Kura Sushi - Guide to Japan's revolving sushi restaurant + photos

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Kura Sushi has to be Japan’s most joyful revolving sushi bar (“kaitenzushi”) and conveyor belt restaurant.

Popular with locals and travellers alike, Kura Sushi is one of the most fun and inexpensive dining experiences in Japan.

All the food and drinks arrive by conveyor belt, plus putting away your finished dishes has been ‘gamified’ (for every five dirty plates you drop into a slot on your table, you get a free go at an online game – smart!)

As prices at Kura Sushi in Japan start from just 110 Yen ( less than $1 / £1 a piece), it is one of the most affordable and authentic revolving sushi bar experiences you’ll encounter – kanpai to kaitenzushi at Kura Sushi (try saying that after several sakes).

From ordering food to sushi conveyor belt etiquette (plus our visit to Japan’s largest Kura Sushi), here is our ultimate guide to eating at Kura Sushi in Japan in 2024:

Kura Sushi in Japan ordering screen tablet

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Table of Contents

What is Kura Sushi in Japan?

One of a number of popular revolving sushi bar / sushi conveyor belt chains in Japan, Kura Sushi is a popular kaitzenzushi restaurant that has captured the public’s imagination with ever-changing menus and seasonal specials.

Kura Sushi Shinsekai - Osaka Japan — *Kura Sushi Shinsekai Osaka*

Pretty much every element of the dining experience has been automated from the electronic checking in system, to the food tablet ordering and food arriving by conveyor belt.

Sushi and sashimi can be expensive in Japan, but Kura Sushi offer good quality sushi and rice dishes for very cheap prices.

Based on our experience, we found Kura Sushi a lot cheaper than the likes of other sushi chain restaurants like SushiZanmai.

Our Kura Sushi Video

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Kura Sushi history / How many Kura Sushi stores in Japan?

Founded in 1995, Kura Sushi is a popular sushi conveyor belt chain with around 540 locations in Japan.

Kura Sushi has since expanded into other countries with around 25 branches in Taiwan, over 50 restaurants in the USA and the first Kura Sushi in China (Shanghai) which opened in 2023.

Kura is the second biggest sushi revolving restaurant chain in Japan after Sushiro, which has approximately 650 sushi restaurants in Japan – so sake, sashimi and sushi are very big business in Japan.

Kura Sushi in Taiwan — *Kura Sushi Taiwan*

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Visiting Japan’s biggest Kura Sushi by Tokyo Skytree

Kura Sushi also lays claim to having the largest sushi conveyor belt restaurant in the world, with a multi-level sushi restaurant by the Tokyo Skytree, next to Oshiage Station.

We were lucky enough to visit Tokyo and dine at the largest Kura Sushi in Japan recently and it was an incredible experience.

Kura Sushi Oshiage Skytree Tokyo opened in 2022 and has around 50 booths and 30 counter seats, meaning it can seat almost 300 people every hour.

Although similar to other Kura Sushi chains, the one incredible unique element of the Tokyo Skytree / Oshiage Kura Sushi is the massive and interactive gachapon / Bikkura Pon toy capsule machine that features moving parts and gives you the chance to win prizes like badges or cute kawaii style keyrings.

There is even a shooting gallery (bikkura gyo) on the second floor where you can win more prizes. Game on!

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How much are Kura Sushi prices in Japan?

Kura Sushi is renowned for its low sushi prices in Japan – the standard menus consist of several price bands, the lowest being 110 Yen per set.

A Kura Sushi set usually consists of two pieces of sushi or sashimi (but not always).

For instance, for 110 Yen, you can buy a plate of 2 x seared tuna sushi or 2 x salmon sushi – tax is extra on top. 110 Yen equates to around £0.60 / $0.75 USD / 0.70 Euros as of early 2024.

The main price categories as of early 2024 are 110 Yen, 115 Yen, 120 Yen, 125 Yen and 132 Yen – all these are based on dish prices and are standard items. Special / seasonal dishes may cost extra.

Until 2022, Kura Sushi prices started at 100 Yen per plate but after 4 decades, a recent price increase was introduced due to the higher price of seafood and the weakening yen – sayonara 100 yen Kura Sushi!

