Ozumo

learn japanese, eat great sushi. that would be my summation of this place.

for some bizarre reason, the toilets have japanese lesson tapes playing in the background, so if you are bladderally challenged you will have the opportunity to pick up some key phrases that might come in handy. i was hoping to time my fourth visit to the little boys' room with lesson 6, "ordering at a restaurant", but unfortunately my timing was a little off and i had to make do with lesson 7, "buying a train ticket". imagine the surprise on the waiter's face when i fluently asked for a roundtrip to osaka instead of the soft-shell crab.

as for the food, which is really what you should be here for, it is amazing. expensive as a bugger, but fantastic. everything we ordered was perfect, and, as is always the case with sushi, we over-ordered quite significantly, so i have a lot of reference points to base that claim on. the sake was exquisite, but again, pricey. we ordered 2 small bottles of sake, and even asked for recommendations - the first one was $50 and the second $75! that'll teach me to order without checking the price first.

at the end of the night, we were satiated, slightly pickled, $300 poorer but hey, at least i learned that if i am ever stranded in yokohama i know i can make it back to tokyo on the bullet train.