Omichou and the
kaitenzushi resutoran

Omichou is the market area in Kanazawa, dating back to the Edo Period and especially noted for its fresh seafood (see the Tsuji group's page on Omichou). It's a covered shopping street of the kind you see all over Japan other than Tokyo. At the end of the week, we were fired up for sushi and karaoke after our studies, so at Yasuko's suggestion we headed for the kaitenzushi restaurant in Omichou, planning to move on to Apre afterwards.

At right: A blurry shot of Leslie, Frances and Joy in Omichou.

Kaitenzushi literally means "Revolving Sushi," or, as it's more commonly known in the SF Bay Area, "Boat Sushi." In theory, the way these places work is that the sushi chefs place sushi on the belt as it revolves around, and you just grab what you want. In the Bay Area, these places usually actually use little boats that float in a water channel, although in Japan the kaitenzushi places I saw all used mechanical belts. The price of your meal is determined by the collection of plates you accumulate: each plate is color-coded and the color-coded pricing chart is on the wall. Kaitenzushi restaurants are generally much cheaper than traditional sushi bars.

At left: Matt grins sardonically while Leslie gets in on the picture as usual (that's her hand).

However, at this particular kaitenzushi restaurant, the chefs didn't really bother putting anything on the belt (if you click on the enlargement of the photo above you can see the empty belt at the left side of the frame).You just yelled out your order and the sushi chefs made it. All the advantages of a traditional sushi restaurant, but the prices of a kaitenzushi! Sweet.

At right: Frances consumes her previous order while Joy and Simon try to decide what to get next.

At left: Matt and Leslie again. That Leslie sure knows how to hog a camera. At right: Matt, Leslie, and a camera-fearing Leo.

We all got some pictures to document our experience.

The next week, we tried to return to the restaurant again for our pre-Karaoke dinner, but it was closed for a private party. Boo!

That was delicious! Time to drink up and head to karaoke at Apre.