In this episode, we walk the streets of Japan with Tom Gill—anthropologist, longtime Japan resident, and one of the most clear-eyed observers of the country’s marginalized communities. Gill is best known for his decades of fieldwork among day laborers, the homeless, and the urban poor, particularly in places like Tokyo’s San’ya district. Rather than studying Japan from a distance or through official narratives, Gill practices what he calls “being there”—immersing himself in the lives of people most visitors (and many locals) never see. Whether you’re interested in Japan, anthropology, or the uncomfortable realities beneath orderly surfaces, this episode is a reminder that understanding requires proximity—and humility.

Enjoy the show? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going.

And make sure to join the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @DogePunk2077. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Thanks for listening! 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! -J and Trey

TRACK LIST: 

• [0:00:00] 01. クリスマス・イブ / 山下達郎 (Tatsuro Yamashita)
• [0:03:24] 02. クリスマスキャロルの頃には / 稲垣潤一 (Junichi Inagaki)
• [0:07:24] 03. 悲しみは雪のように(1992 single) / 浜田 省吾 (Shogo Hamada)
• [0:10:58] 04. X'masがいっぱい / 工藤静香 (Shizuka Kudo)
• [0:14:17] 05. Snow Lie / 岩崎良美 (Yoshimi Iwasaki)
• [0:17:31] 06. クリスマスまで待てない (雪だるま Version) / 渡辺 美里 (Misato Watanabe)
• [0:21:14] 07. 最後のHoly Night / 杉山清貴 (Kiyotaka Sugiyama)
• [0:24:42] 08. Sweet Snow Magic / スターダスト☆レビュー (Stardust Revue)
• [0:28:02] 09. クリスマスの夜 / 岡村 孝子 (Takako Okamura)
• [0:31:51] 10. ひとりでX'mas / 今井美樹 (Miki Imai)
• [0:35:14] 11. 冬のフォトグラフ / 新井正人 (Masahito Arai)
• [0:39:15] 12. 遠い街のどこかで… / 中山美穂 (Miho Nakayama)
• [0:43:28] 13. リフトの下で逢いましょう / 南野 陽子 (Yoko Minamino)
• [0:46:30] 14. スノーフレイクの街角 / 杏里 (Anri)
• [0:50:01] 15. Last Christmas / 松田 聖子 (Seiko Matsuda)
• [0:53:47] 16. クリスマスは一緒に / 竹内まりや (Mariya Takeuchi)
• [0:57:00] 17. Merry X’masをあげたい / 井上昌己 (Shoko Inoue)
• [1:00:20] 18. Kissin' Christmas (クリスマスだからじゃない) 2023 / 桑田佳祐 & 松任谷由実 (Keisuke Kuwata & Yumi Matsutoya)

Enjoy the show? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going.

And make sure to join the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @DogePunk2077. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Thanks for listening! 

Jay and Trey are at it again! This week, we investigate why Japanese parks are becoming "no-fun zones" with draconian bans on ball games—is the country waging a war on its own children? We also dive into the "Ultimate Waifu" politician Kimi Onoda, and the latest stats showing Japan’s English proficiency plummeting to new lows. And last but certainly not least—the big reveal—Trevor's got a new "Number One Waifu," none other than "Muscle Idol" and Saitama Queen Reika Saiki. Does that make Trevor the King of Saitama? You decide. As always, sauce included: 

• Very Low Proficiency: Japan Drops into Bottom Group in English Ability Ranking
• Japanese Company Offers Up to 10 Days Paid Leave for Workers to Mourn Their Favourite Celebrity's Marriage or Retirement
• Reika Saiko - Japanese Muscle Girl
• Clips from Reika’ 4-hour Workout 
• 所持金20円で焼き肉を無銭飲食か 酒や漬物、デザートまで約1万2000円分 49歳男「お金がない」で判明
• Democracy Manifest and his succulent Chinese meal News report 1991
• Democracy Manifest Wiki
• 完全自殺マニュアル
• Onoda Kimi’s YoutTube Channel
• Longform Interview with Onoda Kimi
• Japan’s Ultimate WAIFU: Kimi Onoda
• PARKS FOR KIDS TO KICK A BALL AROUND IN TOKYO
• Research on local governmental restrictions for ball play in block parks

Enjoy the show? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going.

And make sure to join the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @DogePunk2077. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Thanks for listening! 

Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going. And be sure to join the conversation on X (formerly Twitter) @DogePunk2077 and Facebook. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Outro: Now or Never by ISSUGI

Thank you. 

