Japan

aside 17 May

Facebook in Japan

It’s interesting to travel and use facebook from foreign places. In China and Vietnam, for example, in most cases you’ll be blocked by the Government’s firewall and then you’ll be subjected to use a VPN or some other access technique to get onto facebook. In other places, facebook delivers localized tools or design.

On a recent trip to Vietnam, I was forced to use a VPN that I set up in Singapore. It was interesting to see that facebook asked me (in the sidebar) straight up if I was in Singapore, if I was visiting Singapore or a permanent resident.

On my most recent trip to Japan, more neatness. Facebook makes it easy for Japanese users to log into their site with a disposable autologin QR code as seen below.



Use Facebook on your mobile phone

We’ve been working hard to make Facebook Mobile usable in Japan. There is still a long way to go but most of the basic functionality is there. Please check it out and let us know what you think.

Facebook Mobile is helpful for keeping up with your friends when you’re on the go.

Read the “auto .ogin QR code” with your mobile phone.

http://m.facebook.com

Do not share this QR code with anyone else – it is personalized to log you in automatically. For your protection, the QR code can be used only once and expires after 24 hours.

Click the image (above) for the fullsize screenshot.

 

aside 6 May

Ramen Quest – Episode 3 – The Emperor’s Dish

Korea has its own version of the ramen called ‘ramyeon’. ‘Ramyeon’ is a popular Korean instant meal and is well-known for its chili pepper goodness. Adding their own style to this traditional noodle dish, Korean ‘ramyeon’ comes in beef, seafood and even kimchi flavor. The quest for this Japanese cultural icon has brought me once again to a man whom I met years ago on a different quest.

Some like it hot but this one’s definitely hotter.

Ramen Quest – the search for Vancouver’s hidden Japanese Ramen.

You can download the this week’s PDF format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.



Episode 3 – The Emperor’s Dish



Image cutline: The Sundubu Ramen at Sura is one of the tastiest ramens you’ll ever taste. Pair it with a Soju cocktail to quell the heat, either that or a fire extinguisher.

Michael Kim, the owner of SURA is certainly well known in the Korean community. I first met Kim a couple of years ago at his previous venture, Chung Dam Anh, a Japanese-Korean Izakaya-style speakeasy on Cardero Street just off Robson. If you weren’t in the ‘know,’ chances are you would have never entered through the doors of Chung Dam. Fast forward to today, Kim has opened an equally-mysterious restaurant on Robson Street slightly East of Cardero. You may have a hard time locating a sign on this block that says ‘SURA’ – the majority of their sign is written in Korean and has a small stamp and the word SURA in small letters on the side. Thankfully we’re not in the French Province which has draconian sign laws – or I’m sure by now they’d have lined up the proprietor and subpoenaed him senseless.

Back to the restaurant, it’s an elegant 70 seater that has a descriptive and informative English menu, serves up tasty Korean cuisine and also sports a nice Sake and Wine list. Very accessible. The Sundubu Ramen they list is a spicy soup endowed with soft tofu, your choice of seafood or beef and of course, ramen noodles. On the occasion of this review, I ordered the beef variety of the dish but have since eaten both. The soup is certainly spicier than any Japanese Ramen I’ve ever had but that’s what I’d say is to be expected with Korean cuisine. The noodles are plentiful and at just under ten bucks, given the ambience, the unlimited refills on the complimentary ‘banchan’ (side-dishes including Kimchee) and the superb quality of the ingredients, there’s as much value built in as there is burn-off-your-face heat.

Next time it will be Ramen first, Korean Bar-be-que next and we’ll wash it all down with their innocuous Soju-cocktails.

—

Raj Taneja is part technologist, part entrepreneur, part social media juggernaut and part foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com, publishes a miscellany of his musings at raj.jp and can be found on twitter with the username ‘tinhead.’

aside 31 Mar

Ramen Quest – Episode 2 – There’s goodness outside the centre of the universe too!

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.” — Martin Buber

Sorry to say Martin ole boy, I definitely know the destination. What can I expect to see on my journey, you say? Well, that’s another story.  In my continuing search for the hidden Ramen treasures of Vancouver, I had a wicked flashback on this stop of my quest.

“Hai, oiishi desu”

Ramen Quest – the search for Vancouver’s hidden Japanese Ramen.

You can download the this week’s PDF format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.



Episode 2 – There’s goodness outside the centre of the universe too!



