Many gaijin falsely assume that all sushi is fish, but the name actually refers to the way the rice is prepared with vinegar, and you can also get sushi dishes with egg or vegetables. Fish and seafood are, of course, essential and traditional elements of Japanese cuisine, and range from the seaweed used in miso-shiru (soup) to the slices of tuna, salmon and squid laid across the slabs of sushi rice. Slices of raw fish and seafood on their own are generally called sashimi .

In a traditional sushi-ya each plate is freshly made by a team of chefs working in full view of the customers. If you're not sure of the different types to order, point at the trays on show in the glass chiller cabinets at the counter, or go for the nigiri-zushi mori-awase , a slab of perhaps six or seven different types of fish and seafood on fingers of sushi rice. Other types of sushi include maki-zushi , rolled in a sheet of crisp seaweed, and chirashi-zushi , a layer of rice topped with fish, vegetables and cooked egg.

While a meal at a sushi-ya averages ¥5000 (or much more at high-class joint) at kaiten-zushi shops, where you choose whatever sushi dish you want from the continually replenished conveyor belt, the bill will rarely stretch beyond ¥1500 per person. In kaiten-zushi , plates are colour-coded according to how much each one costs, and are totted up at the end for the total cost of the meal. If you can't see what you want, you can ask the chefs to make it for you. Green tea is free, and you can usually order beer or sake.

If you want to try the infamous fugu , or blowfish, you'll generally need to go to a specialist fish restaurant, which can be easily identified by the picture or model of a balloon-like fish outside. Fugu's reputation derives from its potentially fatally poisonous nature rather than its bland, rubbery taste. The actual risk of dropping dead at the counter is virtually nil - at least from fugu poisoning - and you're more likely to keel over at the bill, which (cheaper cultivated fugu apart) will be in the ¥10,000 per-person bracket.

A more affordable and tasty seafood speciality is unagi , or eel, typically basted with a thick sauce of soy and sake, sizzled over charcoal and served on a bed of rice. This dish is particularly popular in summer, when it's believed to provide strength in the face of sweltering heat. Restaurants specializing in crab (kani) dishes are also popular and are easily identified by the models of giant crabs with wiggling pincers over the doorways.