Meet Pablo Aida, a shibari artist who's been practicing in Japan for the last 10 years. He sits down to talk to us about discovering shibari, the philosophy and history behind it, the differences between shibari and kinbaku, and the common misconceptions of this still developing art form.

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0:00 Intro

0:50 Coming to Japan

10:44 Deciding to stay

12:42 Discovering shibari

19:14 Shibari apprenticeship

31:57 Why tie people up?

41:05 Kinbaku vs. shibari vs. BDSM

47:36 Does shibari have rules?

51:40 Common shibari misconceptions

54:16 Shibari and the power of surrender

1:07:05 Shibari overseas vs. Japan

--

Follow Pablo:

https://www.pabloaida.com

https://aidamethod.studio

https://www.instagram.com/pablo.shibari

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Keiko Fukuichi, a Japanese freelance translator, who sits down to talk to us about her experience translating games, particularly indie darlings Undertale and Hades. She talks to us about nuances of Japanese translation, the biggest challenges she's had, and her experiences studying abroad and learning English.

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0:00 Intro

0:50 How Keiko learned English

5:10 Studying at Florida high school

11:20 Deciding on translation as a career

13:40 Translation school

18:28 Interest in book translation

23:44 Experience as a gamer

25:35 First game translation project

27:21 Limitations translating games to Japanese

28:40 Taking on Undertale project

30:12 Translating Papyrus

33:40 Limitations of not using kanji

38:41 Keiko's translation philosophy

40:35 Translating puns, jokes, and memes

43:54 Working with Toby "Radiation" Fox

45:11 Translation workflow

48:37 Do you play your own work?

49:48 Translating Hades

52:33 Translating old English

55:41 Can you use difficult kanji?

1:00:14 Translating with voice acting

1:02:38 Changes in translation industry over 20 years

1:06:07 Dealing with slang

1:08:38 Looking back

1:09:42 Are you worried about AI?

1:12:55 Do you have time to play games?

1:16:01 Studying vocabulary for Return of the Obra Dinn

1:17:42 Is interest in foreign indie games growing?

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Follow Keiko:

https://www.instagram.com/keiko.fukuichi/

https://www.facebook.com/keiko.fukuichi

https://x.com/keiko_fukuichi

https://note.com/kfukuichi

Follow us:

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Ray, an entrepreneur running a ryokan in Toyama. He sits down to talk to us about his experience in the hospitality industry, his interest and move to Japan, and his challenges establishing a business under the government's new regulations.

After recording our interview, Ray thought it would be important to share his visa status. That segment has been added to the beginning of the interview for context.

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0:00 Intro

0:50 Ray's visa situation

3:48 30 days to leave

8:46 What now?

11:27 Main interview—Why Japan?

18:04 Finding a property to buy

23:36 Business manager visa

25:34 Bringing family to Japan

28:46 Coming to Japan for Ray's children

35:39 The real work begins

37:01 Hotel licenses in Japan

40:57 Building a team in Japan

44:28 Setting up a restaurant/bakery

47:57 Navigating the language barrier

53:00 Joining the community in Toyama

56:37 How Ray financed his hotel

59:14 What he's learned since arriving

1:01:32 Why you should visit Toyama

--

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https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/unpackingjapan

Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Derek, co-founder of YukiHomes, a service that helps people overseas buy cheap homes in Japan. He sits down to talk to us about his own journey buying an akiya in Japan and running a business from overseas, as well as how YukiHomes fits into Japan's problems with depopulation and gentrification.

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0:00 Intro

0:50 Buying their first home in Japan

7:14 Skiing in Japan vs. the U.S.

12:28 Why Japan?

14:18 Discovering akiya

18:49 Regulations on rental properties

26:36 Why buy property in Japan?

29:21 Should foreigners be allowed to buy property?

32:19 Building community businesses

34:15 Operating a business from overseas

41:20 Getting stopped at the airport

44:42 The "right" way to buy akiya?

49:14 Aging ski infrastructure

52:14 Dealing with an old Japanese house

55:22 Next steps

--

Follow Derek:

https://www.yukihomes.com

https://www.instagram.com/yukihomesjapan

@YukiHomes

Follow us:

https://unpacking.jp/

https://www.instagram.com/unpacking_japan

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Martin Fackler, a journalist and author based in Japan. He sits down to talk to us about his career in China and Japan, what went into reporting his biggest stories, and the problems with Japan's kisha club system.

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0:00 Intro

0:50 Meet Martin

8:50 Advantages of a foreign journalist

15:48 Journalistic autonomy

29:20 Japanese bank extortion story

37:42 Managing information as a journalist

44:23 The Hainan incident

49:15 Running from the Chinese police

55:08 Responsibility to international conflict

59:54 The Japanese banking crisis

1:09:45 Responsibility as Tokyo Bureau Chief

1:15:34 The Fukushima disaster

1:31:45 Journalism vs. safety

1:40:53 Why don't we know what happened?

