Trying Japan’s Deadliest Fish 🐡☠️⚠️ Fugu in Shimonoseki

Trying Japan’s Deadliest Fish 🐡☠️⚠️ Fugu in Shimonoseki

Today we’re trying fugu, the most poisonous fish in Japan. It’s a puffer fish themed day. As well as trying it at the market, we’re visiting them at the aquarium. Look how cute they are. This is Shimonoseki at the very end of Honshu, the main island of Japan, an area known for fugu. Tell me in the comments if you try it. We’re starting the day in Kumamoto, which might seem quite far away, but it’s only 40 minutes on the Shinkansen to Fukuroka and then 15 minutes from there to Kakura station for Kita Kishu, where we’re taking the ferry over to Shimonoseki. So, if you’re staying in Fukuroka, you could absolutely do this as a day trip. We’ve just arrived at Kura Station in Kyushu. And there’s a stamp. They’ve also got a little booklet to collect local stamps. There’s a collection of the local stamps you can get. The Toto Museum is Toto toilets. These are the stamps in the local area. That’s nice. Oh, wobbly table. What is this? Some ninjas. It’s come out well. We’re looking for some coin lockers to store our little suitcase. And this is assigned to them. The key in the suitcase. And if you can read Katakana, it says coin locker. There’s a video on my channel about how to use coin lockers and where to find them and a video about Takubin, the luggage sending service. Both of them can be really useful on travel days like today where you’re stopping off along the way. We’re at Kokura Station, which is at the top of Kishu. And today we’re going to take the ferry over to Shimonoseki, where there’s a fish market that’s known for fugu puffer fish. Then we’re going to take the ferry back to here. We’re here because tonight we’re taking a night ferry from Majiko to Coobe. It’s going to take all night. We’ve got our own room booked on the ferry, so I’m looking forward to that. Oh yeah, we’ve arrived at Modiko station. It was a really short train ride, just under 15 minutes. This area is known as Mo Retro cuz it’s got an area of old western style buildings and you can see them straight away when you come out the station. And the station building itself is pretty fancy as well. Here’s the ferry terminal. And the train station is just through there behind those buildings. You get your ferry tickets from a vending machine. For adults, a one-way ticket is 400 yen. Lots of these types of machines in Japan are cash only. Yeah. Two people. Yep. Here’s the ferry. It’s quite a small one. It runs every 20 minutes and the journey is only 5 minutes long. If you don’t want to take the ferry, there is also an underground walkway and that’s free. It’s about 2 km long. Be pretty interesting to see. Maybe we’ll take it on the way back. On the way back, I bumped into some people who watched my videos who’ done the underground walkway. They showed me their souvenir stamps they’d collected at either end of the tunnel. I feel like we’re really close to the water level. There’s a little fun fair over there as well. The ferry only took about 5 minutes. It seemed like the ferry was really going for it, like a speedboat. You can sit outside on the roof of the ferry if you want to, but today is way too cold. It’s about 5° today. It’s not usually this cold at the start of March. This is Shimonoseki, which is on the main island of of Honshu. Honu and Kyushu are actually really close together. So, Shimonoseki is known for fugu, puffer fish, and there’s a fish market here where you can get lots of the puffer fish hopefully. So, we’re gonna go and have a look. Sukijiji isn’t the only fish market in Japan. If you’re going somewhere near the coast, they’ll often have one. And in our experience, they’ve been really good. We’ve been to quite a few in Hokkaido as well. So, it’s not just fish hopefully. Usually, you can find some fruit and vegetables or some other street food snacks that I’ll be able to enjoy as well. Market is called Karat Fish Market, which is really close to the ferry port. There’s the ferry, and there’s a boardwalk across here, and the market’s this way. Fugu is puffer fish or blowfish. And in the west, it’s mostly known for being a poisonous fish. If it’s not prepared properly, it is very poisonous. I think a lot of people just know it from that episode of The Simpsons. In Japan, they serve it in some places. You need a license to be able to serve it to show that you can prepare it