Some people might say the color is wrong, but we can all agree the price is right.

Some of you may be under the impression that SoraNews24’s ace reporter Mr. Sato is an incredibly wealthy man, what with the high price tags that have recently been involved in his comprehensive digestive cycle, like a 10,000-yen (US$92) bento boxed lunch, 2,500-yen ramen, and 5,000-yen imperial-grade toilet paper.

However, the truth is Mr. Sato is a man of merely modest monetary means, and so he has to counterbalance his bouts of extravagant splurging with an equal or greater amount of bargain hunting. So when he found out about a restaurant in Tokyo, in the swanky Roppongi neighborhood no less, that’s offering all-you-can-eat sushi for just 400 yen (US$3.50), he knew exactly where he was going for lunch.

Granted, you only get 15 minutes in limitless sushi land for that price, but being the efficient eater he is, Mr. Sato was sure he could make himself comfortably full with a quarter of an hour. Arriving at the restaurant, he saw that while it’s called Daichikyu Sushi in Japanese, it also has the official translated English name of Biglobe Sushi, which makes sense since it’s actually a pop-up restaurant run by Japanese Internet service provider Biglobe.

Biglobe’s company image color is blue, so Mr. Sato wasn’t surprised that the color was featured prominently on the restaurant’s sign and noren entrance tapestry. What he was surprised about, though, was how much more blue was waiting for him inside. The menu, written on the wall, is blue, as is the ingredient showcase and the rice used for the sushi

But most shocking of all, the sushi chefs are blue too!

Even though he’d once participated in a meal where people ate sushi off a model’s naked body (granted, said model was Mr. Sato himself), our reporter was startled by the employees’ appearance. “Umm, what are you supposed to be?” he asked, to which one of the men behind the counter cheerfully replied “We’re kappa (water imps).”

▼ “Oh…I…see…” was all that Mr. Sato could manage in response.

All diners at Biglobe Sushi are served a chef’s choice omakase set, which consists of one piece each of maguro (tuna), otoro (extra-fatty tuna), kampachi (amberjack) and hirame (flounder), plus two pieces of ikura (salmon roe). That’s actually a pretty great selection, with broadly popular ingredients from the mid and upper-price ranges of the sushi pantheon, and a serious steal for just 400 yen.

Once you finish your set, you can request a refill of the same, as many times as you like until your 15 minutes are up.

After a lifetime of eating sushi with white rice, the blue grains were mysteriously alluring to Mr. Sato. Their hue comes not from chemical food coloring, but from the use of spirulina, a dietary supplement algae that’s safe for human consumption.

Unusual as it may look, the blue rice tastes just fine, with no discernible unfamiliar flavor coming from the spirulina. And despite the gimmicky visuals, both the fish and rice at Biglobe Sushi are top-notch, above and beyond the level of inexpensive revolving sushi joints and on par with high-end sushi specialty restaurants.

However, Biglobe isn’t out to permanently revolutionize the world of sushi. As mentioned above, this is a limited-time popup eatery, which will be open only on October 19 and 20. The company would still like you to be able to eat all the sushi you like, though, and so customers who sign up for Biglobe’s mobile Internet plan between now and November 14 will be entered into a drawing, with 1,000 winner receiving an entire month of all-you-can-eat sushi meals at popular revolving sushi chain Kappazushi (hence the kappa makeup for the staff), though, sadly, blue sushi isn’t part of the Kappazushi menu.

Restaurant information
Biglobe Sushi / 大地球寿司
Address: Tokyo-to, Minato-ku, Roppongi 5-8-3, Nakano Building 1st floor
東京都港区六本木 5-8-3 中野ビル 1F
Open October 19-20, 1 p.m.-8 p.m.

Photos ©SoraNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]

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