Japanese have long taken pride in their ability to adopt, adapt and improve on customs, practices and styles from other countries.



Having succeeded globally with cars, electronics and even fashion, it was only natural the Japanese turned their hand to trying to surpass the West with one of its favourite culinary delights - ice cream.

Cactus Ice Cream (Saboten Aisu)





A tasty treat that will prick the hearts of ice cream lovers everywhere. It is smooth and refreshing with a taste that must be like drawing water from a cactus after being parched in a desert for days.



Chicken Wing Ice Cream (Nagoya Tebasaki)



Nagoya is famous for its poultry, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the taste of this ice cream is best described as foul. It actually tastes like a fried chicken wing, which is fine if that's what you're eating, but not if you're tucking into some ice cream.

Crab Ice Cream (Kani Aisu)



Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost prefecture, is renowned for its rich array of seafood, prime amongst the delicacies being crab. Though not everybody's preferred ice cream flavour, this is a dish worth getting the claws into.

Eel Ice Cream (Unagi Aisu)



Eel is a summer delicacy in Japan, which probably explains why Futaba decided to use it to flavour an ice cream. Surprisingly, the smooth taste is quite palatable, even if the thought of what's being eaten is not quite as tasty

Fish Ice Cream (Sanma Aisu)



Something must smell fishy about ice cream flavored with saury, a saltwater fish popular in Japan...But there's no worries about that with this offering from Kimura Shoten as the fishy fumes have been drowned out by liberal doses of brandy. Not the greatest tasting ice cream on earth, though.

Octopus Ice Cream (Taco Aisu)



Want to tantalize the taste buds with a tentacle? If so, Octopus Ice Cream is the go. Japanese have been able to come up with an amazing variety of uses for octopus, ranging from delicacy to porno movie prop. Little wonder that octopus has found its way into ice cream, then.

Shrimp Ice Cream (Sakura Ebi Aisu)



It's prawnographic! Most people would be making a report to health authorities if they dug up a full shrimp's body from their ice cream, but with this product from Roman Holiday that's the norm. The image Shrimp Ice Cream probably conjures up amongst most people probably comes closest to the actual taste