properly. Are you scared of trying it, Phil? Well, I’ve had bits of it before and it’s been fine, but really like the number of people who get ill from it every year is like two or three people and they’re all people who have done it themselves at home. The proper chefs know what they’re doing. Yeah, I think it’s really really rare to get ill from it um at a restaurant or a proper chef. So, no, not worried at all. Just hoping it’ll taste nice. This is really nice along the boardwalk here. I can imagine what it’s like in summer. A look at all those puffer fish. All the puffer fish lanterns. I love that. All the fugu. There are lots of shops and restaurants along here. And then that building at the end is the actual fish market which is called Karat Fish Market. Here we are. This is the fish market itself. Downstairs has food stores and then there’s sitdown restaurants upstairs. It looks like quite an industrial market as well. It’s only open to the public at the weekends. I think maybe Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. During the week, the restaurants upstairs are open, but downstairs is closed. Along the side, there are stores selling ingredients like seaweed, spices, and pickles. If you don’t read Japanese, it can be tricky to know what’s what. It feels like a local place and very different from Sikiji Market. Even though the boardwalk’s obviously quite touristy and the main section of the market has lots of stalls for people wanting to try the local specialtity, it feels authentic and you can tell it’s definitely a working fish market. This is how you often see Fugu served, spread out on a plate like this. There’s actually a lot of stores in the middle here. Sushi, you pick what nigiri you want individually. It’s actually really busy here. It’s a Saturday today. There are certainly plenty of places to choose from for sushi, fugu, and seafood rice bowls. That’s Kaisendon. I was struggling to find anything that wasn’t fish. You might think, why is a vegetarian going to a fish market, but usually at other markets, I found something. Phil’s getting some of the fus sashimi. He’s going to get the small plate is 600 yen. We went upstairs to eat where you can get a great view of the market from the balcony and see just how big and bustling it is. You could also go and eat outside on the boardwalk. It feels got a plate of tapper fish to try. They often serve it all laid out in thin slices like this. The proper experience is at a restaurant where it’s on a big plate. I would go to a restaurant, but there’s going to be nothing there for you to eat. And I wanted to try it cut up thinly like this. I’ve only ever had it as a before where it’s a bit thicker and perhaps a little bit tougher. So, this is a small plate. It cost me 600 yen. Yeah. So, not too much. I mean, there’s not a lot of food, but it’s interesting to try. See what it’s like. I’m glad you can try it properly sliced up like this. It was super hectic down there. I did not expect it to be busy. No, I didn’t think it’d be this busy either. It is wildly busy. So, I wanted to just grab something. So, I didn’t look around. It was like, well, there’s a place that has some. Just let me get it. So, I just grabbed it and grabbed. So, let’s see what happens. So, I’m just gonna try a bit on its own. It’s quite a good taste. It’s not a strong fish at all. It’s quite mild. It’s a little bit tough, like not chewy, but it’s got a bit of a bite to it compared to some flaky fish. It seems good. I mean, I think I don’t know if this is good or bad, but it’s nice. The soy sauce does bring out a bit more flavor. I’ve got way too much of it on here because it came out there sache and you know there’s only so much I can control how much came out of that. But yeah, I think with the soy sauce bit spring onion on there. It’s a nice dish. I think the better experience is to go to a restaurant and sit down enjoy it with the atmosphere and perhaps with a little bit more control of the soy sauce. But I’m glad I had it. It was nice. If I was going to have it again, I would try and find it in a restaurant rather than a market store. These people down here are all queuing up for this stall, which it says canny on the sign. It’s something crab. In here is the fish promotion center. Promote those fish. And look, it’s sumakarashi. Hello. It’s ported to 2 now on a Saturday. And some of the stores are looking a little bit empty, so you might