If this is indeed true, I think I now have enough fighting spirit to carry me into 2014! No better birthday present than that, unless you count the private hot spring we stayed at that evening.