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Kyra Sushi Japan locations and opening hours

With over 540 Kura Sushi restaurants all over Japan, you’ll find multiple branches in all the big cities including Tokyo, Osaka, Nagano, Kyoto and Fukuoka.

For instance, as of early 2024, there are 59 Kura Sushi restaurants in the Tokyo region, 75 in Osaka and 20 in the Kyoto area.

Kura Sushi have several flagship stores in Japan that usually have unique interiors inspired by Japanese festivals or special features.

These are:

Asakusa Rox – Tokyo
Dotonburi – Osaka
Harajuku – Tokyo
Skytree Oshiage – Tokyo (also the world’s largest sushi conveyor belt restaurant)
Namba Parks – Osaka

Most of the big city Kura Sushi branches like Tokyo Oshiage open at 11am and close at either 11pm or midnight (last orders are generally a little bit before).

Please note some branches (like the Mitten Fuchu store in Tokyo) close at 10pm.

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Arriving and getting a table at Kura Sushi

As Kura Sushi is so popular and cheap, getting a table at peak times (lunch and evening) can sometimes be a little tricky – thankfully, Kura Sushi have a genius seat allocation tablet / kiosk at the entrance to every store.

As you arrive, head straight to the reservation machine – based on our experiences none of the machines seem to have a translation or English language function here so the Google Translate app is your best friend here (or muscle memory after your first visit).

At the Kura Sushi ticketing machine / seat allocation kiosk, you need to:

Press the blue button on the right hand side on the welcome screen

Then enter how many people are in your party – enter the number of adults first and then the number of children.

Whether you wish to sit in a private booth (which can take longer) or sit at the communal area. Note not all restaurants give you the choice.

Press the red button to confirm then take the printed ticket from the terminal.

Once you’ve been issued a ticket, it’ll either be a seat number (meaning you can head straight to your booth / seat) or if there are no seats available currently, you’ll be issued with a queue number (the screen will give you an estimated waiting time).

*Ticket with seat number (which you will need to keep until you have paid for your food at the end)*

If you get the queue number ticket, you then need to wait for your queue number to be called (in Japanese) or watch out for the number to be displayed on the queuing LCD screen.

Once your waiting number is called, you scan your queuing ticket on a QR code machine / or press the red button on the screen and your seat number ticket will be printed out.

As Kura Sushi is highly automated, all of this happens electronically and then you are expected to make your own way to your seats, following the arrows.

If you have a long waiting time, it is fine to leave the restaurant and return but we found the wait-times weren’t always that accurate so we’d recommend staying for anything less than a 30 minute waiting time so as to not miss your slot.

You must keep hold of your ticket with allocated seat number as you will need this to pay for your food at the till at the end.

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Ordering at Kura Sushi

Once seated in your booth or at the communal area, touch your tablet screen and press the ‘Choose Language’ button to select your desired language (or leave if you are fluent in Japanese – go you!)

Browse the menu sections on the tablets (e.g. sushi section / special section / alcohol section) and then either order it via the tablet or wait for your dish to pass by on the conveyor belt.

We generally always ordered from the tablet and didn’t grab stuff from the conveyor in the hope it would be fresher.

Once you’ve hit ‘Enter’, your tablet will confirm the request has been received. We found that you could only order 5 items at a time (and you could then order more once your first food has arrived).

Your food / drinks will then magically appear a few minutes later on the conveyor belt shelf above your table – then eat, repeat and enjoy. Kura Sushi really is that simple!

When leaving, make sure your dirty plates are put into the special ‘slot’ on the table (you might even win prizes; more on this later…), ensure you hit ‘check out’ on the tablet and then pay your bill using your table number ticket at the automatic tills at the end.

Note no staff member will arrive to give you a bill or take payment – it is all automated.

Plan My Japan Tip – if you can’t see where to find your utensils when you sit down, most Kura Sushi branches have a compartment on the table that you can open which reveals chopsticks, spoons, free green tea powder plus various condiments like soy sauce, wasabi and ginger. Additional condiments and free water are available at the end of each seating aisle.

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Food available

For between 110 Yen and 132 Yen a plate, you can enjoy lots of sushi and sashimi, plus several hot food items like udon soups, ramen, fries and takoyaki.

