Kaitenzushi
After a long absence from Japan, our whole family comes back craving noodles, rice, seaweed, and fish. Even on the airplane, our kids are wondering what our first meal will be, putting in their votes for either sushi or ramen. Well, after a 6am wake up to make it to the airport two hours ahead of our flight time, a one-hour hop to an international hub, that crazy twelve-hour leg (during which no one slept!), customs and baggage claim, a one-hour bus ride through downtown Tokyo, a four-stop train ride, and a taxi, NOBODY WANTS TO DO ANYTHING BUT SHOWER AND SLEEP. At least this is how I feel. I’m pretty sure a few of our younger members were feeling similarly, since I observed crying about backpacks and jeans, sleeping on the dirty train station floor while we waited, and kicking luggage in protest of having to walk. I fell asleep at 6:30pm, and I was preceded by two or three others. Needless to say, we postponed our first meal in country til the following day, and sushi won the most votes.
Kaitenzushi is a particular type of sushi restaurant where the plates are pre-made in the kitchen and then rotate around the tables on a conveyor belt. Patrons take whichever plates they want from the belt (and can also order from an electronic menu), then plates are counted at the end to determine the bill. Although it would be considered the fast food of the sushi world, it is popular, family-friendly, and tastier than any sushi you’d order at a high-end restaurant in a land-locked state.
Our local favorite for kaitenzushi is Kurasushi, which is known for its commitment to exclude artificial seasoning, coloring, and preservatives from its fare. This chain also has a patented covering for the sushi plate as it travels the line to prevent anyone from touching or tampering with the sushi unless they plan to consume it. This covering has an IC card which tracks the amount of time that particular plate has been out, discarding it once it has lost its freshness. All of these are valuable reasons to visit Kurasushi, but they aren’t why our family goes there. No — we show up because of the cool slot through which you discard your plates, and when you’ve racked up a certain number, your monitor will play a 30-second cartoon that tells you whether or not you’ve won a small trinket (like a sticker or a magnet). These are the things that draw our family of six to Kurasushi.
And so it was that we arrived jet-lagged to wait in line with the other patrons to eat sushi and play a strange version of a slot machine game.
Harper ordered cucumber rolls. Jones wanted salmon and shrimp nigiri. Ivy asked for her all-time favorite: bubbles, or salmon roe, named so by her because the little spheres pop in her mouth. She ate them in a tiny bowl with rice. Bryan and I drank ocha and nama-biru. As I sipped, I watched Ezra, three plates of shrimp sushi in front of him, delicately drip shoyu on each piece, ohashi in hand. This simple deed transported me outside of the usual normalcy of this moment — we’ve been to kaitenzushi hundreds of times — as he devoured each in one bite, effortlessly lifting from plate to mouth with those two slender sticks. Wow, we really have a different life. Nothing makes this truth hit home more than an evening sushi meal with four young kids after a month in the land of pizza, burgers, and cereal.
Because we were fresh off the boat (ahem, plane), I had increased appreciation for my nine-year-old’s artful treatment and consumption of shrimp nigiri, my four-year-old’s squeals of delight over salmon eggs. After more than ten years in Japan, I sometimes forget these are not the common American experience, as strange (and potentially pretentious) as that sounds. This is our normal — pleas for raw fish on a twelve-hour plane ride. May I not lose sight of the privilege of leaving one’s culture, despite the difficulties, and the widening of vision and encounter it affords. This is what allows me a moment of silent awe for the modest acts of pouring soy sauce, employing chopsticks, and chewing fish.
kaitenzushi = conveyer-belt sushi restaurant
shoyu = soy sauce
ohashi = chopsticks
nigiri = rice with a topping, such as raw fish, cooked egg, or seaweed
ocha = general word for tea, but in this case, it references green tea
nama biru = draft beer
