Angela An

This week the pod team sits down with Angela An of the very popular YouTube channel ‘Intenatoinally Me.’ Angela shares some horror stories from working at a Japanese ‘black company’ and how, after a well-deserved recovery holiday, she slowly worked her way up into becoming a successful full-time YouTuber. Plus, her fascinating plan for leverging her channel into helping the dying Japanese countryside.

And on our Tokyo Stories this week, we’re down a cheapo as Greg is off handling real business. Meanwhile, Chris talks about having some fun with Japanese at a coffeeshop in London, and Taryn reveals the embarassing story behind why her foot is broken.

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Links

Follow Angela on Instagram

‘Internationally Me’ YT channel

Joseph Tame

This week, we welcome to the pod an old friend, known to some as ‘Tokyo Marathon Man’, ‘Sakuraman’, or, our personal favourite, ‘The Running Christmas Tree’ – Joseph Tame. Jospeh tells the podcast team some amazing tales, including living on top of a mountain with a terrifying Swiss lady, being caught on CNN running around Tokyo inside a Christmas tree, and gradually building a successful creative agency. Plus, Joseph explains why he came to the podcast recording wearing 4 massive pinwheels – the answer to which kind of explains his whole Japan trajectory.

And this week on our Tokyo Stories, Chris ‘hogs the mic’ to tell Greg and Taryn what it was like to attend the Fuji Rock music festival in the middle of a typhoon.

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Links

Check out Joseph’s wackiest videos

Wild Tame website

Selena Hoy

This week the pod team sits down with freelance-writer success story Selena Hoy, who boasts pieces in everything from the Atlantic to the Independent to Playboy. Selena has spent the past 15 years in Japan trying her best to marry her two loves: writing and social work. She shares some harrowing tales from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, discusses Japan’s bizarre refugee policies and tries to explain how she actually found success as a full-time freelance writer (and what other aspiring writers should do too).

Plus – on our Tokyo Stories this week, Taryn, Greg and Chris reunite after a 2-month separation. Chris shares an expert travel tip, Greg brags about landing Olympic tickets after much queueing, and Taryn spins a tale about working at an inn on a remote island in Nagasaki.

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Links

Follow Selena on Twitter

Check out Selena’s impressive portfolio

John Daub

This week the pod is thrilled to sit down with hitchhiker, videographer and Naked Man festival participant John Daub, best known for his mega-famous YouTube channel ‘Only in Japan’. John tells the pod crew about being royally set up by a sneaky newspaper columnist, losing $30,000 on a popular video series, and turning all that around to become one of Japan’s most sucessful YouTubers. Also, John shares some moving but devastating stories about being in Japan during the 2011 earthquake, and how that changed his whole Japan trajectory (in a good way).

Plus! On our Tokyo Stories, while Chris is gallivanting around Europe, Greg and Taryn swap tales about gallivanting around Hiroshima. Greg finds himself on a pink train and Taryn finds herself stranded on an island.

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Links

Only in Japan (main channel)

Only in Japan GO (live stream channel)

Jasper Degens

This week, the podcast team sits down with teamLab’s Jasper Degens, one of the geniuses behind the Borderless Mori Digital Art Museum. As one of teamLab’s first and only gaijin, Jasper tells us about landing his dream job with zero Japanese and a lot of ingenuity (and persistent e-mailing), plus arriving in Vietnam without a job or plan and teaming up with an engineer/DJ.

And here in Japan it’s festival season! So in our Tokyo Stories Greg hops the mic to tell us what it’s like to actually join a festival – from buying a festive loincloth to shaking a 400 kg portable shrine.

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Links

teamLab homepage

Apply to work at teamLab!

Jasper’s friend Quan’s FB page

Questions for Jasper? E-mail him! [email protected]

Adrian Hogan

This week the podcast team sits down with illustrious and alarmingly nice illustrator Adrian Hogan, best known for his viral ‘panoramic coffee cups’. Adrian takes us through his winding Japan journey, from being a ‘will draw for food’ starving artist to being commissioned as the Starbucks Tokyo Roastery muralist, plus some viral instagram moments, what fascinates him about the Japanese color palette and illustration style, and why Jesus Christ is buried in northern Japan.

