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Sushi

a finger-size piece of sashimi on a bed of vinegared rice

Japanese attach ‘o’ in front of sushi as a sign of respect, and call it o-sushi.

This world famous Japanese food is served at many establishments around the country. Sushi was and still is the pinnacle of luxury dining. Recently growing sushi chains, however, has made affordable versions. Sushi restaurants could be roughly divided into three price ranges.

The most reasonable is kaiten-zushi. These sushi chains put a pair of sushi on a dish and circulate them a conveyer belt around the counter. You can tell prices from the colour of the dish, and each dish costs between around 100 to 600 yen.

The mid-range sushi restaurants are owned and run by trained sushi chefs. They go to fish market everyday to find good fish to serve. Most of them offer sushi sets, called Nami (regular), Jo (first-class), and toku-jo (special first-class). Tokujo costs around 3,000 to 8,000 yen.

The high-end sushi restaurants pursue the best fish available, and cost comes second. Many of them do not even have menu or prices, because what they offer for what price depends largely on the market. One way to order is to tell them your budget (e.g. 20,000 yen), and let the chef decide what is good that day.