First things first. Kaiten-zushi is conveyor-belt sushi. Little plates of sushi motor by you on an endless conveyor belt. You can place special orders, but it is also perfectly common to just grab whatever looks appetizing as it goes by you. [Our favorite sushi place in town is kaiten-zushi, but the guy knows us all by now, and knows what we like to eat. He starts making it when he sees us walk in]
There is a menu, and a little intercom for the ordering. Special orders go by on little yellow props (also visible in photo, though the plates have been removed) In this case, almost all the plates are 105 with tax. In other kaiten-zushi circumstances, price is denoted by plate color. At Sushi-Ro, yellow plates means "this sushi has wasabi on it" and white plates mean it's without. You can also see little signs. The Gluttony Contest took place at a fairly big establishment, so they ride little explanatory signs in front of different sushi. At our place in town, which is much smaller, you just kind of grab and try, or you can ask the chef who is standing right there in the center most of the time.
Anyway! The plates are fairly small. On a regular night I eat about five. My maximum was an estimated seven. The contest was divided into brackets. The bottom tier ("Recreational Eaters"), including yours truly, was made up mostly of Shiso ladies (five of us) all having topped out previously at 7 or 8 plates.
Tier two, "Mid-tier Gastronomers" was for those who held records like 10 or 12 plates.
The big leagues, "Consumptive Behaviorists" was for the six people claiming anywhere between 14 and 20 plates. Our sixth (and perhaps shortest) Shiso lady (the cat JET) found herself in this bracket, amongst the big boys.
I can't speak for the other tables; things were leisurely at our baby-bracket table as we selected and enjoyed various sushi treats. When I turned around to say what up to the consumptive behaviorists behind me, their plate stacks were already small towers.
Yours truly won the lower bracket with 14 plates. I might have been able to have more, but that would have been needless; I'd already won!
But Big Brother JET is actually the winner of the upper bracket, eating (and keeping down) an unbelievable 31 plates.
Mirijet laughs at our poor aching Cat Jet, who topped at 27.
Bracket one winners, honorable mentions, and their foodbabies.
Big-eaters table, all said and done.