Kaitenzushi is really popular in Japan and many people like it. This is because you can eat fresh seafood and sushi at reasonable prices. Plus, it’s fun to see moving sushi in front of you. Today, I’m going to share how to enjoy Kaitenzushi, let’s get started.
1. What is Kaitenzushi(回転寿司)?
When it comes to sushi (寿司), Japanese people think that there are a variety of types of sushi restaurants in Japan. At first, it’s called sushi-ya (寿司屋), or o-sushi-ya (お寿司屋). These types of restaurants offer sushi by chefs in person. The price varies depending on where you’re going to eat. Most of the time, it’s going to be a bit pricey than places that I’m going to tell you later. Second, it’s called Mochikaeri- sushi (持ち帰り寿司), which means, “ to-go sushi stand. There are some chain restaurants in Japan, you might see this type of stand in your neighborhood. It’s an affordable option for enjoying sushi. And the last, Kaitenzushi (回転寿司), “Kaiten” (回転) means going around. In English, you might hear, “ Revolving sushi,” “Conveyor belt sushi,” or “Sushi train.”
2. The History of Kaitenzushi
According to Wikipedia, a Japanese business person invented Kaitenzushi at Osaka in 1958. His name was Yoshiaki Shiraishi, and he was known as a founder of “Mawaru-Genrokuzushi” (廻る元禄寿司). At that time, he was running his own sushi restaurant and suffering from lacking of labor force. And he was thinking about how to handle too many orders efficiently. One day, he visited a beer factory, looking at carrying bottles of beer on the conveyor belts, he had an epiphany and came up with a new idea that offered sushi by conveyor belts instead of carrying it by hand. It’s the best thing since sliced bread. People had never seen such an idea before. This made it possible for ordinary people to eat sushi at affordable prices. Plus, prices were really simple which was, one dish was 100JPY. Most ordinary sushi restaurants didn’t have price list, so sometimes you might worry about your budget, which makes also sushi popular among people in Japan. Kaitenzushi is widely spread all over Japan.
3. The Rule of Kaitenzushi
In this day and age, thanks to technology, most chain sushi restaurants have tablet and have multi-types of language menus. I can tell you simple basic manners.
-Go to a reception machine
-Set all your equipment properly
First of all, look at the blue and red circles. The red one is wiping your hand before you eat. The blue one is a cup for green tea. Let’s grab them.
How to serve green tea
Next, look at the yellow circles. There is a container of green tea and a hot tap. There is a small teaspoon in a container of green tea, and then put just one small teaspoon is enough. Grabbing your cup, you can push the black button with your cup to serve hot water. Hot water is really hot, please watch out.
Are you ready to eat?
Look at the green circle. There are condiments and chopsticks. Tablets allow you to order in your language. A long time ago, you could take a dish of sushi from the belt conveyor whenever you want. Nowadays, the way of taking sushi is a bit different to reduce the waste of the food. Around two decades ago, Kaitenzushi restaurants required enough knowledge to know when customers wanted to eat at that time. Then, they had to put a variety of sushi to engage customers on the conveyor. Some sushi turned around forever. Customers used to be required how to appreciate which sushi was fresh. Oh, sorry for digressing, let’s get back to the main topic.
Kaitenzushi might be a little tricky now for beginners. Generally speaking, there are colored dishes that go to price ranges. When you want to take sushi, you better order your tablet instead of grabbing a dish of sushi on the belt because you don’t know which dish can be available for you. Once you order it, a few minutes later, your tablet lets you know your order coming. There’s no serving plate, the dish that you take at first is the one. I always use it as my serving plate.
Bikkura Pon ( ビッくら ポン！) : A special capsule toy.
Last but not least, I introduced how to enjoy Kaitenzushi in general so far, but this restaurant is totally different from others. When you eat five dishes of sushi, you can reserve to draw the game. That is called Bikkura Pon, which means you might get wonderful toys at random, because the toy is limited, you can’t buy it at other stores. The toy often collaborates with popular anime characters, so you don’t want to miss it if you are an anime lover. This amusement is only available below.
https://www.kurasushi.co.jp/en
How was that? Today I introduced how to enjoy Kaitenzushi in general. There are also many local ones where you can eat fresh specialties. You might want to visit local Kaitenzushi when you travel all over Japan. Kaitenzushi is a great invention because it makes people familiar with sushi with its affordable price. Hats off to Kaitenzushi company for offering amazing fresh seafood with an affordable price. At the same time, they secure the safety for their food. You’re pretty happy, huh? Kaitenzushi is definitely one of the must-go places. Thanks for taking the time to read my article to the end. See you soon!
I worked at a trading company for many years. I live in Tokyo with my wife. Love skiing, traveling, IPAs, wine , X-treme sports, fashion, and learning English and Chinese.
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