I’m a pescatarian, and when we first had children it was important to me that they be raised vegetarian and they could choose for themselves whether to have meat or not, once they understood what it was.

My Better Half, however, is emphatically not a vegetarian. Whenever I’m out of town, he’ll go on ‘meat binges’ which is probably awful for his heart but keeps him mostly happy compliant the rest of the time.

So when we were near the Japanese city of Kobe, we couldn’t pass the opportunity up to plan a belated Father’s Day dinner at one of the well-known Kobe beef establishments. And also, because bucket lists and local foods and ESPECIALLY local foods that are named for the town they are from is totally my thing (Hamburgers in Hamburg! Belgian Waffles in Belgium! Mussels in Brussels!)

So we had a dinner. I ordered a dinner too, mainly for the sides, though I did take a bite and it was oishii.

Our son asked for some too, and I emphasized that beef was from a cow. A lot. It was really important to me that he understand that the cute, happy cows he loved seeing sometimes became beef to eat, and to make sure he was ok with that.

So we let him take a bite.

And when he was done, he said, “More cow, please!” (Sad face emoji).

So now my daughter & I are the only two pescatarians standing (and crawling).

Another night in Osaka, we headed down to the river, where all the activity happens and tried out a local izakaya – which is a little like Japanese tapas. Lots of small plates, and a great way to try a lot of new foods.

Because we had a mission. You might notice all the octopus signs on the restaurants below.

We wanted to try takoyaki! Which are way more delicious than what they are – which is fried breaded octopus, shaped into balls.

We got a side of grilled squid on a stick – yakitori style.

And then the famous takoyaki!

Obviously we let our son be our test case go first.

It was delicious!!! It was surprisingly (to us) really really tasty – it was less like calamari and more like a hot doughnut – but really great.

We only have a few delicacies left to try from Japan – takoyaki in Osaka and kobe beef in Kobe were two of our biggest bucket list items!