The first restaurant I worked for in Los Angeles was in Little Tokyo. It's "kaiten-zushi" which is a revolving sushi restaurant.
I don't know if this is true or not but, the owner told me this is the first revolving sushi restaurant in Los Angeles. Everything in the restaurant looked so old. The conveyor machine was making noise. I could believe it at that point.
I was working as a waitress first then became a sushi chef. I'd been working in the kitchen for 11 years in Japan although I would have never thought I'm going to be a sushi chef. It's rare for a woman to be a sushi chef in Japan.
I learned how to make sushi at this restaurant. How to cut fish, how to make sushi rice, making roll and nigiri really quickly. If it's in Japan training time is very long and hard. The first 3 years, you can only cook rice and wash dishes.
I was so happy to learn how to make sushi from a restaurant with such a long history of making sushi.
She is the owner. She was 81 years old at that time.