Finding Japan

Just a quick 18 minute update for episode 18. I really didn’t plan it that way, weird. One main topic and a bunch blabber divided into two parts. Enjoy!

Show Notes:

* Part I – AM

* Planned material ahead, ごめん、ね！

* Coffee episode audio is recorded

* Quick stop at the conbini

* Police officers – part two

* Thinking more with an open mind

* Boredoms – buy the album at the iTMS

* Part II – PM

* What’s going on at work

* More open mind blabber

* “Summer Madness” by Kool and The Gang

I took the chance during this rainy day to walk around Asakusa and just spout random thoughts into my cell phone. Listening back, it wasn’t all that bad so I’m posting it as a podcast episode. This one feels a little more intimate and fun I think. Plus, there is all sorts of great things to listen for in the background. Enjoy!

Show Notes:

* Another haircut at QB House

* Looking for headphones in Asakusa

* Eating breakfast at Denny’s (menu photo 1 / menu photo 2)

* Comments on restaurants in general

* Children’s book I’m reading

* Link to Amazon.co.jp page for it

*

* Coffee episode coming soon

* Comments on various store fronts I pass by

Is it true? Is it true? An audio episode?! Yes, I know its been a while but I pulled up my bootstraps and got myself in front of the mic for a good hour today. After editing out all the coughs and false starts, this one comes down to about 41 minutes or so. A full episode follows, complete with a brief sound scene at Mos Burger, only in Japan segment, and two big topics. Listen to my gravel-like voice in true stereo as I whisk you through the Japanese medical experience and my reflections on the park.

Show Notes:

* Golden Week and what I’ve been doing

* Being sick in Japan

* This cold is kicking my ass

* Pharmacy / medicine store experience

* Japanese medicine

* Japanese clinic experience

* Armpit thermometer

* Comments on Japanese health-care system

* Park visit today

* Had to get out of the house

* Listening to Jazz while biking through Tokyo

* Comparing Japan to New York

* Mos Burger Sound Scene [3 mins]

* Only in Japan: How many dogs can you take to the park??

* Japanese park teaches me to relax and enjoy life

* Another story about my bike

* Proof that I’m not the only manly-man riding a mama-chari bike

* Updates

* Computer work

* Yurikamome video footage

* New episodes

* Hi’s and Hello’s

* Rock concert podcast ending [it takes for ever]

Yeeeesssssssss. Here it is. The episode you’ve all been waiting for, “Biking Through Tokyo”. I hope I didn’t talk it up too much prior to this. I edited this over the weekend. The footage had been sitting on my drive for about 2 weeks, just dying to be put to good use.

I had to be a little creative with the editing since alot of it was bumping. It’s alot like drinking too much coffee the way it runs now. Please don’t eat anything while watching this. Hopefully you will enjoy some of the sights of Tokyo as I did on that day. Oh, and instead of shownotes, here are delicious time-code notes where I’ve marked points of interest that I don’t mention in audio.

Show Notes

* 0:00 – Fancy-schmancy intro as always

* 1:00 – The dreaded Nissan’s Business Japanese makes a guest appearance

* 1:06 – Note the super-secure bike lock

* 1:37 – じてんしゃ is Japanese for Bicycle (pronounced “ji-tenn-sha”)

* 1:47 – That is a highway on/off ramp

* 2:18-2:25 – If you look closely, you can almost see the kitty-cat sticker on the bell. LOL

* 2:58 – Ferrari

* 3:40 – Notice how many different types of sidewalks there are yet??

* 3:47 – I pedal through people in Asakusa-bashi w/o touching my feet on the ground – You have no idea how hard it was to navigate that with one hand and film at the same time. ^_^

* 4:22 – The Asahi Beer building

Special thanks to Gustav Young from Oddioblender for letting me use the track “Frantic Footsteps” for this video. Please check out the site for more great glitchy nerdcore music. I listen to this album constantly!

Alternative video link (Google Video)

(Photo used with Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.0 License – Original)

A few days ago, I had to head down to the Tokyo Regional Immigration bureau. What fun!! However, there was one redeeming result of the trip: I was able to ride the Tokyo Monorail. I’m fairly familiar with most of Tokyo’s transportation systems, but I had never ridden this particular line. It was a great experience. If you visit Tokyo, I recommend you make it a point to ride this line, second to the Shinkansen of course.

