Cooking pasta in Japan

Rob commented that the dishes I cook here in Japan tastes different than the same ones I used to cook back home. The pasta sauce I recently made had quite a different taste and texture to my usual recipe I made back in Perth. It had an 'asian' taste and feel to it, if that makes any sense. Perhaps the can of crushed tomatoes have some sort of thickener like cornflour added to it.

This was the best I could do with the ingredients I could get my hands on - used chicken instead of minced red meat, and added corn as well as the usual veges of carrots, capsicum, and brocolli. I have lots of herbs on hand so those went in as well. No cheese though. Still, it's gotta be better than the spaghetti served here at restaurants that has been bastardised to suit the Japanese tastebuds (soy sauce spaghetti?).