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Jinmyo

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recently I have been interested in this blog ばーさんがじーさんに作る食卓.

This is the site I'm looking at most at the moment. It's a blog maintained by a couple, both 68, living in Kyoto, been together for 43 years. She cooks dishes every day, he takes photos. Five or six years ago, the doctor told him to be very careful what he eats. So they became aware of what they eat, and decided to document it. Their son is getting married, and they're making a big meal at home for him. Sometimes they use what they picked up from the mountain or field. And seasonal vegetables or fish. She goes to the field, picking up just nuts. Sometimes a neighbor gives them fish or something. They've been blogging for over a year now. And now a publisher has asked them to publish a cooking book. It'll be called Always Two People Together.
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

Hi, I'm currently studying the Japanese language and in order to stave off the boredom of grammar books I thought it would be a good idea to try to incorporate the Japanese language into one of favorite activities--cooking. My library has one bilingual cookbook called 100 Recipes for Japanese Cooking by Kondo and Hata, and I'm wondering if anyone knew of another source of bilingual recipes, particularly something like a website. Thanks.

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Thanks Hiroyuki, that is a great site! I'm a beginner at Japanese, but being able to sound out oishii on the page was a great confidence booster.

Sheetz, you might also want to check out Torakris's great "Daily Nihongo" thread:

Daily Nihongo

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  • 2 weeks later...

I used to use Mastercook recipe database to keep Japanese language recipes until 5 or so years ago. When Microsoft changed the windows, the Mastercook will no longer recognize Japanese characters and I lost most of my recipes I had stored. :sad:

I use US windows and need to find another database that will store and recognize Japanese characters. How do you keep your Japanese language recipes? Any database either English or Japanese you can recommend that will recognize Japanese encoding? For those in Japan, how do you keep your recipes handy using your computer?

I looked at some of the recipe software through Amazon, but I don't think I can add my own recipes. Or can I?

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I've never thought of managing my recipes on a computer before. :blink:

If you ever want some free software for managing yours, why not search here?

I searched with the keyword 料理 (ryouri = cooking), and I found some that looks good.

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AFAIK, Microsoft implemented OS-level support for double-byte characters starting with Windows XP.

Which OS are you running? If you're running XP (English version), I would think there's a good chance that Mastercook could handle Japanese. Unfortunately, I don't have any older applications to confirm this.

Baker of "impaired" cakes...
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I don't have recommendations on recipe database software, since I don't use any, but some thoughts on recovering your information.

Japanese support has not changed in Japanese versions of Windows, however, Windows NT4, Windows 2000, XP and Vista offer support for all languages on the same OS, as long as the application is written to support Unicode.

However, I think some people may have used some hacks to make Japanese display on older versions of English windows. Those kinds of software, such as products from Pacific Software Publishing, probably no longer work because they were assuming applications on English systems didn't know how to display Japanese. The tricks they used to force display of Japanese assumed that the application supported only a subset of Western European characters.

If you are using an English version of Windows XP (or Windows 2000) with Japanese Language Support installed (from the Regional Options control panel), you can go to Regional Options, choose Advanced, and change "Language for non-Unicode programs" to Japanese.

You'll have to reboot, but if the application you were using to display Japanese on an English system was relying on Shift-JIS encoding, or if you previously used MasterCook with a Japanese OS, you should be able to see your data again.

I would recommend exporting the recipes to some other format (a text file or something) after you've done that, so that you can restore your computer to English mode.

Oh, edited to add: You might, when you recover your recipes, consider submitting them to CookPad.com, which is a Japanese online recipe database similar to allrecipes.com in the US. You can (probably) sign in and save your favorite recipes if you like, or just use your Favorites folder or del.icio.us to keep track of the recipes you like.

Edited by JasonTrue (log)

Jason Truesdell

Blog: Pursuing My Passions

Take me to your ryokan, please

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I've never thought of managing my recipes on a computer before. :blink:

If you ever want some free software for managing yours, why not search here?

I searched with the keyword 料理 (ryouri = cooking), and I found some that looks good.

Thank you for the information Hiroyuki. I will investigate all the programs there. I've never heard of vector company and appreciate you pointing this site out.

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AFAIK, Microsoft implemented OS-level support for double-byte characters starting with Windows XP.

Which OS are you running? If you're running XP (English version), I would think there's a good chance that Mastercook could handle Japanese. Unfortunately, I don't have any older applications to confirm this.