Pour yourself a Strong Zero and strap in. This week’s Happy Hour is a fever dream that starts with public displays of 2D affection and ends with a map of bears and suspicious people in Gifu. We cover the rising price of rice (and the rise of "Pasta Japan"), the legal ramifications of calling your coworker "-chan," and why Tommy Lee Jones is the greatest alien to ever sell canned coffee. Plus, we take a dark dive into the "Hentai Teacher" ring in Aichi and the ultimate compilation of "Truck-kun." Oh, and do stick around for the WORLD PREMIERE of our new original Outro track: テレアモリー・メモリーズ. You're gonna love it.

🥃 LINKS & RESOURCES: 

• Reaction to foreign man holding anime waifu pillow in public
• Former coworker who used ‘-chan’ at work and commented on appearance ordered to pay ¥220,000 in damages for sexual harassment (Japanese article)
• Sex act in police box: officer disciplined with pay cut — Kanagawa Prefectural Police sergeant in his 40s and a female officer in her 20s (Japanese article)
• Japan's No. 1 Serial Killer | Ultimate “Truck-kun” Compilation
• Rice prices soar, consumers turn to pasta: January imports up 180% year-on-year
• Sam Rockwell monologue about being an Asian girl on The White Lotus
• Davido-kun loves Japan (Japanese variety show clip) 
• 20th Anniversary Suntory Boss Coffee jacket from back in 2012
• Tommy Lee Jones Boss Coffee  Commercials
• Gifu Prefecture Bear-Sighting Map (Updated in Real Time): Suspicious-person alerts also visible at a glance — based on the Prefectural Police ‘Safety & Security Mail’ service 
• Mei and the Kittenbus (めいとこねこバス , Mei to Konekobasu)
• Driver’s license of perpetrator revoked — Saku City junior high school student fatal accident; Supreme Court recognizes hit-and-run (Japanese article)
• Cocorade Bakery in Ueda (get the milk bread) 
• Aichi police arrest seventh teacher in ‘Hentai’ group on child porn charges

Enjoying what you hear? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going. And be sure to join the conversation on X (formerly Twitter) @DogePunk2077 and Facebook. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Thank you for listening, fellow traveler of the ear.

🚀🚀 Yoroshiku & rockets 🚀🚀

In this powerful and far-reaching conversation, we sit down with Brian Daizen Victoria, Zen priest, historian, and author of the landmark work Zen War Stories. Internationally recognized for exposing the entanglement of Japanese Buddhism with wartime ideology, Victoria has spent decades examining the darker, more complicated intersections of religion, nationalism, and violence. But his scholarship extends far beyond Zen. In this episode, he offers a sweeping, context-rich look at the political, cultural, and economic forces that drove the United States and Japan into conflict—forces often flattened or ignored in mainstream narratives.

Together, we dig into some of the most contested and emotionally charged historical questions of the 20th century: Japan’s imperial expansion across Asia, the atrocities committed on the mainland, the debates surrounding the Rape of Nanking, the truth behind Unit 731, the Pearl Harbor attack, the atomic bombings, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, and the complex legacy of the U.S. Occupation. Victoria brings nuance, moral clarity, and a willingness to challenge deeply embedded assumptions—both Western and Japanese—that have shaped public memory for generations.

Along the way, Victoria highlights the groundbreaking work of his wife, Aimee Tsujimoto, whose books Memories of “Furusato” in Tenri Village, Manchuria (2018) and The Truth About Unit 731’s “Youth Corps” (2025) shed new light on Unit 731, survivor testimony, and the lived experience of civilians in Manchuria—crucial pieces of history often overlooked in English-language scholarship.

If you’re seeking deeper context, uncomfortable truths, and a clearer, more historically grounded understanding of the war that reshaped modern Japan and the Pacific world, look no further. This conversation challenges easy answers, confronts painful realities, and invites a more honest reckoning with the past.

Enjoying the Show? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going. And be sure to join the conversation on X (formerly Twitter) @DogePunk2077 and Facebook. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

And do check out the outro: 弾き語りカバー(コードは説明欄へ) SAMPO くるり

Thanks for listening, fellow treveler of the ear.

🚀🚀 Yoroshiku and rockets 🚀🚀

When genetically-modified bears start targeting foreigners, Jay and Trey load up the Bear Plow—a weaponized Mustang straight out of a fever dream—and hit the road to save Japan. Between the gunfire and snowdrifts we dig into everything that made this strange future possible: Japanese jazz-funk on dusty vinyl, forgotten mecha, flower-power hard-rock, and the very real rise in bear attacks across the country.

It’s part apocalypse, part mixtape, and all Deep in Japan.

