Japan Navigator

I have written a recent post on the birth of kaiten sushi or conveyor belt sushi exactly 50 year’s ago - an invention made in the great city of Osaka, but I still had to visit the shop where that happened: Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Fuse, Osaka.

Fuse is just a few minutes by Nara-bound Kintetsu train from Tsuruhashi on the Osaka loop line and the sushi restaurant sits almost in front of the station (on the block of shops to the right when you stand in front of the south exit of Fuse station). This is an old downtown neighborhood with impressive classical shopping arcades and shops and other establishments that are pleasantly un-modern.

Genroku Sushi was doing brisk business. The conveyor belt snaked all the way through the restaurant, leaving no corner empty. It also offered privacy, as a second belt had been built on top of the first one, thereby hiding eaters from each other. Another innovation! While the first belt carried the plates with sushi, the second one was loaded with cups, ash trays, paper napkins and other accessories.

All plates were the fixed price of 130 yen and the quality of the sushi was excellent. The fish was fresh and soft. Here you see one of my favorites, ikura, the eggs of the salmon (a sort of pseudo kaviar - even the Japanese word “ikura” is a rendering of “kaviar”). Besides offering the usual fish (tuna, salmon etc.) and shellfish, Genroku Sushi goes along with the times in providing sushi with raw meat, calbee, chicken, and also whale ham. I skipped all that, but there were many types of crab sushi I enjoyed and a nice seafood salad.

On the picture above you see the faucet for hot water. You have to press your cup against the black lever, the hot water comes out of the white spout (warning: if you mistakenly press the black lever with your hand putting the cup below it on the table, you get the scalding hot water over your hand). Tea bags are in the round black box next to the faucet. The other box contains ginger (shoga).

The Japanese names of the plates were indicated with little flags, but there was also an English language picture menu. Beer was available as a side order, but unfortunately the restaurant did not serve sake. A surprisingly large number of staff was on duty (considering the fact that the conveyor belt system was invented because of lack of suitable staff), to seat the customers, count the plates, and keep everything running smoothly. The chefs were also working at high speed to keep up with the pace of consumption. In the front wall of the restaurant was a take-out corner, with the same reasonable prices. When I was there, in the early evening of an ordinary weekday, the other visitors were mainly locals who would eat a few plates and then go back home again.

And this is the final result…. gochisosama deshita! Highly recommended and I will be back here even if I have to make a detour for it!