Ask anyone to name the Asian economic powerhouse that has taken the world by storm, and the answer is almost certain to be China. Rewind 25 years, however, and the response would have been quite different.
“In the 1980s, Japan glittered, it sparkled, it seemed to be the future,” says Michael Donnelly, professor emeritus and founding director of the Asian Institute at the University of Toronto.
It was a period, he recalls, when sake in Toyko came with gold flakes in it. Japan’s share of the auto market had gone from three or four per cent to almost 30 per cent in just a decade. Bankers predicted Japan’s economy would surpass the U.S.’s within a decade - that is, until Japan’s housing bubble burst, prompting a period of rapid decline in the 1990s. (Globe & Mail)

Japan lifted a state of emergency Tuesday in a southern region known for its prized and pampered cattle, after a three-month foot-and-mouth outbreak forced the slaughter of almost 300,000 farm animals.
The highly contagious virus, which rarely affects humans but sickens cloven-hoofed animals, had forced the suspension of meat sales from Miyazaki prefecture.
“Wagyu” cattle — from both Miyazaki on Kyushu island and Kobe on Honshu island — are famed for being pampered, fed beer and massaged daily, sometimes with sake, and some are even played classical music for relaxation. (AFP)

Hide the booze and lock up your daughters: Charisma Man is back. The lovable loser who was constantly broke, dateless and swilling rotgut at home is back in Japan, with a pocket full of folding money, a girl on each arm and a chilled glass of first-class sake in his hand. Who is he, this mystery man, this lothario? Where does he get the dose of kryptonite that transforms him from a pathetic bungler into a suave and debonair man of the world?
Perhaps the origins of Charisma Man can be traced back to the late ’80s and early ’90s, when emasculated Japanese males known as ashi-kun (guys used for their cars) and meshi-kun (guys who would fork out for fancy meals), and hapless foreign eigo-kun (guys exploited for their English) were supposedly being taken advantage of by women here in Japan. It was around this time that young Western men could be seen in major urban centers strutting about in suits and ties to impress the girls on a night out. (Japan Times)

Sake is gradually increasing its presence at banquets where Japanese government leaders play host to foreign dignitaries. The Foreign Ministry has mainly used wine at such banquets because it is easy to handle and goes well with any dish.
However, sake has begun to be included among other beverages at dinners and receptions amid growing calls from within the ministry to actively push sake in the field of diplomacy. (Japan Times)
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☆Egg with Crab pancake style(かに玉のパンケーキ風) ☆
Ingredients:
☆ 150g crab meat (remove the cartilage)
☆ 1/2 tbsp sake
☆ salt and pepper
☆ 100g boiled bamboo
☆ 50g snow peas
☆ 6 egg
☆ 1/2 tbsp sake
☆ salt and pepper
☆ vegetable oil
For sauce:
☆ 1cup dashi stock
☆ 1 tbsp sugar
☆ 2 tbsp light soy sauce
☆ 1 tbsp mirin
☆ a little of salt
☆ 1 [...]

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This lively neighborhood drinking spot is a branch of the long-established Fujintei izakaya a few blocks away, and the spacious, comfortable second floor is the place to be. The menu is disarmingly eclectic - Taiwanese sausage, charcoal-grilled prawns, shashlik kebabs made from premium Yamagata pork - and everything we’ve tried has been first-rate. The sake list is small but serviceable - this is the kind of place where you find a label you like and stick with it, rather than exploring different breweries.
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Seafood is the star at this reasonably priced counter shop - the owner is a fisherman and he often serves his own catch alongside the daily selections from Tsukiji. The sake list is well above average for a place this size: five regular labels plus five guest slots reserved for seasonal brews. Lunch is a great deal - Y900 gets you an excellent kaisen donburi with anago, salmon and negitoro. Dinner runs around Y3500 with drinks.
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It’s time once again for the popular Nagano Sake Messe, where 80 breweries will be offering more than 600 kinds of sake for sampling….
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Nicolas Soergel graciously brings two tiny plates to the table. They each contain three pinkish “umeboshi” (salted, dry plums), but those on one of the plates have been preserved for just one year; the ones on the other plate - whose skins are a little more wrinkled - are three years old. “Please savor the flavor of ‘ume,’” he says in fluent Japanese.
And sure enough, the older ones smell and taste subtly milder, though both kinds contain the same amount of salt.
Hang on a minute. This is umeboshi - not wine or sake, over which people often compare the fragrance. Isn’t it a bit strange to sniff at sour plums? Soergel nods, grinning. (Japan Times)
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☆Ankake Donburi(あんかけ丼) ☆
Ingredients:
☆ 100g thinly sliced pork, cut into 4-5㎝ pieces
☆ 100g shrimps, flavor with salt, pepper and sake
☆ 3-4 leaves chinese cabbage, cut into 4-5㎝ lengths pieces
☆ 2 bunch pak choi, cut into 4-5㎝ lengths pieces
☆ 4 portions cooked rice
☆ 1 knob ginger
☆ 1 clove garlic
☆ 1 green part of long green onion
☆ vegetable [...]

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