a great idea

Before coming to Japan I did not eat *real* sushi. In other words, I stuck to avocado, cucumber and shitake -- all yummy and harmless enough. I'd always been curious but also somewhat grossed out by the idea of raw fish but I figured, no better time than now to try it. I'm still pretty unadventurous -- so far I stick to salmon, tuna, shrimp and crab -- but I've definitely developed a taste for it.

You hear all the time that Tokyo is so expensive, and this is true in many ways, but at the same time it is definitely possible to eat high quality food for relatively cheap. And by high quality food I mean sushi. (There are also lots of soba, udon and ramen shops where you can eat very cheaply and it's a good bet that the noodles and other ingredients were locally produced.)

My new favorite places to eat are kaiten ("conveyor belt") sushi bars. Customers sit around a circular bar, one or two sushi chefs stand in the middle and sushi travels around the bar on a conveyor belt. You take whatever looks good (and in my case, watch in fascination as colorful, tentacled and slimy things go by, waiting to see who will eat what), make your own hot tea and can take as much wasabi, pickled ginger and soy sauce as you like. Pricing is based on the plate colors so when you are done the cashier just adds up your plates. My favorite is yaki-saamon (pan-seared salmon). Never thought I would feel about sushi the way I do about say, cookie dough ice cream but, mmmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it...

At 100-300yen per plate, most kaiten sushi bars are a very inexpensive way to enjoy really good quality sushi. Well, "really good" is a relative term considering how new I am to the world of sushi. But, I do know that the fish is super fresh (it seems the difference in quality here is between fresh and more fresh) and really tasty, so that is good enough for me.

More to come on just how fresh the fish are later.