1:46:33 Failure of the Japanese media

1:56:07 The Japanese press oligarchies

2:06:28 Social media's influence on journalism

2:19:28 Why AI can't do journalism

2:22:53 Looking ahead

--

Follow Martin:

https://x.com/martfack

Follow us:

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Philip, an author and photographer who's spent years documenting Japan's jazz kissa, who sits down to talk to us about his work and the cafes he's explored in his book. He tells us about the history and culture of jazz kissa, and the growing interest in analogue culture.

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0:00 Intro

0:50 Coming to Japan on JET

10:40 What he learned as a JET teacher

19:54 Starting photography in Yokohama

22:39 The importance of Bebop Square

32:02 Next photography projects

36:05 Documenting jazz kissa

45:25 Origin of jazz kissa

51:02 Why jazz kissa are so special

59:34 Are jazz kissa dying?

1:02:30 Looking back

1:10:06 Future projects

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Follow Philip:

https://www.philiparneill.com/

https://www.tokyojazzjoints.com/

https://www.instagram.com/philiparneill/

https://www.instagram.com/tokyojazzjoints

Follow us:

https://unpacking.jp/

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Hanna, an activist who has been living with chronic illnesses like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as PTSD. She sits down to talk to us about her experiences living with invisible illness in Japan, and her views on Japan's medial and social welfare systems.

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0:00 Intro

0:26 Some context from Tobi

2:32 Meet Hanna

3:14 When her pain started

5:13 Response from doctors

7:40 Realizing her situation is not normal

9:39 Breaking free from her family

12:27 What are Hanna's illnesses?

13:50 Understanding her own life

15:08 Starting social media

17:37 Japanese health care/social support

20:04 Daily life for Hanna

23:13 Hanna's medication

24:37 Social media response

26:26 Has Hanna's messaged reached researchers?

28:58 What should change in Japan?

32:12 Starting a GoFundMe

38:31 Hanna's goals

39:59 Hanna's dreams

42:14 How Hanna experiences pain

44:41 Dealing with prejudice

45:44 Message from Hanna

--

Follow Hanna:

@hanna_with_pain

https://www.instagram.com/hanna_with_pain

https://www.tiktok.com/@hanna_with_pain

Follow us:

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https://www.instagram.com/unpacking_japan

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Roland Kelts, an author known for his book Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. He sits down to talk to us about the anime industry and the spread of Japanese pop culture overseas, as well as his work on the upcoming documentary Tezuka: God of Manga.

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0:00 Intro

0:50 Meet Roland

4:29 Building a stronger connection to Japan

8:55 Joining the JET Programme to write about Japan

15:20 Living alone in Japan

24:04 Leaving Japan to build a career

29:43 Writing Japanamerica

36:40 Studying Tezuka and anime

40:22 How otaku brought anime overseas

45:34 The 4Kids incident

47:49 Has the anime industry changed over 20 years?

55:58 The Tezuka documentary

1:00:14 Why Tezuka was so influential

1:03:27 How Tezuka came to be

1:06:44 Challenges of producing a documentary

1:11:08 Looking back

1:21:39 The power of pop culture

1:26:03 The world viewed from Japan

--

Follow Roland:

https://www.instagram.com/rolandkelts/

https://x.com/rolandkelts

https://www.japanamericabook.com/

Follow us:

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https://www.instagram.com/unpacking_japan

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Sayaka, a Japanese teacher known for her work on her channel Nihongo Dekita. She sits down to talk to us about her own journey to English fluency, discovering a passion for teaching language, and how she built her brand and Japanese school online.

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0:00 Intro

0:50 How Sayaka learned English

10:26 Studying teaching abroad

22:52 Work for company hiring immigrants in Japan

27:54 Starting her own teaching company

30:53 Growth on social media

38:41 Hiring her own teachers

40:37 How to make online lessons succeed

49:05 Should you learn by watching TV?

52:29 How to get fluent in a language

57:02 Learning vocabulary

1:04:54 Looking back

--

Follow Sayaka:

https://nihongodekita.com/

@NihongoDekita

https://www.instagram.com/nihongodekita/

https://www.facebook.com/nihongodekita/

https://www.tiktok.com/@nihongodekita

Follow us:

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/

Meet Kofi Bazell-Smith, the United States' first manga professor. He sits down to talk to us about the rules, form, and history of manga, his work in teaching and cultural relations, as well as his own projects as an artist.

--0:00 Intro0:50 Start in martial arts5:16 Deciding to take manga seriously10:30 Studying with a manga professor13:38 The rules of manga19:13 How this experienced changed him22:50 Manga as an academic art form26:48 Manga can be anything29:28 How Tezuka brought filmmaking to manga34:20 Becoming the manga professor37:52 Manga as a cross-cultural art form43:34 Is there a market for foreign manga?49:36 Kofi's manga53:39 Publishing manga57:28 Working with Japanese manga schools1:01:54 Exhibiting manga in an art gallery1:06:13 Kofi's work in US-Japan cultural relations--Follow Kofi:https://www.kofimanga.com

Follow us:

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Subscribe for more in-depth discussions about life in Japan!

Interested in working at a global e-commerce company in Osaka? Our parent company ZenGroup is hiring! To learn more, check out https://careers.zen.group/en/