Once or twice a week I’ll stop by a place on the way home. If I’m willing to go out of my way for a treat, I’ll go to Akiyoshi yakitoriya in Ogikubo. But on my train line home there is a sushi place I drop by, a place I believe is called “Ganso” Sushi (possibly “Genroku”), a “Kaiten-zushi,” or conveyor-belt sushi joint.

This particular place is reasonably priced–about a dollar per plate (two pieces per plate) and up, with my favorite, maguro, being on the cheapest plate. But what I like about this place is that you don’t have to eat the stuff on the conveyor belt, and can instead order new plates to be made for you. This is a big thing for me–I hate having to choose from the hour-old fish that’s starting to turn dark from dryness. Ganso has always let me order fresh–with the singly, highly disappointing visit I made when my father was in town and they shoved the old stuff in front of us (we came during lunch, so the policy may have been different).

I always thought that I was rather stodgy in my selection–I always have maguro, six or eight plates of it. One after the other, maguro maguro maguro. Sometimes people stare.

Tonight I dropped by for, of course, some more maguro. Had to wait a few minutes for a seat to open up, and two did at once. So the other solo guy who’d walked in just after me sat down on the next stool. But this guy made me feel a bit less like the most unusual customer in the shop. He ordered eight plates of the same kind of fish, more than my six for the night–and then ordered ten plates of ika (squid) all at once. The chef had to ask twice to make sure he’d heard right.

I left before he was able to scarf down all the squid, but he was making admirable progress. And for all I know, he ordered another ten plates after I left.