And for those of you that don't know what a portmanteau is, a portmanteau is when you combine two distinct word forms.

In this case, it's Japan and hot dog.

But this is not a story about words.

This, my friends, is a story about two cultures coming together, via hot dog.

My name is Noriki Tamura. I am the owner of Japadog.

I came to Vancouver, Canada, in 2005 because I had a dream of starting a business overseas.

There were hot dog stands every three blocks in Vancouver. At that time, there were so many of them,

so [my business] had to be something unique. As I was Japanese, I needed to add a little bit of Japanese taste.

Three months after I arrived, I opened Japadog.

On the menu you'll find dogs with an assortment of traditional Japanese flavors, such as grated radish, bonito flakes and nori.

We have about 20 kinds of Japadogs, but depending on the combination that the customers choose, there can be 100 to 150 different combinations.

In the beginning, it didn't sell at all. But, year by year, the number of customers increased little by little because of my effort.

And now it's the 13th year; there [are] eight stalls and two restaurants, and there is one stall in America.

Now in a busy restaurant, in a day, we sell around 700 Japadogs.

I came from Japan, and I grew up eating Japanese food, so I know about it very well.

And I strongly hope that I can serve the role of combining Japanese food with Canadian food culture.