want to come a bit earlier if you want the best choice of everything. Some stores are selling fresh fish, but lots of them have things that you can eat straight away here. There’s quite a few stores that are selling individual nigiri, so you can make up your own box of exactly the ones you want. There’s some with dashy sushi rice bowls, and some are selling fried fish, various types of fried fish. And along the side, there were more shops selling other sorts of ingredients, um, like seaweed and pickles. I thought there’d be more restaurants upstairs. There’s only a couple here. There’s a sushi restaurant. This other one seems to be closed at the moment. At the front, you can see it looks more like an industrial business fish market than a consumer one. And then the stores selling prepared fish are further back. There’s obviously lots of fish in the fish market. Not so much stuff that I could eat. So, we’re going to have a look around the restaurants out here. And look how nice it looks over here with the sea glittering. It’s a lovely view. Phil’s got a seafood rice bowl, a chiashi sushi bowl. We looked around and there really wasn’t a lot for you. No, but I wanted to have some fresh fruit, so I grabbed this again from the first place I saw. There’s not a lot left now. It really is emptying out. Places are closing. How is it here? The fish is really fresh as you’d expect. I mean, I paid a,000 yen. Yeah, I think it was reduced because it was getting towards the end of the day. And yeah, it’s really good quality for that. Like with most markets, fish markets, the rice is a little bit cold. I prefer it room temperature or a little warmer. So that’s not the best, but it’s still very delicious. It’s a whole meal. You really can’t go wrong. And you come to Japan, you should definitely try. What’s the yellow stuff underneath? Grated something. I guess tamago. Grated tamago. It might be or shredded. Yeah. It’s not a radish or anything. Whatever it is, the taste is super mild. It’s slightly slightly tamago eggy. Um there’s no crunch to it. Yeah, maybe it is tago. Instead of taking the ferry back to Miko, you can go on a pedestrian tunnel under the sea. It’s 600 m long. And we thought it would be cool to be able to say we’ve walked between two of Japan’s main islands. But to walk from here to the tunnel, across the tunnel, and then from the tunnel back to the station is quite a lot. We thought maybe it’s not the best use of our time. So, we’re going to walk back and get the ferry. Go next to a giant one. Pop up like a big papa fish. What do you got, Amy? I’ve got pizza man. I love them. It’s a steamed bun from the convenience store with pizza sauce and cheese and a nice hot drink to keep me warm. We’re going to the aquarium. It’s called Kiteukan. It’s right by the ferry port and the fish market. And I’ve heard they have a lot of fugu, a lot of blowfish here. And they are really cute. So, I’m happy to see them. Here’s the prices for adults. It’s 2,90 yen. And there’s a stamp. Oh, it looks like a cute one. It’s all the sea creatures. And there’s a fugu. We’re going in. Instead of going down into the sea, we’re going up into the sea. It says we’re going into the world of the Canmon straight. And from here, it looks like the surface of the aquarium is at sea level. I think we’re actually way above it, but that’s a nice effect. I didn’t expect to see a sea turtle here. So big. This next tank is for the STO inland sea, which is what we’re going through on the ferry tonight. You can see what we’ll be sailing through. Oh, it’s a tunnel. Whoa, there are so many. That’s definitely a fugu. They’re so cute. Looks like it’s dinner time. I can see a lot of food being dropped in. Everyone’s excited. Here’s some more puffer fish. The spiny ones. This round tank’s really distorting. Puffer fish may be known for being poisonous, but I never realize how cute they are. Just look at their faces. And it’s so cute how they look so out of control when they’re swimming around. This must be explaining which parts of it are deadly with the skulls. This is colorful, colorful, and kawaii. Colorful and kawaii fish section. Look, tinies tiny little fug. They’re too small to focus on. There we are. Hand for scale. This section is about the diversity of puffer fish. We’re trying to work out which of these are puffer fish. I think they all are. Maybe. I think they are. That one. That one is They all use the top