The perfect way for sushi lovers to celebrate a birthday.

If you like your sushi conveyor belt restaurants to come with a side of entertainment, then Kura Sushi will tick all your boxes. As the first chain to introduce the industry’s first E-shaped lane setup in 1987, which transformed the standard seating style, Kura Sushi, or “Kurazushi” as it’s commonly pronounced, has long been looking for ways to improve the customer experience.

In 2000, the chain installed “Bikkura Pon!” gacha machines in its restaurants, where customers get a chance to win a prize every time they place an empty dish in the collection receptacle at their tables. Now, Kura Sushi is adding even more excitement for its customers, by becoming the first sushi chain in the industry to introduce a “Present System“, where glowing decorations, along with a cake or chirashi sushi bowl, form a parade on the conveyor belt to customers celebrating a special day.

While birthdays are a natural choice for ordering the “Present System”, Kura Sushi says it’s ideal for any special occasion, like an anniversary or celebratory get-together. The flashing lights on the decorative display will sparkle along the conveyor belt as it makes its way to your table, accompanied by “pop music” to get you in the party mood.

The parade is joined by a tablet, which displays one of two messages: “おめでとう” (“omedetou”/”congratulations”) or “いつもありがとう” (“itsumo arigatou”/”thanks, always”). When the parade stops at your table, the sealed dome concealing your dish will pop open automatically and the tablet will display messages like “注目” (“chuumoku”/”attention”) and “商品をとってね！” (“shouhin wo totte ne”/”take your product!”) to remind you to stop gawking at the display and enjoy your celebratory sushi or cake.

While cakes are likely the most popular choice for a birthday, the chain has the option for customers to select a chirashi sushi bowl as well.

The Present System lets you choose one of three options as your special dish, and though they’re described as “whole-sized meals” for one, they’re so generously sized you can easily share them with your dining companions.

▼ Seasonal Fruit Cake (1,000 yen [US$6.49])

This colourful cake contains strawberry, banana, orange, mango, and kiwi fruit pieces, with plenty of whipped cream made with sweetened condensed milk from Hokkaido.

▼ Seasonal Fruit Pudding a la Mode (800 yen)

Handmade in-house with egg yolks to give it a rich flavour, this pudding contains strawberries, bananas, oranges, kiwi fruits, and syrup-soaked mango pieces atop a sponge base, with caramel sauce to finish.

▼ Specially Selected Bara Chirashi (1,000 yen)

Bara Chirashi is a special dish that fuses “bara sushi” (a chopped sushi dish) with “chirashi sushi” (a variety of sushi placed on a bed of rice). With crab meat, conger eel, tiger prawns, tuna, scallops, sea urchin, salmon and salmon roe in the mix, this is a luxurious meal worthy of any special occasion.

The Present System is being rolled out at Kura Sushi branches from 16 November, with the following 10 stores being the first to offer it: Kura Sushi Global Flagship Store Asakusa, Harajuku, Dotonbori, Namba Parks South, Namba Nihonbashi, Ikebukuro East Exit, Shibuya Station, Nishi-Shinjuku, Takadanobaba Station, Atre Omori.

This service doesn’t require any advance reservations, as you can simply order it from the touch panel after being seated. You can also order it using your smartphone while inside the restaurant so you can surprise your dining partner without them seeing you placing the order.

It’s a fantastic new way to enjoy the charms of a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, and if you’d like to continue the celebrations with more whacky Kura Sushi madness, you can always enjoy a fishy crepe at the flagship store in Harajuku and order from a cart with fireworks at the flagship store in Ginza.

Related: Kura Sushi locations
Source, images: Press release
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