Image cutline: Menya’s Nagahama Ramen – the closest thing to Tokyo I’ve tasted in a long time. Next time I’ll have to try their special ramen, subject to change at the whim of the chef.

If you talk about Ramen to anyone who dines out on the delicious Japanese noodle-dish in Vancouver, inevitably, they’ll tell you that the best place to go is to the West End where there’s a plethora of shops that seem to be thriving with just that product on their menu. Of course, there’s got to be good Ramen outside of the centre of the universe! Similarly, it’s just plain wrong when someone pipes up on the idiot box and says that Toronto is the best city in Canada. What? It’s probably because there’s less syllables in Toronto or perhaps the orator just has his head shoved up his posterior – either way, there’s definitely goodness out in the real world, and I have set out to find it.

Hopping on the Canada line and stopping at City Hall, I crossed West Broadway and headed to Yukon Street where I found Menya Japanese Noodle restaurant, which somewhat resembles a clearcut forest given that most chairs are tree stumps and the whole interior is varnished wood. Their menu is simple – they have four different types of Ramen on the menu, a couple of alternatives and some sides. On the occasion of my visit, I tried the first thing on the list, the Nagahama Ramen, their authentic pork-bone ramen with a special soy sauce seasoning, accompanied by Gyoza (pork and cabbage dumplings) and a rice ball.

The first taste transported me back to Japan – a place of fond memories where I used to enjoy Ramen almost nightly while living in Tokyo. I remember regularly sitting at the counter and being served by a trio I affectionately named the Brain, Iceman and Spaz. I suddenly surfaced from my little day dream, when asked if my food was good. I nodded my head and sounded a quick “hai, oiishi desu” and went back to daydreaming.

Menya may not be situated in the heart of Vancouver or Tokyo, but it’s good enough to capture my heart.

—

Raj Taneja is part technologist, part entrepreneur, part social media juggernaut and part foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com, publishes a miscellany of his musings at raj.jp and can be found on twitter with the username ‘tinhead.’

aside 8 Mar

Ramen Quest – Episode 1 – What legends are made of

A gift from the Land of the Sleeping Dragon to the Land of the Rising Sun has now reached the shores of Canada.

Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish that originally came from China. The word ‘Ramen’ has several etymologies, one of which states that it may have been the way the Japanese pronounce the Chinese ‘la mian’ which means hand-pulled noodles. Another says that the original word was ‘laomian‘ or ‘old noodles’ while a third one states that Ramen was originally called ‘lumian‘ or noodles cooked in a thick, starchy sauce.

Whatever its origin, Ramen is definitely the greatest Japanese invention of the 20th century, not to mention tasty as well.

Ramen Quest – the search for Vancouver’s hidden Japanese Ramen.

You can download the this week’s PDF format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.



Episode 1 – What legends are made of



Image cutline:Kintaro’s Spicy Garlic Ramen is loaded with garlic and spice and is accompanied by bamboo shoots, green onion, bean sprouts and a couple of egg halves – it’s only on the menu for a short while, until the chef decides he wants to serve something else.

It all started somewhere in the 17^th Century – Tokuguwa Mitsukuni (best popularized by Japanese TV series Mito Komon,) discovered Ramen which quickly became his favourite dish. It only took about three hundred years for the tasty noodles to take the world by storm. Today, dozens of variations have spawned from the original ‘Shio’ ramen which is made with plenty of salt and any combination of chicken, vegetables, fish and seaweed.According to consumer trends, ‘Tonkotsu’ or pork bone ramen seems to be the most popular variety, so let’s start this quest off on the top and find the ever-revered Tonkotsu Ramen.

In Vancouver, ask anyone who knows about ramen where to go for the good stuff, and they all seem to point in one direction – the iconic Kintaro restaurant on Denman Street. The 26 seat diner is known for lineups out the door and a limited menu featuring several varieties of one main dish – ramen, and that’s it. They have their business down to a science.

Having eaten there many times since their opening ten years ago, I can say their rendition of Tonkotsu ramen is addictive and great value for the money. From time to time, they like to deviate a little from the master plan and offer a special variety of ramen, something to break the monotony. This time around, they had a Spicy Garlic Ramen which looked supremely appetizing and certainly didn’t disappoint. Loaded with enough garlic to keep the vampire population at bay and enough spice to burn any zombies another one, I didn’t have to travel to the Eastside tonight to get a fix. Thankfully, I’m not a creature of the night and not only did I satisfy my craving, but with all that garlic and spice, I surely boosted my metabolism and lifespan. If Mitsukuniis out there lurking as a vampire or decides to come back as a zombie, this one might be his undoing.