of their their top fins. That’s a sign of a puffer fish. Well, I mean, I’ve been here 5 minutes. I think I know everything. These tiny ones are all puffer fish, too. There’s so many different types. There’s some vertebrae going downstairs. It’s a blue whale skeleton. Can you believe that many of those fish we’ve seen are all living out there? Can you see these? These have got like light up iridescent colors on them. That’s amazing. Why are all the angel fish all together in this corner? They don’t want to mix with these guys. Next, we’re going to see the penguins. Follow the penguin feet. Zoom. They’re so still when they’re on land, but then in the water. I wish I’d filmed more of this. Some of the penguins were really zooming underwater. You don’t often get to see them in action like that. Now we get to go through the penguin tunnel. Now we’re in the tunnel in the penguin tank. That’s where we were just now up there. Next to the aquarium, there’s also a little amusement park with a massive ferris wheel. Here’s our ferry tickets back. You can only get oneway tickets. There’s some leaflets for Ganu Island, which you can also visit around here. So, you can get a triangle on one day pass to visit all of them in one day on the ferry. And here comes the ferry now. We found oursel at Mo station. Be quick. The train’s coming. Oh, it’s a light one. Is that the station building? Maybe. That’s the fountains outside it. You only know that once you’ve been outside the station. Yes. Here’s the train from Miko back to Kokura. It looks like the lights around the edge should light up as well. We’re at Cocoa Curry. I’ve got my favorite cheese and vegetables. We’ve got garlic bits as a topping and they actually taste really good. I’ve gone for level three spice level and it does taste spicy but it’s not too much. Tastes good. We’re back in Kishu and we’ve got a bit of time before we have to get the bus to the ferry. So, we’ve just been having a look around. We’ve had our delicious cocoa curry and now we’re going to head on to Aru Aru City which is just the other side of the station. I’ve heard that is like the Akihabra of Kakushu in a shopping mall. So, let’s go and see. Here’s Aru Arrow City up ahead. We’ve come out the north exit of the station and turned right and gone along the walkway. And there it is. I can already see lots of anime signs and animate. We had the quickest zoom around Auaru City. There’s so much in there. If you like anime, let me know if you want to see more of that. And then it was time to catch our night ferry. That’s in a separate video. It was a really good way to get between Kyushu and Coobe. It also goes to a saka and it costs less than a shingen and a hotel for the night. I hope you enjoyed looking around Shimonoseki. I don’t think many foreign tourists come here, but it’s a lovely time by the sea, going on the ferry and seeing all those super cute fugu. It’s so quick to get to from Fukuroka. There are lots more videos in a playlist on my channel, and I’ll see you next week with more Japan videos.

Shimonoseki’s known for fugu (pufferfish / blowfish), the most poisonous fish in Japan! They’re also really cute!!

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Join us for a day in Shimonoseki, where you can try fugu at the fish market. There are lots of seafood restaurants on the boardwalk, which is lovely on a sunny day. I loved all the cute pufferfish statues and lanterns! You can also see pufferfish at Kaikyokan Aquarium. They’re so kawaii! I didn’t realise there are so many different kinds. Shimonoseki’s right at the end of Honshu, Japan’s main island, but it’s easy to get to as a day trip from Fukuoka. Just take the shinkansen to Kokura Station (15 minutes), then a short local train to Mojiko Station, where there’s a very short ferry across to Shimonoseki. There are lots of other things to do around there too, including the historic buildings at Mojiko Retro, the JR West train museum, and Aru Aru City’s a must-visit for anime fans – it’s like Akihabara in a mall, right by Kokura Station. Note that Karato Fish Market’s only open at the weekends.

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00:00 Intro
00:37 Getting there (Kanmon Ferry)
03:42 Shimonoseki boardwalk
05:23 Karato Fish Market
06:48 Trying fugu
09:50 Seafood rice bowl
11:59 Kaikyokan Aquarium
15:54 Back to Kitakyushu

#japan #kitakyushu #fugu #pufferfish #japanesefood #japantravel