Finding Japan

Its been 8 days, what’s wrong with me?! Find out more by tuning in here. I share a little bit of my personal life and plans for the next few days, talk about some scary little Japanese girl, answer questions about Japan and more. 行きましょう！

Show Notes

* Quick update

* Short story about Harajuku girls

* Planning my summer vacation

* Kobe Beef episode with some ideas.

* School update

* Presentation trip with my professor

* Lessons learned from his teaching style

* Sound scene (seeing) tour: Japanese Little League Game

* Story: Scary Little Girls!!

* Only in Japan: Pineapple Kit Kat

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* Click for a larger picture

* Questions:

* Answered today: “Easy or hard to meet Japanese people on more than just a superficial level?” (From San from SNA Podcast)

* Quick chat about my friend

* Japanese people really similar to American people in “worldliness”

* Tangent: Youth Culture article in BusinessWeek

* 6-month future self question: “What do you think American can learn from Japan and what thing would you like to see in your own country that Japan has?” (Also from San from the SNA Podcast)

* Wrap up and thanks

Show Notes:

* Quick Updates

* Catching up with school because of Hashika

* Been in Japan over 90 days!

* Japanese rain, its different, for real!

* Preparing for summer vacation

* Matsuri

* How I got involved in this matsuri

* Photos from the Sanja Matsuri

* Outfits / Tabi / Happi

* Photos from the matsuri I was in

* Mikoshi

* What I had to do

* Shaking the Mikoshi around in front of a guys house

* (Kim Chi break)

* The aftermath

* “Ssa Ssa Ssa Sssaaaa” guy

* What I think I learned

* Impromptu Only in Japan – neighborhood music

* New Finding Japan Segment

* LTMFS (listen to find out what this means)

* Way to ask your own question

* Email: christopher [a t] findingjapan [d o t] com

* Voicemail: check the sidebar

* Outro and thanks

The office episode has finally arrived, 6 weeks after I had started to do the recordings. Get the skinny on my first 6 weeks in a Japanese office, differences I have found, comparisons I was able to make. Though I’m sure there is much more I could have said, I at least hope that the parts I left in are interesting.

Show Notes:

* Introduction

* Japanese office observations

* My initial viewpoint – short history

* American cube-life

* Physical layout – Oobeya seido (大部屋制度)

* Organizational structure

* Vibe of a Japanese office

* Speed of response

* Attentiveness to particular details

* Meeting formalities

* Planning things ahead

* IT worker stereotypes

* Slouch guy

* Hypochondriac guy

* Sweaty guy

* Japanese working hours

* Prevalence of company commitment

* Omiage as an example of this commitment

* East coast US / Japan time difference advantage

* Side Topic: Yurikamome Peeps?

* Things I take for granted

* Knowing when you are understood

* Explaining complex topics

* Outro and thanks

* Tokyo Calling

* Kobe Beef Show

* HerroFlomJapan

* Hello From Michigan

* SNA Podcast

* Life in the Shadows

* Dicks and Janes

* Music featured in the podcast – Pthalo (scroll to bottom to find albums)

This episode is about my Japanese language ability, or lack thereof. This week in class, we had to perform our second interview project where we interview students on campus. This time, I brought the recorder along. In this episode, I share the actual interview audio and reflect a bit on my ability after being in Japan for over two months now.

Show notes:

* Time shifted intro (What day is it really?)

* Interview audio

* Intro with Alex (from France)

* First interview attempt (got “nai”-ed by 3 girls)

* Second Interview

* Third Interview

* Fourth Interview

* Some reflections after listening to the episode myself

This was something I had been meaning to do since I arrived in Japan. Alex and I headed out to Namco Namja Town in Ikebukuro (map) this past Saturday in search of miracle fruit. I heard about miracle fruit about 6 months ago and was surprised to hear that it was available in Japan. I wrote myself a note and that note popped up in front of me this weekend so off we went.

