Jensen Huang hands out dumplings to fans in Tokyo
On July 16, Mr. Huang visited a red lantern izakaya, a traditional Japanese pub model, in Kanda district, Tokyo. Here, crowds gathered outside hoping to see "kawa-jan", or "leather jacket" - the nickname that many Japanese fans gave to the Nvidia CEO.
According to local news site Diamond Online, Huang stopped by for dinner at Yakiton Sankichi, a famous chain of bars for people who like to drink after work. Here, he enjoyed offal hot pot and a portion of "baka-mori" fries, which means "silly big." According to Bloomberg, the people sitting at the table are all CEOs of famous Japanese corporations, including Kioxia, Tokyo Electron, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Sumitomo Electric, Taiyo Yuden and Ajinomoto.
When dinner ended, Huang stepped out into the waiting crowd. He held red bean dumplings, a famous Japanese snack, into his outstretched hands. He also distributed more soft drinks afterward, took photos with them, and signed autographs when asked by fans.
Experiencing street food seems to be Huang's habit in every place he visits. In May, he was spotted eating noodles fried with bean sauce on a Beijing sidewalk after accompanying President Donald Trump to visit Japan. "So delicious," he told the crowd of passersby at that time.
Also in May, while enjoying street food in Taiwan, Nvidia's CEO attracted attention when he signed on the wall in the restroom and at the same time paid everyone waiting at the stall to buy grilled corn. With previous visits to Vietnam, Hong Kong or Korea, he also "took advantage" to experience local dishes.
"Regardless of where Nvidia is about to announce its next presence, local restaurants should probably start preparing menus now," commented Business Insider.
Jensen Huang is on a visit to Japan, with a focus on cooperation with Noetra Corp, a state-backed artificial intelligence developer founded by a joint venture of SoftBank, NEC, Sony and Honda. The two will work together to build an "AI factory" containing 27,500 GPUs, considered the world's first national AI infrastructure for robots.
In addition to the main working sessions, Huang also visited an old Sega arcade in Akihabara. Here, he thanked the gaming giant, the unit he believed saved Nvidia when it was in trouble with a $5 million investment in the 1990s. He also attended the Build-a-Claw event organized by Nvidia in Japan.