What is different about the Tokyo Monorail from other lines is it is completely above ground. Sure, most of the JR lines are as well, but the Monorail soars above neighborhoods and between buildings – a feat that the JR lines do not accomplish. When you ride JR, you see track and rocks as you ride in an area specifically laid out for train travel. When you ride the Tokyo Monorail, you literally fly past buildings and over people as they tend to their daily lives.

I hope you enjoy this short video. I had to use a little different method to put it together since it came primarily off my cell phone.

I have my iTunes pointed at del.icio.us for crawling of videos with Japan related content. Today something amazingly touching and very creative showed up in my iTunes. Below is a link to a movie of photographs by Stuart Isset.

©2007 Stuart Isett/www.isett.com (used with permission)

This piece is truly moving, giving a great sense of the intimacy of Japanese life, the highs and the lows, and things one doesn’t see when they take the tourist route.

If you are at least interested in Japan or at the very least, love great photography, please download this and watch it. Also, check out Stuart’s site or his Flickr photos. Over here, I’m learning that finding Japan is also about finding other people’s impressions of Japan. This truly is an inspiration, perhaps for future episodes. Thanks Stuart!

Video Link

This episode is the first ever, Finding Japan Tokyo Calling crossover episode. Not really sure what else to call it. I met up with Scott Lockman from Tokyo calling a few weekends back. We spent very little time getting to know each other since we had already known each other through our respective podcasts. However, we did share the common interest in technology, the future of podcasting and more.

This interview occurred in a noisy hotel front coffee shop in Tokyo. If you can stand the background noise, please listen. Enjoy!

Show notes:

* A brief chat on the creative process and writing every day

* Formats of podcasts / how Tokyo Calling developed

* Why do people listen to podcasts?

* Privacy and the Internet

* Future of social networking

I’d like to thank Scott for taking time out of his busy day to chat. Hopefully this won’t be the last of such episodes.

Last weekend Alex and I attempted to make hot dog animals based on the instructions on the back. How well did we do? Find out here. This is a short video on the results we were able to achieve with our limited culinary skills.

Alternative video link (Google Video)

I should have given the cops some Yaki-imo. Confused?! Well listen in to today’s episode and get acquainted with the Yaki-imo truck vendor, the cops, and my dinner. This episode comes straight from my kitchen while I cook up one of the only dishes I know how to make here in Japan, Yaki-soba. MMmmm. ^_^

Show Notes

* Making Yaki Soba

* Busy as sin, so I can’t mail anything right now ^_^

* More about GTD

* Vitalist has a Mobile Site

* Buying a bicycle – Mama Chari

* Getting pulled over by the cops, on a bike

* Bear with me while my food cooks LOUDLY – it doesn’t quite work well in audio does it?

* Should I post the TokyoCalling duel interview clips?

* Helmet’s “Size Matters” in Japan has two bonus tracks

* Dark side of podcasting

* Terrance is a patient guy

* And I start using street lingo while explaining it, what’s with that?

* Listen to A Year in Japan’s episode on Love Hotels

* Yaki-imo やきいも Truck Recording – Stone Roasted Potatoes

Ok well, maybe not a full episode, but a short one minute clip I put together before heading out for the night. Earlier today, Alex and I tore up Tokyo by bike. Stopping at Akihabara to get an Ebi-Filet, I began playing with my cell phone’s bar code reader. I was amazed at how fast it read the bar code.

The bar codes (also known as QR codes) are in a square format and contain text information, usually a URL. In this case, McDonald’s publishes all of their nutritional information this way. Want to know how many pounds that Choco-Pie is going to add on? Just whip out your keitai and check it out. Man, I do love Japan! Enjoy!

Upcoming episodes for those who cannot wait to hear, I’ve got some great material coming up: Getting stopped by the cops on bike in Japan, making elephant characters out of hotdogs (video), and my first full week in a Japanese office. Stay tuned.

Alternative video link (Google Video)