—

Raj Taneja is part technologist, part entrepreneur, part social media juggernaut and part foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com, publishes a miscellany of his musings at raj.jp and can be found on twitter with the username ‘tinhead.’

aside 29 Jul

Is it hot in here?

All this heat here in Vancouver’s got me thinking… what about Japan?



In 2005, The Japanese Ministry of the Environment (MOE) began advocating the Cool Biz campaign as a means to help reduce electric consumption by limiting use of air conditioning. According to the Environment Ministry, central government ministries were to set air conditioner temperatures at 28°C until September… (more at Wikipedia, HERE.)

People in Japan were encouraged to wear moisture absorbent clothing and sweat it out!

Fast forward to 2009, someone’s figured out that there’s something really wrong with this. (Other than the stench of dead animal emanating from good ole Watanabe-san in the cubicle next door.)

From Terrie’s Take #527:

-> ‘Cool Biz’ hurts economy

A former economist for the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo, fed up with having to work in an office whose air conditioning was set to a sweltering 28 degrees per the Cool Biz guidelines, has found that the high temperature in offices rather than helping the economy, is actually hurting it. The researcher found that high office temperatures are reducing office worker productivity nationally by about JPY653bn (US$6.9bn) a year, or 0.13% of the nation’s GDP. According to the researcher, the ideal temperature to save energy and yet suit the wearing of cool biz-type clothing, and which is used by the United Nations, is around 25 degrees. The researcher discovered that for each degree the air conditioning is set above 25, worker productivity drops by 1.9%. ***Ed: Cool biz ain’t so cool after all.** (Source: TT commentary from bloomberg.com, Jul 23, 2009)

Here’s the LINK to the full story and don’t forget to check out Terrie Lloyd, HERE. Oh yea, and stay thirsty, my friends.

aside 4 Jun

Shiru Bay in Yaletown Closes

Shiru Bay Chopstick Cafe on Hamilton Street recently closed. The word on the street is that Richard Jaffray, owner of the Cactus Club, made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Cactus Club will be expanding their Yaletown location in order to compete with the new mega location of Earls which will sit between Hamilton and Mainland on Helmcken Street.



Check out the official release, after the jump.
[read more…]

aside 23 May

Upload. Get Famous. Get Paid.

Lumiere, one of the world’s finest restaurants, is slated to close soon and undergo a major transformation. Part of the transformation includes the installation of a DB Bistro Moderne which will open up next door in the space formerly occupied by Feenie’s. In the meantime, under the watchful eye of Chef de Cuisine Dale McKay and some input from super chef Daniel Boulud, Lumiere is still leading the pack with multi-course extravagance in the dining room and a nice set of tasting bites in the lounge.

A couple weeks ago, I took the opportunity to sit down for dinner at Lumiere with my wife, Mona, friend, Robert Delamar, and his wife, Midori. This was the second time in a month that I had a chance to enjoy the food at the famed restaurant and as usual I was impressed with all aspects of the dinner – from the company to the service and understandably, the food.

My friend Bob, talks about Lumiere’s history and our friend, David Sidoo on his blog, at Urbmob, HERE, in a posting titled ‘A True Baller.’ If you haven’t been to Lumiere yet, take the opportunity to at least enjoy the tasting bites before they close – the press release is at the end of this post.

Bob labels David Sidoo as a baller but one of the reasons we likely enjoy each others’ company is simple – Bob travels alot to LA, NYC and Japan on business. Having lived in Japan for a couple years, we definitely have a connection. Running a record label is definitely great for the jetset lifestyle.

Back to getting paid, Bob’s company is Urbmob – think Urban and Mobile. The company is a social network which allows artists, models and fans to share in revenues from the sale of ringtones, wallpapers and more with Urbmob’s trademarked Talent Rank service. Upload music and photos – they get transformed into ringtones and wallpapers for download. Pretty simple really, check out the blurb, below:

So you’re an aspiring artist, model or a fan hell bent on promoting your own stuff and you want to know how to monetize your insane talent. You also want your audience to recognize your talent and put you on TV, Radio, get into Magazines, and do your own events… Well you came to the right place. Welcome to Urbmob.

