Finding Japan

Alex joins in for the conversation about our Mt. Fuji experiences. We get sidetracked a little bit first with a few random topics: movie theaters in Asakusa, and the saga of our washing machine. I originally thought this would be a multi-topic episode including the review of the Nintendo DS dictionary and Ubercaster, but alas it wouldn’t fit – we’ll save that for episode 37.

Picture above is for SanNakji: “Yes those are vending machines”. Alex and I hope you enjoy this nearly hour long episode!

Show Notes:

* Intro

* Movie Theaters in Asakusa

* Washing Machine Troubles

* Mount Fuji

* Getting to Mount Fuji

* Stations

* Descent

* Wrap Up

One of my most favorite characters in this neighborhood is the Yaki Imo delivery truck. Yaki means grilled and Imo means potato. In this case, this guy sells grilled sweet potatoes. But his method of cruising through the neighborhood should not be taken likely. This man is a pro, even if the recording skips just a little bit.

Unfortunately, we haven’t seen Mr. Yaki Imo in a while so we’re not quite sure if we will ever get to eat one. But if he comes back, rest assured I will be the first one on my block waiting for that sweet delicious treat. Enjoy!

Oh, and here are the lyrics to the song. Let’s all sing along.

焼き芋〜〜、焼き芋〜〜〜、石焼〜〜〜〜〜〜き芋〜〜〜、焼き芋〜〜〜

yakimo~~, yakiimo~~~, ishi ya~~~~kiimo~~~~~, yakiimo~~~~

roasted potato, roasted potato, stone roasted potato, roasted potato

This is a short slideshow of some sights and sounds captured in Asakusa during the Tanabata festival. The history and meaning behind the Tanabata festival is quite romantic and really quite interesting. Check out some more info here on Wikipedia.

Enjoy the mellow music and shades of blue as I walk you through Asakusa to Ueno taking in the sights and sounds of the festival. This is a larger frame size file but the download should be very short, only about 4MB or so. Make sure you download and view it. Viewing it here on the website will not let it display in its full size.

If you like this format, please let me know. I would love to get some feedback on it. This type of video podcast is very fun to put together and doesn’t take much time. I’m using what I’ve learned from Stuart Isset’s piece I featured back in April.

I think this is one of the longest episodes to date. Chock full o’ music and my limited insight, I think this episode also clocks in at one of the finest sounding episodes to date. Sweet sounds and tender music, you get this episode at a slightly higher quality (due to the high music content) for absolutely nothing!

Show Notes:

* Intro

* Katakana difficulty and reading tips

* My personal story about Katakana difficulty

* Some tips

* Don’t assume they’re English words

* Translate after saying it

* Have fun

* Regain Commercial

* Japanese commercials in general

* Original blog post about Regain commercial from Marxy

* Link to YouTube Regain commercial

* What commercials say about the culture of a society

* Work / life balance – is it really here in Japan?

* Only in Japan

* Special guest joins us for Only in Japan

* Links to the signs

* Reading 1

* Reading 2

* Reading 3

* Reading 4

* Music: “The World is Moving Too Fast” by Drye Glassmeyer courtesy of The PodsafeMusic Network

* Japanese music for inspiration

* YMCK

*

* Description of Nerd-core music?

* YMCK Official website

* Samples

* “8 Bit Magical Tour”

* “Kira Kira”

* Marxy

*

* Marxy’s Blog

* Marxy’s Site with Music Links

* Sample Track

* “Beaus in Disarray” on Creation Centre website

* Outro

* Thanks to people who have commented

* Outro track – “Neoplasticism vs. De Stijl” by Marxy

I’m BACK in the saddle again! I’m BACK!!! I’ve had that song stuck in my head all day. Get whatever song you have stuck in your head right out by listening to this next episode and me making excuses why I’ve been gone so long. I semi-experiment with new podcasting software that will “hopefully” make me more “productive” and provide a small music interlude at the end related to the movie Akira.

Show Notes

* Introduction and updates

* Where’s Calling Tokyo Calling

* New setup for podcasting

* Vacation Overview

* Things I notice being back in Tokyo

* Tokyo is really clean

* I feel at home in Tokyo, I think

* I’ve turned into “scary man”

* Indonesian Gamelan Music

* Clip from Akira

* Performance from ad-hoc matsuri in Shinjuku

This was too weird not to post. Again this showed up in my del.icio.us trawling and was not something I searched for and was not prepared to see, yet it did intrigue me so.

(direct video link)

Click the link above to download the video. It looks like a series of three mini-commercials. (I call them this because Japanese television is famous for short-short commercials, almost less than 4-5 seconds at times). However, I can’t quite put my finger one what is going on here. Aphex-Twin anyone?

I found a site that seems to be a launch site for either a television show or character, here the character is quite promininent. I also found a bit of research on the origins of the Japanese word Inochi.

Can someone help clue me is as to what is going on here!?! I feel somewhat violated and yet concerned at the same time. If I ever hear a child in Japan singing the song in this video, I think I might run away in fear.

At any rate, enjoy the video. The subtitles are accurate so non-Japanese speakers can enjoy too.

Just a brief update before Fuji-san. We’re heading out today but I wanted to get a quick response to the last episode out, talk briefly about Disneyland, and just say hi.

Having lots of fun here in Tokyo and surrounding areas. For Fuji-san, we will be taking some audio at each stop so you all can get the heavy breathing experience as we attempt to climb to the top.

More to come next week! Stay tuned!

Having fun without a bike, find out why in today’s episode. Also, I talk a little bit about Tanabata and share some audio from the Tanabata parade in Asakusa from about 3 weeks ago. Lots has been going on but we’ll keep the episodes coming out. Enjoy.

Show Notes:

* Playing Battlefield 2142

* A few more comments on Japanese rain

* Getting my bike stolen

* Japanese police

* My bike description

* Hanko or no hanko

* Dealing with the feelings afterwards

* Tanabata

* Short description of the mythology behind Tanabata

* Audio tour of the parade

* Brief update on what’s going on

* Big vacation coming up

* Thanks for the downloads

* More material post-vacation coming

Its coffee time again. Join me for round two of my discussion with Fred on the finer points of Japanese coffee. If you’re not sick of hearing the word “coffee” yet, you will be after this episode. Grab a cup and enjoy!

Show Notes:

* Milk teas, bubble teas, what’s going on here?

* Fred thinks Doutor is the best in the world

* In-shop Doutor iced coffee discussion with Alex

* Internet Cafes / Denny’s Coffee (Millstone)

* Coffee Crown

* Trend of instant coffee

This was recorded a while ago so my outro comments may seem out of context. Hope you like it anyway. Cheers!

Video killed the podcast star. Well, I’m certainly no star, so I guess I have nothing to worry about.

Today’s episode comes in video form. This little gem has been on my hard drive for over 2 months! Finally time to get it out as I rev up for some more audio goodness. In this episode, you can watch me play Sega Initial-D, my favorite arcade game at the moment. Why is it my favorite? Well because I have a little Initial-D IC card license that allows me to save my progress. So it’s much more satisfying to know that my 100円 coins are going to a pointless accomplishment that can be tracked, rather than just a pointless activity.

Caution, this is poorly edited and for video game nerds only. Editing my camera phone footage doesn’t exactly jive with Final Cut Pro at the moment. But do check out the vibration effect from the camera phone. It’s like you’re really there playing the game with me! (^_^)