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Japanese restaurant site explains tough sushi terms in a handy graphic

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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See the full infographic on Gurunavi Here on SD Japan, we’ve written a few articles about how tech has been used to make sushi restaurants more efficient. There was even a very unusual drone helicopter sushi in London being used for marketing purposes. Speaking of marketing, today Gurunavi (sort of Japan’s answer to Yelp) released an infographic about the many sushi-related terms used at restaurants. Even though sushi is both a casual and more formal dinner option in Japan, there are many terms that people may not be familiar with or maybe they misunderstand them. Gurunavi released this infographic to promote a better understanding of the traditional cuisine (and likely for some self-promotion too!). ‘Gari’ (pink ginger on the side) or ‘Neta’ (ingredient) are common words heard at sushi restaurants, but the infographic dives into even more advanced terms like ‘Nigemono’ (I didn’t know this one, but it means cost-efficient ingredient) and ‘Debana’ (tea served at the beginning of meal). The term ‘murasaki’, which usually refers to the color purple, is apparently used to describe soy sauce at sushi restaurants. Bookmark this infographic to show off to your friends how much you know about sushi. Gurunavi was founded way back…

Sushiterm-infographic-gurunaviSee the full infographic on Gurunavi

Here on SD Japan, we’ve written a few articles about how tech has been used to make sushi restaurants more efficient. There was even a very unusual drone helicopter sushi in London being used for marketing purposes.

Speaking of marketing, today Gurunavi (sort of Japan’s answer to Yelp) released an infographic about the many sushi-related terms used at restaurants. Even though sushi is both a casual and more formal dinner option in Japan, there are many terms that people may not be familiar with or maybe they misunderstand them. Gurunavi released this infographic to promote a better understanding of the traditional cuisine (and likely for some self-promotion too!).

‘Gari’ (pink ginger on the side) or ‘Neta’ (ingredient) are common words heard at sushi restaurants, but the infographic dives into even more advanced terms like ‘Nigemono’ (I didn’t know this one, but it means cost-efficient ingredient) and ‘Debana’ (tea served at the beginning of meal). The term ‘murasaki’, which usually refers to the color purple, is apparently used to describe soy sauce at sushi restaurants. Bookmark this infographic to show off to your friends how much you know about sushi.

Gurunavi was founded way back in 1989 and went public in 2008 as a local restaurant portal and search engine. The site’s direct competitor is Tabelog, which was launched in 2005. Tabelog’s parent company is Kakaku.com, and they recently launched a version of its site for New York in March of this year. The main difference between the two competitors is that Gurunavi is more store-oriented, providing exclusive coupons for special occasions or drinking parties. In contrast, Tabelog’s strength is its consumer-generated restaurant reviews.

Update: Here’s an awesome translation of the graphic from reader David. Pretty awesome!

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Japan’s impressions of the new Mac Pro: Tasty!

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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It has been less than 24 hours since Apple unveiled the new Mac Pro at WWDC. Since then, it hasn’t been hard to find wisecracks on the interwebs about the computer’s tubular (or Tubelor?) appearance. Maybe it’s a garbage can? A flower pot? Or maybe a long lost cousin of R2-D2? On the Japanese net, the conversation has taken a bit of a creative turn, with a number of observers pointing out that the new Mac Pro would make an awesome cooking pot. We’ve collected a few pictures from some of the matome out there, and presented them below. They don’t really require any translations as the pictures speak for themselves! [View the story “What Japan thinks of the new Mac Pro” on Storify]

macpro-sushi

It has been less than 24 hours since Apple unveiled the new Mac Pro at WWDC. Since then, it hasn’t been hard to find wisecracks on the interwebs about the computer’s tubular (or Tubelor?) appearance. Maybe it’s a garbage can? A flower pot? Or maybe a long lost cousin of R2-D2?

On the Japanese net, the conversation has taken a bit of a creative turn, with a number of observers pointing out that the new Mac Pro would make an awesome cooking pot. We’ve collected a few pictures from some of the matome out there, and presented them below.

They don’t really require any translations as the pictures speak for themselves!

