As I already wrote in the post yesterday morning, I didn't do much. In fact I installed and played civ 5. The hotel WLAN is pretty good. This day of rest was much needed. I feel much better today. Soooo yesterday evening I went to Sushiro, since I had seen a video on "Abroad in Japan" and it looked really cool.
Link to YouTube channel: "Abroad in Japan", Chris Broad is also very well known and liked in Japan, since he doesn't do over the top stuff and is pretty realistic. I watched a lot of his older videos before my 2019 trip and they helped me a lot.
Well, it seems the Hachinohe branch is not working at the same level as the Tokyo branch. It was a bit disappointing in fact. Don't get me wrong, if I could get Sushi that good in Germany I would be happy as a clam (pun intended), but here in Japan, especially compared to the awesomeness of the Sashimi in Hokkaido, it was... lackluster. It is pretty cheap if you only look at the numbers, but when you calculate how much fish you get for your money I am not sure that it is actually noticeably cheaper.
In contrast to the Video there was no common line where you could just take what runs by, but only the "express line" leading directly to your seat. There was quite the queue of customers waiting for entry, but since most of them were in groups and waiting for larger tables and I was alone and didn't have any wishes about the seating I had virtually no waiting time and got a counter seat. Everything from getting your seat, ordering your food and checking out is automated. Actually only almost everything, but I come to that later.
This is a counter seat with your personal conveyor belt endpoint. The faucet in the middle is for hot water for the free green tea. The box contains the pickled Ginger and to the right were a couple of sauces.
Detail of the order screen in english. You can order 2 items per order, but there is no waiting time beteen orders... So... I didn't really understand the point. Maybe it has something to do with the mechanics in the kitchen. The Sushi is actually hand made, they just cut down on the service personnel. Also I think people eat more this way, so more profit.
So I ordered away. I won't bore you with pics of every single item, just some which were special.
Even the drinks come via conveyor belt. Look at the spill proof plate for the beer.
Really fresh Shrimp with garlic mayonaise. Under the shrimps is brown rice. Brown rice is something in the middle between polished white rice and whole grain rice. It is not as sticky as white rice, so for some pieces the eating was a a bit tricky since it fell apart.
The 3 Seafood tasting special. Crab meat, Salmon roe and Shrimp again. But you cannot have too many of those fresh, raw shrimp really. The roe was not as good as the one in Hakodate morning market. It was more on the level of the stuff you can buy in glasses in Germany. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. The crabmeat was good, though.
This one was special. It is the "Toyama firefly squid tasting special" and was served by the Sushi chef personally instead of the the conveyor belt. The ca. 6-7 cm small squids were just cleaned of their innards and otherwise complete. Even with a light crunch.
That's how they got their name ("Glühwürmchen-Kalmar"), they glow and at times the beach of Toyama is bathed in blue light,.
Squid (left) and Mackerel (right).
Grilled pacific eel.
Some kind of Sardine. Was among the best tasting fish.
In conclusion I cannot really say that it is a must visit in Japan. This quality in Germany would make me a regular, but in Japan there are much better alternatives where at the end you pay about the same but go home with a much better feeling. It's more of a gimmick, since the atmosphere is also a bit impersonal. Most customers were either young people, like high school age and families with children. The first group goes probably for the bargain specials while for smaller children it is probably a lot of fun seeing your food magically appear via the conveyor belt. I'm probably not the target audience and I do like the vibes of an Izakaya much better.
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