Revolving Raw Fish Dish Fifty

When I need sushi, and fast, I go to a kaitenzushi restaurant, where the food comes to you on a conveyor belt that goes around and around, and customers seated along the way grab the dishes off the conveyor. (I have seen some pieces of sushi go around a few too many times - better to pass on those). But usually the dishes are taken quickly.

Now, conveyor belt sushi (also known as Merry-Go-Round sushi) celebrates it's fiftieth anniversary. The first "revolving sushi" restaurant, opened in April 1958 in Fuse, now Higashi-Osaka, Osaka Prefecture.



Kaitenzushi can range from a simple circular conveyor, to a system that snakes around a long, looping counter.

Sushi quality varies, but I have a couple favorites that serve the good stuff, both chain restaurants.

Sushiro's kaitenzushi is always busy. The one I go to is next to a 100 Yen store (like a "dollar store") and both are perched over a parking garage. The Sushiro Japanese web page has a slide show of the items on the menu.

And this same Sushiro website page has a nice animated description of how fish goes from ocean to table and becomes sushi along the way.


SUSHIRO (source)

More:
Different kinds of sushi going around video, with English subtitiles. (YouTube) And, video from the sushi's point of view. (YouTube)Very close-up images of sushi from Sushiro.