How to use the self-serve dispensers for green tea at conveyor bel sushi restaurants in Japan

A key part of the complete kaitenzushi experience.

The technological star of the show at Japan’s kaitenzushi (revolving sushi) restaurants are the conveyor belts on which plates of food are delivered to your table. However, there’s another clever piece of tech that’s often found at kaitenzushi restaurants.

Officially called “drink fillers,” these are spigots built into the counter or table. In Japan, green tea is free at kaitzenzushi restaurants, and these handy self-service devices allow you to get a cup of tea without having to ask the staff or get up and go to a centralized drink bar.

While drink fillers are a very common part of the kaitenzushi experience, our Japanese-language reporter Tasuku Egawa somehow managed to go his whole life until now without ever using one. Chalk it up to Tasuku’s statistically unusual predilection for drinking ice water with his sushi. The other day, though, he decided it was finally time to fill this gap in his life experiences.

Looking at how the device is built into the counter, Tasuku wondered where the liquid itself was coming from. So he poked his head under the counter…

…and saw a length of rubber hosing goes into the metal base of the drink filler, while the other goes back further to some sort of central tap/water supply.

Coming back topside, Tasuku took another look at the rubber pad that you’re supposed to press forward to dispense the liquid, and felt a bit of apprehension.

You’re supposed to hold your teacup in your hand, and then push the cup forward against the pad. The hose Tasuku had seen beneath the counter was fairly narrow, but still, hot liquid was going to be coming out of the spigot very near his hand. If he pressed the pad with too much force, might that wide-open the tap, resulting in scalding splashes of cascading liquid?

So for safety’s sake, Tasuku pressed his cup gently against the pad, and…

…absolutely nothing happened.

As Tasuku learned, it actually takes a pretty good amount of force to open the tap. In retrospect, this makes a lot of sense. If you’re dispensing hot liquids, you don’t want hair-trigger taps that customers might hit by accident, especially since families with small kids a pretty big katenzushi customer demographic.

So yes, you really do need to give the pad a pretty strong push, and it’s basically an on/off setting, so there’s no need to regulate the pressure for an optimal flow. That’s why the below-counter hose isn’t so thick – even at full flow, it won’t splash outside your cup.

At this point Tasuku learned something else about kaitenzushi drink fillers. Even though they’re for people who want to drink tea, the drink fillers just dispense hot water, not green tea itself. So you’ll need to look for a canister or box next to the drink filler that’s stocked with either green tea powder or tea bags, which you’re supposed to put in your cup first and then add the hot water from the drink filler.

▼ The kaitenzushi restaurant Tasuku went to had its green tea powder in a shaker, but some places instead have a little dispenser spoon to scoop the powder into your cup with.

With intense summertime-style heat sticking around in Japan through September, Tasuku will probably be sticking with his usual ice water for the near future, but once we get deeper into fall he now knows how easy it is to whip up a cup of green tea, and it’s something we recommend everyone try at least once to get the full kaitenzushi experience when you’re in Japan.

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