Kura Sushi examples

Nigiri with raw shrimp, spear squid, salmon etc – all 115 Yen
Gunkan roll with cod mayo, tuna, scallop with mentaiko or seafood yukhoe
Side dishes – large salmon roe bowl, eel bowl, dandan noodles, miso clam soup
Fried dishes – minced meat cutlets, onion rings, fried chicken, fried marinated tuna

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Desserts

After all that sushi (and possibly sake or beer), have you got room for afters? If so, you are in for a treat.

Desserts at Kura start from 115 Yen and include items such as Italian tiramisu (often with a matcha version), milky crepes, Hokkaido milk cream puffs plus chocolate cake, cheese cake and lots of fruit options plus many more – ‘sweet’ as!

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Green Tea

Each Kura Sushi booth has a hot water tap to enable you to make your own (free) green tea.

The matcha green tea powder can be found in the compartment on your table along with the other condiments and chopsticks.

It is suggested you add one spoon of green tea matcha powder per cup.

Free hot matcha is very much our cup of tea!

Beer, High Balls and other alcoholic drinks

For Japanese beer and high-ball fans, you’ll be glad to know that Kura Sushi in Japan also serve various alcoholic drinks like sake, highballs (whiskey and soda) plus beer.

Alcohol prices as of early 2024 are as follows:

Draft beer – 600 Yen (500 Yen at self-service stores)
Pale Ale Craft beer – 660 Yen
Asahi bottled beer – 650 Yen
Sake – 630 Yen
Highball – 450 Yen

We always felt a slight panic when we saw a full pint of beer whizzing along the conveyor belt whizzing towards our head but the conveyor belt never spilled a single drop – cheers / kanpai to that

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Conveyer Belt Etiquette

When dining in Kura Sushi (or any other kaitenzushi / sushi revolving conveyor belt bars), there are always some hygiene and etiquette factors to remember.

This is especially true as in 2022 / 2023, there was a big hygiene scandal where Japanese teenagers filmed each other licking food on the conveyor belts or deliberately cross-contaminating food.

It was a national scandal with police involved and impacted many revolving sushi restaurants for months, in terms of customer confidence.

When taking items off the conveyor belt, only touch the sushi dish – do not take the plastic cover or base unit.

Do not bring the sushi or any other food item back to the conveyor belt once touched

Do not put your hands on the upper ordering lane or conveyor belt tracks.

Do not use dirty spoons or cutlery in shared items like the green tea container.

As always, please remember to respect any Japanese rules or requests when visiting Japan.

Bikkurapon / Gachapon at Kura Sushi

One of the best things about dining at Kura Sushi (apart from the food obviously) is the games you can play when putting away dirty dishes.

For every five plates of sushi or similar you buy, once you’ve finished, put the dirty plates in a slot on the table and you get to play one of several electronic games on the table screen or on your smartphone.

If you win one of the games (we generally seemed to win about 1 in 5 times so one prize every 25 plates), you’ll receive a Bikkurapon / Gachapon capsule toy with a prize inside.

The prizes vary and Kura Sushi often partner with cartoon / anime characters or Japanese movie releases to theme the prizes – so character pin badges and keychains are not uncommon.

We often won character badges so usually gave them to smaller children eating with their presents.

Our best Bikkurapon / Gachapon prize was a miniature Kura Sushi plate complete with plastic sushi – so cute and very meta.

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Bikkurapon / Gachapon prize at Kura Sushi Japan

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Kura Sushi Gachapon Merchandise

So popular is Kura Sushi in Japan, the brand also has its own range of gachapon toys that are widely available across many gachapon stores in Japan (not just the ones in Kura Sushi branches).

There are have been several series of Kura Sushi gachapon toys which includes items such as a miniature conveyor belt, tiny sushi Bikkurapon machine or even a miniature green-tea making machine.

And it isn’t just Kura Sushi getting into gachapons – most Japanese chain restaurants have some form of gachapon toy collection such as Coco Ichaban, Saizeriya, Denny’s, Gindaco and Mos Burger.

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Other things to know about Kura Sushi Japan

Some branches have unique features like shooting galleries and fairground games – the flagship stores also have cool interiors that replicate famous Japanese festivals