The Best Thing I Ate In: Japan

 

This has to be one of the most amazing things I've ever tasted. I decided I wanted to go to Harajuku, being in Tokyo for the third time and having never been there, and so rounded up a few friends and headed there via the subway, or train, or some combination of the two. I don't remember. The public transportation system in Tokyo is total chaos. There is the train system, there is a publicly owned subway system, there is a privately owned subway system, and there are several other random lines. They all interconnect in completely bizarre ways so that you have to have a handful of maps of each system to figure out how to get anywhere. So we made it to Harajuku, decided to have lunch before exploring, and I set about asking where we might find Kaiten Zushi, because conveyer belt sushi is the funnest thing ever and I hadn't had it yet this trip. Trying to find anything at all in Tokyo is a task in itself. Knowing some Japanese, asking and getting directions was never too difficult, but Tokyo is such a complex city that even the locals never know how to direct you toward what you are looking for. 

After a bit of a walk, we finally found what we were looking for, only after having bumped into a handful of other SAS students and picking them up along the way. I think there were about a dozen or so of us by the time we found the place. I sat down at the conveyer belt bar, and the fun began. I love Kaiten Zushi. The plates are all color coded so you know how much they cost, anywhere from $2 to $8 at this place (or up to $50 for a single plate if you go to one of the fancy restaurants). The sushi chefs are still right there preparing raw fish on rice, and once they are finished with their creations, they put them on the conveyer belt and round they go. So you have all of these delicious pieces of sushi rolling around and past you and you just watch in glee with your mouth watering, wondering how you will ever decide which to try first. 

This plate is tomago, or egg, topped off with some avocado, a couple shrimp, a bit of crab meat, a touch of fish roe, a drizzle of mayo, I don't even know what else but it was simply divine. I never used to like egg sushi, it used to freak me out for some unfathomable reason, but it is really really yummy. It doesn't even taste like egg but more like custard, and topped off with all of this goodness it was positively exquisite .