Whale

No, I've never eaten it and never will. In fact, I gave up eating the meat of mammals about 17 years ago. But a few people eat whale meat in Japan. Very few. In fact, although the Japanese government sometimes makes a big deal about whale meat being a traditional Japanese food, it was never really common and, except for about 100 years from about 1860 to about 1960, it has always been really, really rare. Before the Japanese started adapting Western technology, their ships just weren't big enough to chase whales. For the past half century, international pressure and changing tastes have just about driven the whale off Japanese tables. My wife tells me that when she was a schoolgirl, she occasionally got whale meat in her school lunch. She hated it.

But, as I said, a few people here still eat it, and those few may be suffering for their experience. According to this article in Japan Today, the more whale you eat, the higher the level of mercury in your hair. As I understand it, that's not a good thing. In fact, the Japanese are normally extremely sensitive about mercury pollution because of the trauma of Minamata Disease (ミナマタびょう), which was caused by the same methyl mercury found in some fish, shellfish, and whales. (Articles on mercury in whale meat: 1 2 3 4.)