Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

1/29/2006, Playing with Akemi's nephew, pictures of Osaka at night

Going out for sushi with Koki, Akemi, and her family

Akemi's sister has two sons, Yohei and Koki.  Yohei has been studying feverishly for months in preparation for an examination to enter a preferred private junior high school.  Koki, who is 6 years old, can be a bit of a pain.  Really loud.  Running.  Jumping.  Playing games.  Playing tricks.  Not so conducive for Yohei's success.  So, they sent Koki to stay with his grandparents in Osaka.  Koki, Yohei, and I enjoye each other very much, so whenever they're around, I spend time with them.

We went out for sushi.  I was taking a picture of the sushi, but Koki was eager to be in the picture, so he got up close and personal with the sushi.

This sushi restaurant is high tech.  You put the plates in this chute and it counts them, gives you little prizes when you eat a lot, and figures the bill at the end.

If you want something else, this touch screen panel has a menu of things that they can make special that might not be on the conveyor belt at the moment.  Somebody makes it and puts it on the conveyor belt and sends it down to you with the rest of the food.  The amazing thing is that just before it gets to your table, the screen makes a noise and announces, "Your plate of scallop sushi will soon be arriving!" It's great.

Basically, it's normal conveyor belt sushi (kaiten sushi).

I was stacking mine so I could gloat about how much I had eaten.  Note there are barcodes on the bottoms of all of the plates.  The system uses the bar codes to make sure nothing stays on the conveyor belt longer than 30 minutes.  It monitors each plate, just like UPS monitors their packages.

Tried to get everybody in this picture, but it didn't work out.

Here is Koki and Akemi's parents.

This sign assures you nothing will stay on the belt longer than 30 minutes and no preservatives or artificial anything will be used in the food.

Pictures of Umeda at night

On my way home, I stopped to take a few pictures of a street in Umeda.  Umeda is a business district in Osaka that includes the main train station of Osaka.

Umeda at night.  This is my favorite.

Umeda at night.

Umeda at night.

Umeda at night.

Umeda at night.

Umeda at night.

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