There is an explanation for this, you know.

Well here we are the month of October nearly over and we have posted a grand total of, well I guess this makes four times... yeah, that was our bad. In by way of an apology let me offer you this embarrassing little story. Rewind with me if you will a few weeks back to the little seaside twon of Beppu. You remember Beppu right? It's hot, the air is something you practically have to swim through, pockets of steam are rising out of the street and the rise and fall of the ocean is booming off in one ear. We are off to a little traditional sushi restaurant we discovered in a back alley a few nights before which had, quite honestly, the best sushi any of us had ever tasted, the people were also really nice and we had had an awesome interaction with them the last time we were there.
Since it was our last night in town we decided to splurge and get the most expensive thing on the menu. You should probably know the menu is in Japanese with no pictures and no one at this restaurant speaks English. Anyway when we point to the item in question the lady kind of raises an eyebrow but leaves and gets it anyway. It turns out to be a plate of sushi with a decorative shrimp head on it. We were thought it a bit odd but hey whatever it's something new. Anyway I'm just reaching out for a piece when Nate says, “Um guys. I think that thing is moving.”
We're all like, “What no way.” But in the spirit of adventure I reach out an poke it with a chopstick. Sure enough moves and we're all like, “Holy shit!” (pardon the language please.)
Anyway, we decide to eat other things and leave the poor thing to die in peace. We were just reaching for other stuff on the table when suddenly the head just freaks the hell out. If you've ever seen the movie Alien it was kind of like that. It opened it's mouth and shot out these prong-fan things that were opening and closing spasmodically.
If you've ever wanted to see four grown men jump that would have been the moment to be there. Nate nearly flipped the table over on Ian. Anyway we were all so wigged out by it we ended up covering the head with an empty bowl and all drinking water for the majority of the rest of the meal. Apparently the the actual piece of sushi that was the other end of the head was really tasty, only Nate and Ian tried it though so I can't really say.
Later we discovered this strange and emasculating dish is called "dancing shrimp" and is considered somewhat of a delicacy. Apparently we were supposed to tear the meat off it's head an eat that, they say it's delicious. Knowing this I can only imagine what the poor serving lady must have thought finding the most sumptuous part the meal carefully tucked away from sight after we left. I hope she got a kick out it.
As always semper fi.
S.