| BFC Financial Corporation Announces Financial Results For the ... | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 1:13:04 PM by Blog57 Team | | FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BFC Financial Corporation BFF, a diversified holding company that invests in and acquires operating businesses in a variety of industries, today announced financial results for the third quarter 2006. For the quarter ended September 30, 2006, BFC Financial Corporation ("BFC" or "the Company") had a net loss allocable to common stock of $1.4 million or a diluted loss per share of ($0.04), compared with net income allocable to common stock of $1.9 million, or $0.05 per diluted share reported in the third quarter 2005. Year-to-date, the Company reported a net loss allocable to common stock of $2.1 million or a diluted loss per share of ($0.06), compared to net income allocable to common stock of $8.6 million, or $0.27 per diluted share reported for the nine months ended September 30, 2005.... | |
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| | | Nikkei seen moving little as focus turns to GDP | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 3:40:56 AM by Blog57 Team | | TOKYO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Tokyo stocks may move little on Monday due to continued concern about the strength of Japan's domestic economy and as investors look ahead to third-quarter gross domestic product data due the following day. Investors may return to shares of Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and other pharmaceutical stocks, which have been battered in recent sessions. But ongoing concern about the strength of the world's second-largest economy is likely to weigh on the Tokyo market, said Hiroichi Nishi, a general manager of equity marketing at Nikko Cordial Securities. "The Nikkei is expected to move little today because of concerns over GDP," Nishi said. "But losses are likely to be limited because there is a sentiment in the market that the Nikkei and Topix are oversold." Pharmaceutical companies may be among those oversold, he added.... | |
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| | | Poll: 85% believe society too lenient on drunk drivers | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 3:20:13 PM by Blog57 Team | | According to the results of a recent nationwide survey, 85 percent of people polled agreed to varying degrees that Japanese society is lenient toward drunk drivers. Only 12 percent disagreed, according to the interview survey conducted on Oct. 14 and 15 by The Yomiuri Shimbun. The survey randomly sampled 3,000 eligible voters, and 1,768 or 58.9 percent of them responded. A series of fatal traffic accidents caused by people driving under the influence have recently been reported. In August, three children were killed and their parents were injured when their car plunged off a brudge in Fukuoka after being hit by a drunk driver. Such tragic accidents have apparently made many people recognize that drunk driving is a serious social problem.... | |
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| | | Gov't to certify food quality at Japanese restaurants abroad | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 11:29:25 AM by Blog57 Team | | _ The agriculture ministry said Thursday it will introduce in fiscal 2007 a system to certify the quality of food served at Japanese restaurants abroad. The initiative is designed to promote "authentic Japanese food culture" abroad as many restaurants in foreign countries claiming to serve Japanese food are actually offering dishes quite different from traditional Japanese cuisine, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said. " I hope that the new system will help promote export of Japanese farm and marine food products, disseminate correct knowledge about Japan's culinary art and facilitate Japanese food companies' push into foreign markets," farm minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka said at a news conference. An 11-person panel, including experts from the food and tourist industries, will work out the details of the planned system by mid-February, the ministry said.... | |
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| | | Police launch massive hunt to trace missing Japanese student | | Posted Friday, October 27, 2006 7:14:26 AM by Blog57 Team | | New Delhi, Oct 25: Delhi Police has despatched its teams to various states to trace a Japanese student who mysteriously went missing from the Indira Gandhi International Airport last month but the efforts have drawn a blank so far.Superintendents of Police across the country have also been asked to look out for Kota Shinozaki, a 21-year-old Japanese student, who arrived at the airport on September three by a Cathay Pacific flight, a senior Delhi police official told PTI here today.Shinozaki had been cleared by immigration officials at the airport soon after his arrival but was untraceable since then, he said adding that teams have been despatched to tourist places popular with the Japanese travellers, including Sarnath and Bodhgaya."We have also alerted restaurants frequented by Japanese tourists and pasted Shinozaki's photographs there," he added.Though Shinozaki went missing on September three, a police complaint was filed only on October 17 by the Japanese Embassy which was approached by student's parents."We have received no leads as yet.... | |
