Dare: Face Your Fears (Part Two)

The Challenge: Eat something you haven't dared to eat, meet someone you haven't dared to meet, and write your experiences in a poem.

I am not a very picky eater, so I had to think long and hard about this challenge. Being in Japan makes it fairly easy to find strange and exotic food, but being adventurous, nothing scared me--that is, until I went to Kaiten Zushi and saw fish eggs going around on the conveyor belt.

There is something disgusting and unnatural about stealing some poor fish’s eggs and then devouring them (I dislike chickens and therefore feel no remorse for eating their eggs). Being slimy, shiny, round and weird colours, they do not even look appealing. Maybe for some people fish eggs are no big deal, but I have never been tempted to try it. Not even once.

As soon as I thought to myself, when looking at those fish eggs, “I would never eat that!” I knew that for this dare, it was perfect, and that I must.

And so I took the plate of fish egg sushi, and decided to approach it the same way I approach cold water--jump right in without too much thought. And, to my surprise, I discovered that they did not in fact taste as bad as they looked, and though I still think it’s weird to steal fish eggs then eat them, it was not a half bad experience.

Here is my poem:

Red, bubbly fish eggs.
I would not dare to eat them,
yet I do. Tasty.

As for meeting someone I dared not meet, I found it more difficult. When you don’t speak someones language, it is hard to meet them properly. But I realized that fact in itself made the challenge perfect, and easily within my grasp.

When a Japanese friend of my host came to the door, I bravely met the lady and helped to welcome her in. She spoke no English, but seemed very nice. She turned to me and said in Japanese, “Do you speak Japanese?”

Thankfully, I understood her question, and was able to reply, “I understand only a little.”

She found this to be very cute, and told me so, which I was also able to understand. Our broken conversation carried on for a few more minutes, mostly through my host who could interpret. She was a very nice older woman who I enjoyed talking to, if only for a few minutes. I neglected to remember my camera, so the poem alone shall have to suffice.

Languages collide--
a gap. I cautiously cross,
and meet with success.

I hope this completes the challenge--and I certainly had fun with it!