Japanese for "prepared live", ikizukuri 活き作り(also known as
ikezukuri or ikesu ryouri)
may be best described as extreme sashimi:
your food is still alive
when you eat it. The mildest form involves pointing out fish
from a tank, after which the chef fishes out your chosen victim,
slices it,
and serves it to you, preferably while the fish's mouth is
still gasping and its fins are still fluttering. More extreme forms
may involve
placing live fish or shrimp directly in your mouth, in which
case you have to kill them with your teeth, or
just swallow and let your gastric juices do the work.
Live octopi are said to be especially squirmy,
although I have so far managed to avoid verifying this.
And by the way: if you want to saw open a live monkey's skull,
scoop out the brains and eat them (as made notorious by
Indiana Jones), you'll have to go somewhere other
than Japan to do it. Rumors suggest Hong Kong or mysterious
parts of China.
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