And in our Tokyo Stories, Greg befriends some drunken ojisans and explains what the Japanese drink ‘hoppy’ is, Chris has two serendipitous encounters in one cafe, and Taryn is obsessed with a sparkly train.

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Links

www.adrianhogan.com

Follow Adrian on Instagram: adehogan

Follow Adrian on Twitter: @adehogan

Mike Sheetal

This week the podcast team sits down with Mike Sheetal, founder and CEO of Playbrain (among many other things). Mike tells us about landing in Japan with two suitcases and zero job leads, making his way onto the club scene with home-made VJ software, working on a music TV show, running a fake political campaign – oh, and starting two companies. A mind-boggling CV, indeed.

And in our Tokyo Stories, Chris finds the bank culture in Japan confounding, Greg tries to explain how a political candidate won his election with the platform ‘people should smile more’ and Taryn shares another tale from the Ruby Room open mic.

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Live music performed by Kate Beck

Yan Fan and Kani Munidasa

This week on the pod we sit down with Yan Fan and Kani Munidasa, the founders of Code Chrysalis. Yan and Kani take us through their worldwide wanderings where they ‘flip the table’, quit their stable jobs, and ultimately land in SF where they meet each other and start plotting their new company: a coding bootcamp in Tokyo. Why Tokyo? Yan and Kani explain everything that’s fascinatingly wrong with software engineering in Japan – and how they’re going to fix it.

Also: while our notorious cheapo Greg is notoriously absent, Chris and Taryn swap stories about discussing climate change naked in a salt sauna and the magic of the Ruby Room open mic night in Shibuya.

Got something to share with the podcast team? We would love to hear from you! Drop us a line at [email protected].

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Links:

* Code Chrysalis website

* Code Chrysalis YouTube channel

* Code Chrysalis on Medium

BJ Fox

This week on the pod we sit down with comedian BJ Fox of Stand Up Tokyo and the NHK Sitcom ‘Home Sweet Tokyo’. BJ tells us how he landed a job at Pokémon by NOT choosing pikachu, what it was like to jump into stand up comedy in Singapore and bomb repeatedly, all the way through his successful stand up career in Tokyo. PLUS: how to make knocking down a baby funny in any country.

Also: a very special Tokyo Stories! This week, Taryn takes over the mic to regale the podcast team with a truly bizarre story featuring handymen you can hire to be your fake family, a shack in the middle of the Shizuoka countryside, and Japan’s one and only ‘Apology Agency’.

Produced/edited/mixed by Taryn Siegel

Music by Ryan Carter

Links:

* Stand Up Tokyo

* Okomedyaki YouTube channel

Daniel Harris Rosen

The Tokyo Cheapo Podcast is BACK after a sizable hiatus – here with our third episode! This week, we sit down with ‘the godfather of the international Tokyo art scene’ Daniel Rosen of TokyoDex. Daniel takes us through his long journey discovering his love for art and Japan, culminating in making one of the first viral YouTube videos all the way back in 2006. Daniel has revolutionized the Tokyo art scene in the decade and a half he’s been hitting the pavement here, and believes Japan is on the brink of an art renaissance.

And we’re once again bringing you our new segment – Tokyo Stories! Every episode the podcast team will share some of their own stories – salacious, otherworldly and everything in between. This week Chris tells us about Japanese-style road rage, Taryn is confused and infuriated by the election cars and Greg cheers them both up by telling them about an unusual bar he discovered.

Music by Ryan Carter

Links:

* TokyoDex

* TokyoDex instagram

Artwork mentioned:

Daniel’s masters thesis at Super Deluxe

German Embassy graffiti 2014:

German Embassy graffiti 2018:

‘TokyoDex is the bridge’ – Mitsubishi UFJ Capital project