Right now I'm using US windows XP. I do have Microsoft Japanese language kit installed which recognizes Japanese encoding on Japanese sites. I an also use it to key in words when searching Japanese sites. However, I usually copy and paste from JWPce since it's much easier doing it that way.

I was never able to copy and paste recipes directly from Japanese sites to Mastercook. What I had to do was copy the recipe into JWPce then copy and paste into Mastercook. Not sure why (I'm no computer expert), but this was the only way I could actually save recipes in Mastercook before. This method worked great for several years, but no more. Not sure why. I cannot copy and paste any Japanese recipes using several English language recipe software that I've tried. This also applies to some database softwares too. Sometimes it will take the encoding and looks ok until you go back and and all the characters are garbled.

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I don't have recommendations on recipe database software, since I don't use any, but some thoughts on recovering your information.

If you are using an English version of Windows XP (or Windows 2000) with Japanese Language Support installed (from the Regional Options control panel), you can go to Regional Options, choose Advanced, and change "Language for non-Unicode programs" to Japanese.

I am using the Windows XP with Japanese language support installed.  This works great for many things, however I cannot copy and paste things into English language database.  Once copied, it gets garbled now. 

You'll have to reboot, but if the application you were using to display Japanese on an English system was relying on Shift-JIS encoding, or if you previously used MasterCook with a Japanese OS, you should be able to see your data again.

I've tried all the options, such as Shift-JIS, unicode, old JiS, New JIS, but nothing works so far. 

I would recommend exporting the recipes to some other format (a text file or something) after you've done that, so that you can restore your computer to English mode.

Oh, edited to add: You might, when you recover your recipes, consider submitting them to CookPad.com, which is a Japanese online recipe database similar to allrecipes.com in the US. You can (probably) sign in and save your favorite recipes if you like, or just use your Favorites folder or del.icio.us to keep track of the recipes you like.

Thank you Japan, I will check CookPad again.

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I've tried all the options, such as Shift-JIS, unicode, old JiS, New JIS, but nothing works so far. 

Like I said, if you reboot your system after setting the "Default language for Non-Unicode Applications" to Japanese, as instructed above, you should have a reasonable chance of getting an older application to work with Japanese, as long as you saved the data with Shift-JIS encoding before. (For Japanese Windows systems this was always the default, before Unicode support was common).

This makes the computer functionally the same as a Japanese system except that menus will still be in English.

Jason Truesdell

Blog: Pursuing My Passions

Take me to your ryokan, please

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  • 2 weeks later...
I've never thought of managing my recipes on a computer before. :blink:

If you ever want some free software for managing yours, why not search here?

I searched with the keyword 料理 (ryouri = cooking), and I found some that looks good.

I downloaded the CookManager from the above site and I like it. Very simple to use and exactly what I was looking for. I can add recipes, add categories, etc. Thank you Hiroyuki.

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  • 6 months later...

Jason,

I have a question that I hope will not offend anyone. I admire the Japanese very much for their precision, thoroughness, attention to quality, being conscientious and so forth. Japan is a nation that depends on the exports of hi-tech goods, including consumer items. Then why this strange allergy towards the English language on the websites of major Japanese firms like Panasonic selling kitchenware like induction stoves etc.? Surely these multinationals at least do not lack for talented staff. This is just one example among many, when searching for technical information in Japan.

Scientific papers, research results from its agricultural and horticultural stations, most advances being made remain forever inscrutable to a bemused world.One frustrating example: Under an agreement with the US Germplasm Program, many new introductions from Japanese strawberry programs are sent to the nodal center at Corvallis with a terse cultivar name, but little further information as to the characteristics that make these useful to plant breeders. Requesting information in English is a dead end, not because of any intended discourtesy but simply because of inability to communicate with the rest of the world where English is the standard language of science. [At least i hope that is the case.] A lot of important things are happening all over the world in biological science, and just as we are missing out on much excellent progress being made in Japan, could the converse also have some truth?

Just being foolish, expressing my frustration, so many excellent cooking shows, yet so depauperate in some minimal English (even the website choice commands) to reach out to an international audience. The producers are smart enough to understand the immense popularity of Japanese shows like these on the international market. Comparisons are odious, but if someone was anxious to explore Indian cooking, I could refer them to excellent sites with (heavily accented) yet lively English that do a bang-up job teaching different styles.