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Drone helicopter sushi: London restaurant capitalizes on Japan’s futuristic reputation

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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We’ve previously written about how Japan has used technology to improve operations in sushi restaurants, for example, using iPads to take orders, or using IC tags on plates for quick calculation of bills. All this has made the process far more efficient. But one sushi restaurant in London might have jumped the shark when it comes to sushi tech, using a remote-control drone copter as a sort of flying tray to deliver orders to customers at their tables. It’s called the iTray (no points for originality there) and London’s Yo’ Sushi has been using it on a trial basis with plans to expand use to other locations if all goes well. The effort is part of the company’s promotion for a special Japan-inspired burger, which uses toasted rice instead of a bun [1]. According to The Daily Mail chef Mike Lewis thinks that alluding to Japan in this way will resonate with customers, noting “with the YO! Burger and iTray we know guests will feel like they’ve had a taste of the future.” This is an interesting notion, creating a faux-future that customers may think resembles Japan. Of course in actual fact, there is no such sushi helicopter in Japan…

daily-mail
Photo: Daily Mail

We’ve previously written about how Japan has used technology to improve operations in sushi restaurants, for example, using iPads to take orders, or using IC tags on plates for quick calculation of bills. All this has made the process far more efficient. But one sushi restaurant in London might have jumped the shark when it comes to sushi tech, using a remote-control drone copter as a sort of flying tray to deliver orders to customers at their tables.

It’s called the iTray (no points for originality there) and London’s Yo’ Sushi has been using it on a trial basis with plans to expand use to other locations if all goes well. The effort is part of the company’s promotion for a special Japan-inspired burger, which uses toasted rice instead of a bun [1].

According to The Daily Mail chef Mike Lewis thinks that alluding to Japan in this way will resonate with customers, noting “with the YO! Burger and iTray we know guests will feel like they’ve had a taste of the future.”

This is an interesting notion, creating a faux-future that customers may think resembles Japan. Of course in actual fact, there is no such sushi helicopter in Japan — not that I know of anyway. But Japanese companies can learn a lesson here: Even though the country has lots of economic problems recently, many people in the west still equate the Japan with a magical high tech future.

Brand Japan still has tons of global marketing potential, and that’s something many companies can take advantage of in this way.

  1. I’ve never seen such a hamburger bun here in Tokyo. Maybe it’s an Osaka thing or something.  ↩

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Cutting edge: How Japan’s “sushi tech” increases efficiency and profits

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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Japanese cuisine, especially Sushi, has attracted many health conscious eaters around the world. Sushi is obviously very popular here in Japan, but the cuisine is also way ahead of its food industry competitors in terms of technology. A sushi franchise called Mawashi Sushi Katsu has installed iPads in all of its seven restaurants for the purpose of taking orders. On the sushi counter, there’s an iPad for every two seats, and once orders are placed the sushi is delivered to the customer on the usual conveyor belt. The iPad is also used in the kitchen to educate employees and to improve service and productivity. Another kaiten zushi (roughly translated as “circulating sushi”) restaurant, Uobei in Shibuya, provides sushi for 105 yen per portion. The reduced cost comes as a result of installing touch panel devices, which support Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. You can see the order process in action in the video below. The sushi chain Kurazushi, with 285 stores in Japan (as of October 2011), is probably the most innovative of all sushi franchises. The Kurazushi smartphone app allows users to search for nearby restaurants, make reservations, and get coupons. Sushi orders are made using a touch panel…

sushi-ipad
Sushi iPad! (photo by ITpro)

Japanese cuisine, especially Sushi, has attracted many health conscious eaters around the world. Sushi is obviously very popular here in Japan, but the cuisine is also way ahead of its food industry competitors in terms of technology.

A sushi franchise called Mawashi Sushi Katsu has installed iPads in all of its seven restaurants for the purpose of taking orders. On the sushi counter, there’s an iPad for every two seats, and once orders are placed the sushi is delivered to the customer on the usual conveyor belt. The iPad is also used in the kitchen to educate employees and to improve service and productivity.

Another kaiten zushi (roughly translated as “circulating sushi”) restaurant, Uobei in Shibuya, provides sushi for 105 yen per portion. The reduced cost comes as a result of installing touch panel devices, which support Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. You can see the order process in action in the video below.

The sushi chain Kurazushi, with 285 stores in Japan (as of October 2011), is probably the most innovative of all sushi franchises. The Kurazushi smartphone app allows users to search for nearby restaurants, make reservations, and get coupons. Sushi orders are made using a touch panel device (just like other sushi chains) and the empty sushi plates are collected in a tableside bay. Plates are then automatically counted to calculate the bill, thus accelerating the paying process. There are also QR codes embedded on the sushi plates, which helps to keep track of how long the sushi has been circulating on conveyor belts.

After putting five plates into the tableside bay, customers can enjoy gacha. This is sort of a vending machine — and also the origin of gacha in social games — that gives out toys to kids. But it means that families are more likely to order by a multiple of five for their kids.

The video below shows a common device seen at sushi chains. It reads the IC tag embedded in plates to calculate bills. It’s pretty amazing, to be honest.

The very first conveyor-belt sushi appeared more than 55 years ago in Osaka. Since then much innovation has taken place, bringing a satisfying profit to sushi chains. Kurazushi alone had over 5 billion yen in profit as of year 2010, and if sushi tech keeps improving, I’m sure they’ll make even more in the future!

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