Whale meat aficionados will be delighted to learn that whale ekiben are now being sold at JR’s Nagasaki Station for 750 yen apiece. (Ekiben are bento boxed meals sold at eki, or train stations. In addition to standard fare, JR stations throughout the country also sell meals featuring local cuisine.)

The Nishi-Nippon Shimbun (link already expired) reports the whale ekiben are the brainchild of Hiroko Komine, president of Kurasaki, a Nagasaki shop specializing in whale. Komine explains she would be saddened if the whale-eating culture in Nagasaki were to die out. She hopes to serve as a link to this culture for people outside the prefecture and the younger natives.

Nagasaki is located near one of the primary whaling spots off the Japanese coast in days gone by and was known as a paradise for whale cuisine, particularly in the latter half of the 19th century.

IWC restrictions on whaling harpooned the local trade, however, and now just five shops in the city sell the meat, down from an estimated 20 in 1970.

Visitors passing through Nagasaki Station have to act quickly—Komine limits sales to just 10 bento a day. One of her specialties is a meal called Whale Hamburger. It is not as far-fetched as it may seem to compare whale meat to that of a cow. The first time I was served whale, I didn’t know what it was. I thought it tasted like beefsteak.