In Okinawa, much of the food is different from in the rest of Japan. We enjoy a much greater quantity of non-fish meats in our diet, though fish is also plentifully available. Since Okinawa has its own cuisine, we've taken awhile to dip into some of the more "Japanese" eating experiences. For instance, we only recently came across our first local sushi bar when we were on vacation. We excitedly returned for that evening's dinner. I thought that today I would share some of that experience with you.
On entering the shop, we first noticed that there were two types of seating: a "normal" restaurant section, divided into distinct tables, or a bar area. We opted for the bar area.
A conveyor ran through the whole restaurant, passing by each table and bar stool. On the conveyor were placed a variety of different-coloured plates. Each plate contained between one and three sushi, all of the same type. There were also plates of maki-rolls, with up to 6 per plate. A little sign preceded each item grouping, announcing (in Japanese) the name of the item.
When we sat down, we noticed that each station had a few common features:
- instructions on how to navigate eating at the sushi bar
- a menu of additional special order sushi, which could be made for the customer on demand
- a bottle of soy sauce
- chopsticks and napkins
- a hot water tap and cups
- a little bottle of dry green tea (to be mixed in the cups along with the hot water)
- a legend of the prices associated with items on each plate colour
We decided (this time) not to special-order any sushi, but just to try out the more common items that were flowing by us on the conveyor. Was it ever fun!
We were quite stuffed by the end. When it came time to pay our bill, we called the waitress over. She brought with her a handheld device (it looked like one of the hand-held debit card readers from Canada). She ran it over the plates we'd used, and it tallied up the cost of the items we'd consumed, beaming it to the cash register by the entrance. I found out later that each plate has an RFID tag embedded in it. The total experience came to about $30 CAD. We'll definitely have to try this again sometime!
If you'd like to learn more about the sushi bar experience, please click here. I received this video from a friend, and thought it was quite interesting.