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| | | Fazoli's sold to private firm | | Posted Sunday, October 22, 2006 7:13:06 AM by Blog57 Team | | Fazoli's Restaurants Inc. has been acquired by the Sun Capital Partners investment firm for an undisclosed price, ending months of speculation about the future of the Lexington company. Fazoli's headquarters will remain in Lexington, and no layoffs are expected among the 4,700 employees in 32 states. The company has about 300 employees in Lexington. Kuni Toyoda, who began with five quick-service Italian restaurants in 1990 and built the chain to 319 units today, has resigned as CEO, but is not leaving Lexington. Toyoda, 55, said yesterday that he will focus on his three other Lexington restaurants: Bella Notte and Nothing But Burgers on Nicholasville Road, and the soon-to-open Smashing Tomatoes pizza store at Fayette Mall. "It's kind of exciting for me and my family, but this (Fazoli's) has been my baby," Toyoda said in an interview yesterday.... | |
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| | | AROUND JAPAN/ HIROSHIMA: Pancake sauce firm leading by example | | Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 11:16:15 AM by Blog57 Team | | The logic is sound: If you work at one of Japan's most famous makers of okonomiyaki sauce, you should be able to cook okonomiyaki, or Japanese-style savory pancakes, to perfection. Such was the thinking behind a recent "Okonomiyaki Master" certification system introduced by the Hiroshima-based Otafuku Sauce Co. The qualification, which comes in three levels, offers employees the chance to not only study the best method of whipping up the popular treat, it also encourages them to hone their skills and become okonomiyaki consultants to specialty restaurants. As an added benefit, Otafuku officials believe the new initiative will help popularize the Hiroshima version of the dish nationwide. Okonomiyaki first appeared in Hiroshima in the years following the end of World War II.... | |
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| | | ASIAN POP Art Breakers | | Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 1:10:54 PM by Blog57 Team | | A new generation of Asian American artists challenges outmoded expectations of what it means to be Asian, American and -- for that matter -- a "new generation." When you step into the atrium leading to Asia Society's new exhibition of works by contemporary Asian American artists, "One Way or Another: Asian American Arts Now," you're immediately confronted by a pair of sculptures created by L.A.-based Glenn Kaino: a stuffed salmon, its body crisscrossed with sutures holding together a "suit" made of sharkskin patches; a pig, similarly sewn into a sheath made of the hide of a cow. The Frankensteinian duo is shocking, mesmerizing -- and provocative. Are these figures a commentary on the idea of Asian American identity -- as a Trojan horse, as a disguise, as an awkwardly synthetic mash-up? Are they a subversive statement about the exhibition itself, nestled as it is within a building traditionally better known for programs removed by space or time from the here and now (like the concurrent showcase on a lower floor, "Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China's Liao Empire")? Or are they placed there simply because they're beautiful and strange, and thus exemplary of the exciting cacophony of the works represented in this new exhibition? There may be something valid about all three notions, but it's the third that ends up being the most relevant and resonant.... | |
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| | | Restuarant review: Wasabi Chi | | Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 11:06:11 AM by Blog57 Team | | Japanese restaurants are a rising and important trend in the local dining arena. They range in size and scope from tiny sushi parlors in neighborhood strip malls to the traditional Japanese/American tempura and hibachi steak knife-throwing circuses. But the most exciting new menus are those that move way out of the bento box with fusion of European, Japanese and other Asian ingredients and techniques. When this works, the food can be spectacular. Wasabi Chi is one of the best examples of this seamless, yet startling blend of food cultures. The unique global background of Doug Chi Nguyen, chef and owner of Wasabi Chi, is the driving force for the restaurant's success. Born in Vietnam, he escaped by boat at age 12, and was eventually sponsored by an Italian-American family who raised him in Rockland County, N.Y.... | |
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| | | A visual and tasty feast at Sayaka | | Posted Saturday, October 07, 2006 3:08:47 AM by Blog57 Team | | Sayaka Japanese Japanese restaurant in Colton has always been one of the crown jewels of Japanese restaurants in the Inland Empire. However, since it moved into a magnificent new restaurant across the street from its old site, it can now stake claim to being the largest and most majestic jewel of Japanese restaurants.SAYAKA Where: 1060 S. Mt. Vernon Ave., Colton; (909) 824-6958 Hours: Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. lunch; Sunday-Thursday 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. dinner; Friday and Saturday 5:30-10:30 p.m. dinner Price Range: Lunch $6.75 to $13.95; dinner $8.95 to $19.95; Teppan Yaki Dinner $13.95 to $28.95 Notes: Kid friendly, disabled accessible, full bar Taking over the large site once occupied Red Robin and later by a Chinese buffet restaurant, Sayaka's new palace is set in a serene yet elegant modern motif with soft lighting, tasteful Japanese artwork and an incredible stone wall with water trickling down from it.... | |
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