Stuffing Ourselves at the Conveyor Belt

Last night at dinner, I said to Yuki that I think I've never been to a real sushi restaurant in Japan with her. In Niigata, whenever we wanted to have sushi, we'd go to one of the kaiten-sushi places. They kinda look like this:

(source)

We were having this conversation at Kappa Sushi, which is the nearest kaiten-sushi for us in Ibaraki. Kappa Sushi is a chain that charges 100 yen for a plate with two pieces of sushi. That's 100 yen (= $1.10) for just about any kind of fish: salmon, tuna, mackerel, yellowtail...

One of the first plates Yuki had was amberjack (カンパチ). She liked it so much, she proceeded to have four more plates of カンパチ, spread out through the entire meal. That's ten pieces of the same fish for those counting at home. We ended up having 14 plates of sushi, plus miso soup, plus chawanmushi and some watermelon for dessert. The total was 2200 yen.

I don't think we ever went to Kappa Sushi in Niigata but we did once in Tokyo and it wasn't good at all. Yuki remembers that the mackerel she had there hadn't been thawed completely. But the one in Ibaraki is fine and dandy. My favorite feature is how they deliver your orders. There are actually two conveyor belts. The lower one is in constant motion and you can take what you want. The upper belt is actually a track for the bullet train sushi delivery system. Fun for the whole family.

See ya next time, Kappa!