I just finished lunch at Sushiro, the revolving sushi restaurant. I went there for the first time in a couple of years. The one I visited was just three minutes away from the paid study room I'm using.
Upon entering the restaurant, I told an employee "I'm coming alone", but instead of being escorted to a table, I was directed to a ticket-issuing machine that assigns a seat number.
I was a bit surprised by how much the restaurant had been automated in the last several years, but what surprised me most was the system for receiving sushi. I had always thought that a revolving sushi restaurant was defined by the fact that customers could take sushi directly from the lane. However, that is no longer the case. Now, customers must order sushi from the touch panel attached to each table, and they are actually discouraged from taking plates off the main conveyor belt.
Come to think of it, this new ordering system is much more logical than the old one, because it prevents less popular sushi from circling endlessly and eventually being disposed of because no one took them. I must say I miss the enjoyment of looking at the conveyor belt and deciding which sushi to take next, but I must admit I appreciate the company's efforts to optimize their operations.