For artists, they post their stuff up, much like a MySpace profile and can sell their wares. Brilliant, unique and definitely defensible intellectual property. Check out the quick video blurb on their corporate site, HERE.

—

You can also check out the press release from Lumière with details on hours of service and special cocktails, after the jump.
[read more…]

aside 10 Mar

Groups matter more for Japanese

This one hits close to home, U of A and Hokkaido University doing a collaborative study… go figure, here’s the repost.

From Terrie’s Take #460, HERE.

In an interesting experiment, researchers from the University of Alberta and Hokkaido University have found that Canadians and Japanese assess the moods of people they interact with differently. In the experiment, people from both nationalities were asked to judge whether a face in a photo was happy, angry, or sad. The photographed subject was standing in front of a group of other people who were also visible. More than half of the Canadians focused just on the face of the subject, while 72% of the Japanese took into account the looks on the faces of the group in the background. ***Ed: So it’s official, Japanese care more about groups when deciding a course of action.** (Source: TT commentary from sciencedaily.com, Mar 7, 2008)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/…

aside 30 Sep

Transparent frog to escape dissection

From Terrie’s Take #439, HERE.

The Professor for Amphibian Biology at Hiroshima University has “invented” a frog whose skin is transparent and thus allows science students to view the internal organs, blood vessels, and eggs without having to dissect the animal. The Prof says he bred the frog to allow biology classes to be more humane. ***Ed: What a great idea!** (Source: TT commentary from nationalgeographic.com, Sep 28, 2007)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/…

aside 24 Feb

Rogers Wireless Blackberry in Japan

After about two months of trying, success! We finally have liftoff, Houston, or more importantly, we’ve been able to get a Blackberry (attached to our corporate BES) going in Japan.



Background: SSID here in Canada operates numerous communication networks for mobile devices ranging from the ultra-secure Exchange/ActiveSync over the air with SSL and IP tunnelling, to Blackberry Enterprise, to run of the mill IMAP4 with GPRS.



Late last year, I purchased a few Blackberry 8707′s to attach to our Blackberry Enterprise network. These devices are set up for GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS (for use in Japan). This setup theoretically makes it possible to use the device in Japan.

Problem #1: Our Blackberries are activated with Rogers Wireless.

I find that large Canadian companies don’t really provide support to technically saavy customers or early adopters. If you buy a Vodafone-branded BB 8707, you’re SOL if you need help from the carrier.

The details for roaming in Japan on the Rogers website are sketchy. We’ve used Blackberries in Russia, Ukraine, Thailand, India, France, Germany and even China. Japan’s networks are quite different since they don’t really support GSM out there.

Rogers reccomends that you rent a phone while in Japan (along with a new phone number, etc.). The proliferation of quad-band phones like the Nokia E61 and Blackberry 8707 makes it possible for these phones to work in Japan without renting a phone but there is the question of a roaming agreement between Rogers and the Japanese carriers (in this case, Softbank and NTT DoCoMo).

After several phone calls to Rogers where I got a myriad of responses from somewhat clueless customer service agents telling me to refer to their website to flat out refusals to answer questions because I’m using an unsupported device (DUH! If I could buy a supported device for this application, I WOULD).

Problem #2: Which carrier do I select in Japan? DoCoMo? Vodafone (who obviously supports the hardware)? SoftBank? KDDI?

Well, after encountering all the rhetoric from the people at the network, there was a thought of switching all of our users off of Rogers on to a network that works, even if we have to go offshore and spend money upfront to secure the accounts. At this point, reliability outweighs the cost.

On the same trip, the Blackberry was tested and worked flawlessly. Australia (where we picked up a spare couple of Vodafone simcards activated and ready to go in case) and Thailand.

Upon arrival to Japan, when loaded with a Rogers simcard, the device stated that the connection was refused. The Vodafone simcard worked without a hitch.

I decided to report this issue to Rogers who’s agent, after some investigation, mentioned the account didn’t have “Blackberry Dot Net” on the account. Strange but apparently this didn’t affect the device in other countries but did in Japan.

Anyhow, after that small addition to the account, it was good to go. Finally, global communications on NTT DoCoMo.

PS – Vodafone staff are very helpful with roaming in Japan. Probably has something to do with Australia being i-mode enabled (therefore having strong ties to Japan) thanks to people like Walter Adamson.

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