Kaiten Sushi

Currently I'm in Japan visiting my lovely girlfriend who calls Tokyo home, and her family has been oh so gracious to host me for three weeks. I've been really excited to make this trip as it's my first time travelling to Asia. I'm eager to learn about Japanese culture, history, and of course food. Despite Japan's many diverse offerings in terms of food, I couldn't think of a better way to start my culinary adventures in Japan with what else but sushi.


While in Harajuku, Sarah and I made a stop in Kaiten Sushi, a local place serving up all kinds of fresh seafood. "Kaiten" actually refers to a style of serving sushi. The chefs stand behind the counter, prepare various plates, and then place them on a conveyor belt. The plates move past customers, and you grab whatever interests you. It's nice because you eat and pay for only what you want.

There's no question about the freshness of the seafood in Japan. Sushi in Japan is serious business. By law, any raw fish is prohibited from being left out in the open for more than 30 minutes. After that, it must not be served for consumption in raw form and must only be used in cooked dishes.


We started off the meal with natto and quail egg. To be honest, it wasn't the best start to the meal! It was my first time trying natto, which is this kind of sticky, brown goo. It's fermented soy bean, and most native Japanese like it. I guess it's one of those things that you really have to grow up eating in order to like, just like vegemite in Australia. In any case, I didn't like this dish very much. The actual eating part wasn't too bad - it tasted like funky soy sauce. However, the after-taste was what was nasty. Sarah, on the other hand, loved it.


We followed the natto dish with unagi, one of my favorites. It was nicely cooked and delicious. Overall, a nice way to rebound from a minor miscue to start the meal.


This tuna was flawless. Expertly cut, nice and smooth, and so damn fresh. Not much else to say here but oshii!


I had never eaten quality sea urchin roe up until this point. It was quite tasty and a little salty with a hint of the sea.


I was kind of iffy when Sarah wanted to order raw scallops but after trying it, this was probably one of my favorites of the entire meal. The scallops actually tasted sweet, and the meat was incredibly delicate.


This salmon was served with some kind of mayo sauce with pickled raddish on top.


We tried a second salmon dish except this one came served slightly charred on the surface. I preferred this one over the first.


Not much to say about this mackeral plate except that it was exceptionally fresh and tasty. A nice clean tasting white fish.

So being in the original birthplace of sushi, I wanted to try sushi and see how good it really is in Japan. Could it really be that much better than in the States? Well, actually it is. The difference isn't massive but I think what really differentiates the sushi in Japan is the quality of the fish and the expertise in preparation. Everything is remarkably fresh, and even at a local, low-key joint, the fish was cut and prepared with great care and precision. What's crazy is that these kinds of places are so common in Japan everywhere you go. We spent about $15 for the both of us for quite a nice lunch. The same lunch in the States could easily run up a tab of double that amount.