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Well, I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer, but the larger companies tend to delay translation of their web sites until they have some plan to enter a particular market, or they may limit their English language literature to trade shows (Hoteres, for example, in the hospitality and foodservice world) until they have some sort of deal in place.

For electronics, thanks to differences in regulations and market expectations (UL Listing in the US, for example), most companies don't bother to translate unless they are targeting expatriate customers inside Japan. For example, I can find English-language information on many Japanese cell phones, since most foreigners resident in Japan need to carry a cell phone in Japan and the standard technology in Japan and Korea isn't compatible with the standard technology in most of the rest of the world. But I may not be able to find English-language information on things like the cheap induction cookers that are staples of Japanese studio apartments with inadequate kitchens, because they don't really have much of a market.

It took until last year before I even saw an English web site for the Clean Fryer system, which I've been fascinated with since 2004. If they lobbied with insurance companies to offer lower accident insurance for restaurants that used that fryer, they could clean up in the US market, but they aren't really aggressive about selling outside Japan.

For research, the use or non-use of English has more to do with the confidence of the researchers in their English ability, and sometimes no amount of cajoling will lead them to provide even coarse translations of their work. In Germany, academics write in English so that they will get more exposure to other people in their field, even if they don't think their English is very good. But in Japan, it seems like this is less so. Even fairly skilled writers of English often seem reluctant to publish in English, though I've seen some papers in my field on, say, Japanese word segmentation algorithms, written by Japanese authors. A small subset of academics, like writer Murakami Haruki, write in anticipation of translation of their work.

I've done some proofreading of research written in Japanese English but I think it was due to several years of pushing by a German university's Japanology department. By the time the book was published, several of the professors had died and we couldn't even ask them questions to clarify what they meant.

Anyway, I think the answer is that it's mostly a cost/benefit thing, combined with a bit of excessive self-deprecation.

Jason Truesdell

Blog: Pursuing My Passions

Take me to your ryokan, please

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Jason,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful and kind answers and for the time spent in crafting them. I am writing a response, but please do not waste time and energy to respond.

One reason I addressed my question to you is because you do import interesting Japanese artisanal or value-added work and migth have a faint interest in promoting Japanese products of excellence. The Clean Fry system you mention is a case in point. Another is the cheap induction stove. Whever do they think that there is no market for them in the US? there is a market like crazy for exactly that as well as induction wok stoves of 2.8, 3.5, & 5 KW, single units, double units, drop-in and so forth.

This is what I cannot understand, and why I asked. Japan today has a current account surplus of US$88 billion, second only to China [uSA ranks 163 in the world!!]. It got there by exporting vigorously to the world, exploring all markets, one would think. Not by being hesitant, or not confident about the excellence and innovative quality of its products and the strong reception these would meet when judiciously introduced. Having excellent (mandatory) English/multilingual websites might help bring that market, oftentimes calling at the doorstep of many small to medium businesses. Incredibly tiny & logical investment, and Japanese are as excellent marketers as they are technologists and scientists.

Besides, we are not talking of a developing country needing advice. This is THE PREMIER technological center and exporter of the world of INNOVATIVE consumer items: food industry machines, agricultural and agroprocessing equipment, etc. We are talking big unit prices here. I know Indian importers who turn with great frustration to Taiwanese sources or even PRC, simply because these latter make some effort at English communication.

Just writing this in case someone reads this to their benefit. In the case of Japanese plant breeding, today plant genetics spells MONEY. Publications establish claim. Japanese strawberry germplasm is worth a fortune in the coming decades, because nowhere else do they have 14% sugar. Holland has used Japanese material to get to 8% sugar to tap into Asian markets with a strong preference for very sweet strawberries. Very soon, other places, say India, China, will run off with Japanese breeding material that is distributed worldwide, and Patent varieties, earning huge profits on the backs of Japanese researchers. And lots of other uglier things I don't care to discuss here, based on those same IPR issues.

To say researh exists in Japanese is not the same as the claim established with English publications in peer reviewed journals. Editors happily will arrange re-writing, at least in the Plant Sciences. Japanese Scientists are highly trasured and honored in the international plant science community, down to the smallest fruit breeding unit, and they actually realize that. Or should. Maybe Hiroyuki-san will pen an encyclical in higemuchi calligraphy telling all of them what's what!

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