ZAKZAK!

Signs of a Fancy Curry Boom Emerging – High-Class Traditional Japanese Gourmet Restaurants Also Getting Involved, One Place Even Offers 10,000 yen Curry

Recently, curry rice, loved by children and easily made with stock bought at supermarkets, has been undergoing a transformation in Japan. Long-standing ryotei (high-class Japanese restaurants) and French restaurants are entering the market one after the other. Even a 10,000 yen premium curry with carefully selected ingredients has come on the scene. Perhaps the next star after the ramen boom will be fancy curry?

“The Flavor of the Old Ryotei“

Funaba Kitcho Shinsaibashi in Osaka’s Chuo Ward started selling curry for lunch limiting their offering to 20 meals (per day) in September 2005 for customers “to casually enjoy the taste of a ryotei.”

Famous Hyogo Prefecture beef brand “Sanda Beef” sirloin and more than 10 types of vegetables, including sweet potatoes from Kagoshima Prefecture, are cooked in a Japanese-style curry stock that uses a dashi broth of skipjack tuna and kombu seaweed for a touch of flavor.

Though somewhat expensive at 2100 yen, the meals are almost sold out every day since they have gained popularity since diners can enjoy a ryotei’s “curveball.” Manager Noriyoshi Kawaura (43) explains, “We have a good reputation from a wide demographic including women eating together and (male-female) couples.”

Selling 10,000 yen curry is the “Yokohama Curry Museum” in Yokohama City. The dish is full of top-class ingredients such as top-grade Yonezawa beef, 40 types of spices, and a gold-medal winning wine for a touch of flavor.

The Museum began offering the high-class curry last September on a limited basis, but changed its plans and continues to sell it due to unexpected popularity. The Museum’s analysis: “Curry’s base has spread even to those with deep pockets.”
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Saw a great headline this morning:

Monday, February 27, 2006

Aso Urges Iran To Halt Uranium Enrichment, Iran Says No

TOKYO (Kyodo)—Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Monday said his country will not suspend its uranium enrichment, rejecting a request from his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso at their meeting in Tokyo, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

Mottaki was quoted by the official as telling Aso that Iran is currently engaged in ‘’research activities’’ and that halting such resumption of uranium enrichment operations is ‘’impossible.’‘

Nice try, Japan! It’s unlikely that the international community will hold this diplomatic exercise in futility against you, so no worries! Aso gets an “A” for effort:

[February 04, 2006]

Japan viewed most positively in world poll, Iran most negatively

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)WASHINGTON, Feb. 4_(Kyodo) _ Japan was most widely viewed as having a positive influence in the world, while Iran displaced the United States as the nation with the most negative rating, according to a BBC World Service survey released Friday.

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A young female Japanese net-friend of mine is currently working as a secretary at an IT firm. She recently enjoyed the following exchange over the phone:

SOME GUY: Hello, this is John from New York. May I speak to Mr. Tanaka?
SECRETARY: Hold on me, please…

I’m applying for a job in Japan. In the latest email, the potential boss asked me to send a headshot, standard for Japanese resumes. I wanted to say that as soon as I get home to the US I can scan it in and send it, but I wasn’t quite sure how “scanner” is spelled in Japanese. I checked the always useful ALC dictionary, and they had this example:

Scanner Darkly
【著作】 《A ～》暗闇のスキャナー◆米1977《著》フィリップ・K・ディック(Philip K. Dick)

Dick is right around the top of my favorite authors of all time list, and this just reminds me how excited I am about the movie adaptation of this book that’s about to come out. The awesome trailer is here, and Wired has an article here about the trials of the rotoscoping animation they used.

Asahi Shimbun’s Economic Observatory column repeats recent talking points of main opposition party Democratic Party of Japan, which boils down to “the LDP is selling you out to the Americans! Vote for us and we’ll protect you!”

Lonely Japanese People

On a personal note, as someone hailing from Japan’s “baby boom” generation, I actually experienced Japanese society becoming rich as a high rate of economic growth took place. However, this era was also the era in which large and medium sized families gave way to the nuclear family. We lost the “village society,” regional cooperation, and religion that protected us while binding individuals, but this was replaced in large corporations by the familistic lifetime employment. Presently, corporate family-ism and nuclear families are beginning to collapse as well.

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January 1, 2006

The Japanese colonial village of Morisaka, preserved as a living museum. Unfortunately, there was a fire a couple of years ago, destroying a number of vintage houses. These charred wooden columns are all that remain of one structure.

Large image here.

February 26, 2006 Lugang, Taiwan

Larger image here.

This article in the Hindustan Times sheds some more light on the US strategy to balance China from its backside.

In early 1999, George W. Bush met with eight foreign policy advisors, collectively known as the Vulcans, in his ranch at Crawford, Texas. He was preparing for his White House bid. They were there to tell him about the world.

Well into the briefing, Bush interrupted: “Wait a minute. Why aren’t we talking about India?” The Vulcans — who included Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz — looked at each other. India didn’t matter, they explained.

Bush’s response: “You’re wrong.”

It’s a friendship that should have been made a long time ago… and shows that Bush deserves personal credit for at least some part of his international strategy. Who knows—this could be one of the best foreign policy legacies to come out of the Bush administration. Assuming there isn’t a nuclear war, of course…

Also check out The Economist’s take.