only in japan

::: in what has become a regular part of our day-to-day in japan, tonight claire and i had another "only in japan" moment of appreciation for japanese ingenuity and creativity...our friends -- the kokubus -- took us and a couple of out-of-town guests to dinner at a local sushi place (kaiten) where two-piece 105-yen plates of sushi and other stuff roll by tableside on a conveyor belt...

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...forget counting the plates and totaling the bill...that's so outdated...i've heard of a couple places where -- at the end of your meal -- the server will come to your table, measure the height of your stacked plates using a laser beam, which, in turn, calculates the cost of your meal, at which point your bill amount is electronically transmitted to the main cash register...

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...at this place, however, forget the laser beam...simply deposit your empty plate into this chute...

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...which keeps a running count on your plates (and also posts the count in the register's computer hard drive)...as you can see my table had 31 plates...

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...every fifth plate, a video game appears on the screen ("only in japan"), giving you a chance to win a little toy...

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...take a stab and guess what this is...

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...ding-ding if you said "hamburg roll"...btw, a tasty and cheap filler if your kai-ten bill is bulging...

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only in japan

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