Su-Su-Sushiro

(With apologies to Phil Collins and everyone else...)

February 14th was anything but an ordinary Saturday, and not only because it was Valentine's Day. The string orchestra from Ye Olde Academy had its last "away concert" of the current, very active school year, performing two sets at the Cheerio Shopping Mall in downtown Kashima. Although Mssr. Maestro Ogawa conducted the performance, I went along as well, partly because I was driving a school van and partly because I was part of the performance. I played Benny Goodman's "Let's Dance" and the Glenn Miller favorite "Moonlight Serenade" on clarinet with the orchestra backing, and I played "My Funny Valentine" on alto saxophone with only piano accompaniment.

The last number was the most fun. I was really able to open up and fill that high-ceilinged central plaza with sound...with plenty of all-natural (and NOT gated) reverb.

Anyway, once both sets were done and all the final hauling and handling complete, I loaded up in my BLUE RAV4 for the trip home and immediately got a call on my cell phone. My daughter reported that Mrs. Minstrel was busy and going to be late for dinner. That in itself was cringe-worthy news, because it meant I had to try to feed my father-in-law. You'd think that would be ridiculously simple, since he insists we have the same damned thing every [expletive] breakfast and dinner. The problem is that he is also so [expletive] picky, i.e. everything has to be prepared a certain way or we have to sit and listen to him complain for half an hour (if he doesn't give up and eat something else). It turned out that he had already made things a whole lot easier; he was in a celebratory mood for some reason and wanted us to go out for kaiten sushi. Specifically, he wanted to go to a shop called Sushiro (and I'm not talking about the famous shop of the same name in Saskatoon).

Kaiten (回転 literally "moving in a circle" or "revolving") sushi is an interesting Japanese phenomenon. It is a type of restaurant in which chefs place plates with various types of sushi on a circular conveyor belt. The customers simply take what they want as it comes by. Customers also have the option of ordering specific dishes if they like. Payment is determined by the number and color of the plates. It's quick, it's convenient, and it's an excellent way to deal with a high-volume clientele.

Sushiro, however, has taken the concept to a whole new level. It is a chain originating in Osaka, and its claim to fame is that it offers a high-quality product at an amazingly low price. Moreover, since it charges the same price per plate regardless of the type of sushi, it is even quicker and easier (and cheaper) than your ordinary kaiten sushi restaurant. Not surprisingly, it has been VERY successful. I had only been to the nearest Sushiro restaurant once before, with Mssr. Maestro Ogawa (who has an uncanny knack for tracking down things that are cheap yet excellent), and it was rather busy even though it was between the lunch and dinner rushes. On every other occasion when I'd tried to go there the waiting area was so jam-packed that I'd given up. Needless to say, since it was 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday, I wasn't feeling very optimistic, but we decided to go for it anyway.

It turned out that it wasn't so bad. We only had a fifteen-minute wait. That still gave me plenty of time to watch and marvel at the action before we got our table. Check-in is all computerized (as is their entire inventory management); you tap a touch-screen, enter your number and preferences, and get a numbered ticket. You get called as soon as a table is ready. A team of hardened staff hustle about at a frantic pace, cleaning and prepping tables, ushering people in, tallying bills, and ringing up payment, all with smiles on their faces. Meanwhile, in the back, a sizable kitchen squad keeps three conveyor belts constantly stocked with an amazing variety of sushi and other things. And if the mobile smorgasbord somehow isn't enough, one can call in an order using a computerized network, and the specified dish arrives labeled on the conveyor belt.

(This is an off-the-shelf YouTube video of a Sushiro restaurant, not my own. The 白色 (white) label is the color code for the table, so that specially-ordered items on the conveyor belt can be identified.)

My father-in-law was amazed. He has long been a fan of kaiten sushi (on those occasions when he's willing to pay for it), but he had never seen anything like Sushiro. The sheer scale of the place in terms of customer volume and size of the operation were unlike anything he'd ever experienced. Add to that the fact that such a wonderful and varied menu was available at a price that was almost unthinkably low, and you have something that to him seemed almost like an extra layer of heaven. He repeatedly wondered aloud how they were ever able to make enough profit to stay in business, but then we answered the question quite clearly ourselves. When we finally declared ourselves finished (among groans and belches), and I pushed the "check, please" button, we all had mountains of empty plates in front of us. We'd probably eaten more than we ever had at any other kaiten sushi place. Needless to say, the bill was NOT low. It didn't matter, though. We were all satisfied. And as for my father-in-law, he was happier than I'd seen him in ages.

I guess it was a worthwhile Valentine's Day for a change. Besides, this year I actually got chocolate from some of the girls in the string orchestra. :-)