After a busy day first starting out in Kyoto, then bullet train ride to see the Osaka Castle and the Aquarium, I had worked up a hell of an appetite.
I was beginning to get to the end of my trip but I hadn’t had any Conveyor Belt Sushi yet (I’m almost drooling just recounting this…). The hostel didn’t know of any good places so I struck out on my own to wander and hopefully find something. I was in a massively populated and busy area, so i figured there had to be something. After about a half hour of wandering looking into any restaurants, I passed by a window where plates of food were moving past peoples head in a straight line. Done.
The rules are simple, no translation required,
- Find a place at the bar.
- Order a delicious refeshment.
- Prepare your self for which piece of sushi you would like to devour as it approaches you.
- Bring your A game, you have to be quick, if you’re chatting away, that peace of succulent thinly sliced tuna will be past you before you can say 戻ってくる! (Note: Good form is important, grab the plates as they go by as if you’re grabbing a frisbee out of the air).
- Rinse and Repeat.
At the end they tally up the number of plates you’ve had and your total was from that. At 135 yen (~$1.50 ish) a plate, it was pretty cheap for a solid meal.
I wasted no time. One plate, two plates, three plates. I was rounding off a half dozen before I thought maybe to slow down as to not out run the chef. An old Japanese guy next to me started asking me one-two word questions, where I was from, teaching me a few japanese words. After a few lines of broken dialog between each other he nods and then held up his small glass of Sake.
I realized right then I hadn’t had a good glass of Sake since getting to Japan. I polished off my beer and ordered a one.
It’s alittle funny, because you’ll see a row of three plates of a sushi you’d like to try, but then by the time it gets around to you there’s the chance it’s gone. The first restaurant I was at was rather low key, but the second I tried the next night was more of a feeding frenzy.
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs3/1441236_o.gif
The sake arrives, and I get back to the task at hand of relieving the restaurant of any worries of having over-stocked sushi.
http://ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/2014-06/19/9/enhanced/webdr03/anigif_enhanced-buzz-11307-1403186370-19.gif
I’m no newby when it comes to Sushi. In university we’d often spend a Sunday afternoon at an all you can eat for 15 dollars where you’d eat sushi until we started sweating fish oil. But I couldn’t spend 3 hours here, this was a “You’re in, you’re out” kind of place. It’s the navy seal of sushi restaurants.
As I start to slow down a little, the old gentlemen next to me tapped his plates while noting “3 plus soup”. I tapped mine, “16”. He laughed as he past me by and walked out.
I was getting to that point too. I was full of raw fish, rice and sake. I was sound as a pound. One more plate for good measure, and that was dinner. The sake as well went perfect with it. Served warm, this was miles ahead of anything I’d had back home. That said though, the last time I had had sake was at a Japanese resto in Montreal.
If you’re in Japan, where ever you are, find one of these. I’m literally drooling just thinking about it. Hands down, it’s one of the most satisfying meals I’ve truly ever had. I sadly don’t remember the name of this specific restaurant, but it was so good, I went to another one the very next night.