Kura Sushi Revisted; Dragonball Z Prizes!; Tokyo

I've never understood the appeal of Dragon Ball, but I can't deny its popularity across the world.  My first experience with Dragon Ball was in college in the 90's.  One of my few college friends, Gambling Buddy Wu, was a huge fan and had Dragon Ball figures and comic books.  I had no idea what the heck Dragon Ball was other than being some funny Japanese thing.  Note that this was pre-Manga/Anime/Cosplay explosion.  When my days at U of I began, eBay and the internet were seemingly still in their infancies so Japanese stuff wasn't as popular or known.  Wu had been in Taiwan and Japan many times as a child and teen, so perhaps that's how he knew about Dragon Ball.

Well, to my girls' dismay, the prize in the Kura Sushi gatcha machine game was a Dragon Ball Z series of capsule prizes.  For a refresher about Kura Sushi, check here.    It took us about 25 plates of sushi to win one Dragon Ball Z prize.

Pick a plate or two.

Eat sushi, insert in slot, repeat four more times.

Upon every fifth plate, watch random Las Vegas type slot machine animation screen.  "Atari", which is above, means you win.  "Hazure" means you lose, which occurs like 80 percent of the time.

Look up at the gatcha machine dispenser if you get "Atari".

Watch capsule roll down (the orange ball).

Take capsule and pop it open like it's a coconut.

Look at prize and wonder WTF it is.

There you have it.  We got a magnet.  The figures looked cooler.  Neither of my girls cared though.  We ate 35 plates of sushi and got one prize.  Not so good odds.  The sushi was really good and affordable though.  I was able to treat my in-laws, and the total for the 6 of us was only 5,500 yen, which is about 50 bucks.  Try doing that in the States where some Korean or Chinese sushi shop owners (real Japanese sushi shops are not very common in the U.S.; if you want to find a real Japanese one, look for Japanese writing on the menu next to the English, and avoid sushi shops with the words Tokyo, samurai or Dragon Ball Z in the name of the shop) will charge you 4 times the amount for likely lower quality sushi (the above being said, I still highly recommend House of Kobe in Merrillville, Indiana; huge portions and the owners are absolutely wonderful). 

On a final note, Kura Sushi has the coolest self-serve tap beer machine, one of those only in Japan treasures.

Have a good one!!!