Tiny things in Japan – Learning a very local life of Japanese

The topic of this article is Sushi restaurant in Japan. We have two types of sushi restaurant, one is regular style of restaurant order sushi at the counter and some sushi chefs make sushi in front of customers.  The other one which I visited this time is conveyor belt sushi. Because conveyor belt (回転寿司 Kaiten-zushi in Japanese) is usually more casual and cheaper than the regular style of sushi restaurant, so it is become popular for local Japanese. This time I’m introducing Kura-zushi (くら寿司) which is pretty popular sushi restaurant in Japan.

There are usually one or two conveyor lines which rotate every customers table or counter and customers just pick up favorite sushi from it. Also customers can place an order from the menu on a display where usually find it above their tables as you can see the photo below.

The photo below is showing some of the menu on display.

After you pick up sushi you want to order from the menu, you also chose how many you want. Then, tap on “注文” button on display which means “order”. (Next to “注文” button “キャンセル” is for “cancel” )

That sushi you ordered will arrive in a few minuets and you will be informed it by a bell sound. As Kura-zushi has own system for delivering sushi to the customer’s table, they use two conveyor belts one for regular line and the other one for ordered sushi. The photo below is just arrived sushi that I ordered and it stopped my place for about 10 seconds.

After you took the ordered sushi, you press the green light button on the right side of display to confirm you got yours. (However you only use this green button when you ordered sushi)

To eat sushi, there are some selections of seasoning, soy source,sweetened source (amadare 甘だれ), citron flavored source (Yuzu-pon, ゆずポン), and Wasabi (わさび).

Tea is also a self-service. Add two teaspoonful of green tea powder in a teacup and pour it hot water.

The basic price of conveyor belt sushi is 108 yen (included tax) for a dish. It depends on the type of sushi and restaurants. However it’s usually around 100 yen to 500 yen. Here I’ll show some 100 yen sushi at Kura-zushi.

Lastly, when you finished a dish, then put it into a small hole for the dishes and it’ll count how many dishes you’ve had.

This is the link for store search at Kura-zushi web site, though it’s written in Japanese only. Kura-zushi (くら寿司)  To visit this entry’s of Kura-zushi restaurant in Fukuoka, take a Nishitetsu bus number 61 or 152 from Tenjin-Daimaru-Mae bus stop (天神大丸前) near the Nishitetsu Fukuoka station (西鉄福岡駅) and get off at Nisseki-Mae bus stop (日赤前). Or you can visit the nearest Kura-zushi restaurant in from the place where you stay. There are 16 franchise restaurants in Fukuoka (in 2016). To search it on Google map, you can copy and paste this ” くら寿司 in Fukuoka “. If you are staying in other prefecture, just change the name “Fukuoka” to the place name.