Seattle Times food critic Nancy Leson is the sort of reader we're targeting with our relatively new site, JapanInfusion.com — she is by no means a Japan expert, but she has a deep interest in at least one aspect of the culture. That last phrase could work as a definition of our intended readership on the site. So it was exciting to see that Ms. Leson found the site interesting enough to write about last week in her column (it's at the end). Here's the part that deals with our site:

Turning Japanese? They really think so

Since 1998, Seattle entrepreneur Takumi Ono has been bringing local culture to native Japanese via her Web site www.junglecity.com. The site, she says, "is for local Japanese and Japanese travelers coming to Seattle and the Northwest." But for those (like me) who've tried to access it for information and conversation regarding Japanese food, it's been a tough go: There's no English translation.

Which is why Ono — along with business partners Bruce Rutledge (publisher at Chin Music Press) and Taichi Kitamura (owner/chef of Fremont sushi bars Chiso and Chiso Kappo) — has turned the tables and launched a new Web site, www.JapanInfusion.com, offering their personal insight into Japanese culture, touching on everything from music and literature to food and family to art and architecture, via articles, interviews and essays.

Kitamura's fans will be interested to read his "Fish Stories," the musings of "a fly-fishing sushi chef (who) reflects on Japanese cuisine, environment, the restaurant business and his view of America from behind the sushi counter." When he's not writing about fish, he's slicing and serving it at Chiso (www.chisoseattle.com). This week's hot-selling seafood: hairy crab from Hokkaido; winter-run wild yellowtail from the high seas of Sado; and, from local waters: freshest uni, geoduck and oysters.