Sweet Sauce: 

• Dead Ass (Review)
• Why you should read Uzumaki (Review)
• Flower Travelin’ Band - Anywhere (full album)
• Flower Travelin’ Band - wiki
• Human Washing Machine
• Roujin Z Full Movie (English Subs)
• Japan Unveils 'Human Washing Machine'
• Super Robot Showcase: Z-001 from "Roujin Z"
• Beam Penetration and Mad Computer, plus the Minimal Sound of Motorcycles
• Spanish tourist attacked by bear in central Japan's Shirakawa-go area
• Japan plans to hire hunters as bear attacks rise
• Bear attack survival tips released in Japan as encounters surge

Music:

• Flower Travelin' Band - Unaware
• Japanese Jazz & Funk Vinyl Set
• Bear Plow - Drake Trap 

Enjoying what you hear? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going. And be sure to join the conversation on X (formerly Twitter) @DogePunk2077 and Facebook. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Thank you for listening, fellow traveler of the ear.

🚀🚀 Yoroshiku & rockets 🚀🚀

In this philosophically unhinged episode, Jeff and Trevor fire up the nozzle and let it spray. From the euphoric delusion of “god mode” to the cosmic absurdity of heaven and hell, the boys spiral into deep reflection on meaning, mortality, and the strange comfort of digital immortality. Things only get weirder when they dive into Ghost of Yōtei — part samurai saga, part therapy session — before crashing headfirst into the online flame war that erupted after one of them dared to post about Japan’s potential first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. Cue the nationalists, the bots, and the philosophical meltdown of post-truth culture. It’s chaotic, hilarious, and weirdly profound — The Shit Nozzle in its purest form.

• Bertrand Russell - Message To Future Generations (1959) 
• If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All 
• Takaichi to become Japan's first female prime minister
• The Shit Nozzle (Outro Song)

Enjoying the Show? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going. And be sure to join the conversation on X (formerly Twitter) @DogePunk2077 and Facebook. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Thanks for listening, fellow treveler of the ear.

🚀🚀 Yoroshiku and rockets 🚀🚀

This week, Jeff and Trevor tumble down a matcha ice cream–soaked rabbit hole of Japan news, global oddities, and nonsense that somehow connects (like conspiracy yarn on a corkboard… but stickier, and with more Strong Zero).

Man Marries AI Chatbot

Asahi reports that we’ve officially crossed into sci-fi territory: a man in Japan has tied the knot with an AI chatbot. What does this mean for love, tech, and the future of human relationships?

👉 Read more

7-11 Japan Rolls Out Robots

From stocking shelves to cleaning floors, robots are increasingly taking over tasks in convenience stores. Is this the beginning of our robot overlord era—or just another reason to avoid the register guy who judges your midnight Strong Zero runs?

👉 Details via SoraNews24

Tangent Topics & Shenanigans

• Osaka demo: Watch here
• Japan gives town to Africa: Yes, this is [*not] real
• “This is a pen”: Japan's leading Coronavirus transmission theory
• SoraNews does AI gags: Sato performs an ippatsu-gei devised by AI
• Bullzone Chiemi: Career Woman
• SassySisters: Subscribe to Jeff's daughters' new YT channel here

Outro Music:

• 薬物をやろう (by Jeff on Suno)

Enjoying the Show? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going. And be sure to join the conversation on X (formerly Twitter) @DogePunk2077 and Facebook. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Thank you for listening, fellow traveler of the ear.

🚀🚀 Yoroshiku and rockets 🚀🚀

Anne Crescini returns to the podcast to open up about one of the most personal and difficult parts of her life in Japan: raising children caught between cultures. 

Anne and her husband are both American, but their kids were born and raised in Japan. On the surface, they were “fully Western,” yet in the classroom and in society, they were constantly marked as different. That tension led to deep identity struggles, feelings of isolation, and even 不登校 (school refusal).

In this candid conversation, Anne shares what it’s like for her daughter to grow up wanting to “just be invisible,” the stigma attached to looking like a foreigner/outsider, and the toll of always being seen as “other.” We also explore the broader issues of belonging, identity, and how children navigate growing up between worlds.

Related Articles:
娘が不登校、「教育者の子なのに」 言語学者が打ち明けた動揺と転機 (The Asahi Shimbun).
Naturalized linguist in Japan laments recent political trend to blame foreigners (The Mainichi Shimbun) 

Enjoying the Show? Please consider supporting us—every little bit helps keep the podcast going. And be sure to join the conversation on X (formerly Twitter) @DogePunk2077 and Facebook. For all inquiries, you can reach us at [email protected].

Outro Music:
消せない光.  
Zelda's Lofi Kingdom

Yoroshiku and rockets. 🚀