Miracle fruit is the common name of Synsepalum dulcificum, a berry containing miraculin which has the power to stop sour tastes in their tracks. Alex and I went out to find the Miracle Fruit Cafe in Namja Town and this episode is our audio experience of trying miracle fruit.

Instead of show notes. I’m posting pictures and links here. The show is just us talking.

Show Notes:

* Miracle Fruit Wikipedia entry

* Namja Town website

* Links to Miracle Fruit photos from the restaurant

A short only-in-japan video episode segment to take you over the weekend hump. I’ve often walked by the Sumida River and have seen this very strange-looking boat sailing up and down the river. I stealthily hunted it down and have finally published here for the world to see.

Alternate video link (Google Video)

This evening I had the great pleasure of participating in Scott Lockman’s Calling Tokyo Calling podcast series where he uses the new service Talkshoe to engage his listeners directly. After my first experience, I have to say, this type of format for doing audio is really compelling. I particularly like the collaborative aspect of running a show with your listeners and soliciting and reacting to real time text and audio feedback.

In this short 30 minute episode, he was able to react to a fellow podcaster here in Japan (myself), San from New Zealand who runs the SNA Cast, Matt in Tennessee and more. Even the after-party was a blast. It was great fun and it looks like Scott will be making this a regular feature so there will be more to come. Next week Scott has invited me back to comment on Japanese cell phones. Check it out.

This evening’s episode can be downloaded here or streamed by visiting the page here.

The coffee episode had landed! Well at least 1/2 half of it. Fred joins me live from Times Square as we discuss the ins and outs of various coffee experiences in Japan. Scott Lockman provides a cameo from Allez France in Tokyo. It’s always interesting in these parts.

And since I ended up having much more material than I anticipated, this special will be brought to you in two, yes two, episodes. Combine a little bit of background noise from the skype / laptop mic, and voila … a perfectly listen-able episode for your coffee curiosity satisfying pleasure. Enjoy!

Show Notes:

* Intro Music – “Hologram Jesus” by Pthalo

* Coffee Music – “Coffee Man” by Calvin Owens

* The “Detroit Story”

* Some high-level comparisons of coffee shops in Japan

* Starbucks

* Discussion on sugar types

* Coffee even at Mos Burger

* McDonalds

* Allez France (direct from Scott Lockman of Tokyo Calling)

* Vending Machine Coffee

* Boss coffee – since 1992

* Vending machine photo link we discuss

* “Black” coffee

* Coffee cans

* What makes vending machine coffee great

* Machine brewed coffee – Flavia machine at work

Original photo here (used via CC license)

In this video episode, come along with me and ride the Yurikamome most of the way to Shinbashi. Loosely edited, but you will get to see many of the strange buildings with unique architecture along the way, including the Fuji Television building. The “red” dot is my camera light, not a UFO. Enjoy!

You better believe it …. this episode is action-packed and quite possibly, the longest FJ episode to date! I managed to fit in the commute cast (complete with official PASMO song), dinner boats, slip on shoes, podcasting pre-cursors, supermarkets, transvestite bands, and more. What started as a short stint in the park on a beautiful Saturday afternoon turned into a full blown episode. Though its a bit windy and I often “pop” the microphone, I hope you all still enjoy.

Show Notes:

* I screw up the episode number so I substituted it with a mac voice

* Commute Cast

* Material from last month’s discussion with Alex

* PASMO song – watch it here

* JR Rail Pass

* Student Passes

* The One Card I Need – PASMO Student Pass

* Dinner boats in the Sumida River

* Slip-on-shoes

* More Talk about Podcasts

* Pre-cursors to podcasting

* Listener material from Japan

* NPR’s Lost and Found Sound – The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski

* When this project is finished, I will put it on archive.org

* Japanese supermarket experiences

* My latest tachinomi experience

* A night without English

* Meeting the manager of a transvestite synth-pop band

* Only in Japan – Playboy Logo branded items

* Closing

* Various thanks

* 10% of FJ traffic last month came from Tokyo Calling

* Request to other Japan podcasters