When in Sushi-land...

During my two-month stay in Japan I was very cautious in my food selection. It's awfully hard when you can't read the menu and sometimes the pictures and plastic food don't quite illustrate EXACTLY what is in the dish. For example, Domino's pizza is often laced with fish flakes ... No thanks!!

So I enjoyed many meals of scrambled eggs, French toast or PB&J sandwiches. When going out to eat, I would stick with what I knew which usually meant McDonald's, KFC, Outback and TGI Friday's.

Wanting to FULLY experience Japan, I told my friends how I wanted to at least try sushi and sashimi. So Naoko, Yuko, Vivian and Arlette and I met up at a sushi bar in Roppongi Hills. The restaurant was so much fun! We sat at the bar where a conveyor belt paraded a variety of highly garnished, beautiful fresh seafood in front of us. Spot a dish that looked tempting, simply pull it off the conveyor belt and enjoy. Plate after plate, just stack them up in front you as you enjoy piece after piece of tuna, shrimp, mackerel, yellow tail and more.

The price of each dish is based on the color of the plate. When you've finished your meal, the waiter simply comes by with a hand-held scanner and scans your plates, creating a total. He then electronically transfers that information onto a piece of tile. Take that pice of tile to the cashier and pay your bill. The Japanese will never cease to amaze me when it comes to electronics.

OK, so back to my sushi dining experience ... I was pretty timid about grabbing dishes. I began with a few Nori rolls (rice and cucumber wrapped in seaweed) and then tried some baby shrimp. Then it was on to some actual raw fish ... Tuna.

So Japanese etiquette is that you put the entire piece of sushi into your mouth at once. Well ... that's a lot of foreign food in my mouth at one time! Sadly my gag reflex kicked in and it was not easy to get all that piece swallowed. But I did get it all down. As for that second piece ... well, Naoko helped me finish that one off. I am pretty certain it was more the amount of food in my mouth and the idea of it being raw fish that made it so difficult to swallow.

Deciding to go for something safe to settle the stomach, I grabbed a piece of cantaloupe. Then I discovered the grilled tuna and onion kebabs ... yummy. Amazing what a little flame will do.


Just before my first bite!


Second piece ... recreating first bit for the camera (thought we'd missed the first shot). I didn't end up eating this piece.