*Twinkle* and George

*Twinkle* and I

For our final episode of this series of Japan Podshow we knew we had to do something pretty special. We wanted to celebrate. Celebrate in Style.

A mysterious chain of events led us to the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo, located on floors 45-up in the Tokyo Midtown complex.

Upon arrival, we were shown to a Carlton Suite on the 49th floor – it was ours for the night.

Over the course of our time there a string of guests turned up to congratulate us on completing series one. Champagne was brought to our room, Bob Cratchit and his wife appeared in our bed, we had live music from Kat McDowell and a Japanese lesson with a very cute teacher.

We relaxed in the jaccuzi, ran 0.08km on the treadmill.

Japan’s First Podcaster, Scott Lockman, presented us with a trophy.

It was all very cool.

The final episode, a video episode, will be released late next week over at www.JapanPodshow.com

In the meantime, here’s a video from my iPhone, and a few pictures all taken by Steve Nagata

Arrival

Champagne, kindly provided by the hotel

Our Japanese lesson

At the hotel bar

With the Tokyo International Players

In the spa

On the treadmill

With Scott Lockman, Japan’s first podcaster

In bed

Singing

Waking up

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On February 2010 I shall run my first ever full marathon. In a bid to reduce the the chances of it killing me, between now and then I shall be following this 16-week training program, with my co-runner and trainer, Tom.

The following plan emerged tonight from the minds of a man named Jim (who is also running), and Joseph.

The Big Plan

We want to make this marathon as interactive as possible for all of you who are either too sensible or too lazy to run yourselves.

We believe that given the power of the technology many of us now hold in our own hands (iPhones / eMobile enabled netbooks / Skype / uStream / Qik / Google Latitude / Twitter etc) we will be able to create a live online sports event unlike any other yet seen. It will be online and interactive, available to everyone to watch or particpate in.

We envisage having a central studio, manned by a member of our team fielding questions and feedback from our audience of thousands around the world. A second member of the team will be managing the live video streams coming in from our team of runners, and from additional cameras stationed around the course.

GPS technology will mean that you can track individual team members in real time, thus helping you get to the right place on the course at the right time to wave them on.

You will be able to talk directly to runners, and send in your words of encouragement by email and Twitter.

You will be able to ask them fiendeshly difficult questions, allowing them to become distracted from the pain in their legs.

It wll be a great challenge, something that everyone who takes part in will never forget.

We’ll be setting up an online group to enable all those who want to take part to do so.

We welcome your feedback and ideas – and get in touch if you’re a runner!

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Ahh, what a cute Yamanote train. Taken and (poorly) tilt-shifted on the iPhone.

Been a good day today. Finally updated www.iphoningjapan.com with a re-write of the Tokyo Metro app, now includes my take on using the Augmented Reality function. It’s very cool.

For those of you who don’t know what augmented reality is – it’s what they have in fighter jets and very high-end cars, whereby additional information is somehow projected onto the windshield, so you can keep on looking where you’re going without taking your eyes off the road / sky ahead.

This technology is now available for iPhone users (and on other Japanese handsets) – you hold the phone up and it will use the built in GPS and compass to figure out what you’re looking at, then overlay info from its database (cafes / stations / shops etc). Read more on iPhoning Japan.

There’s another app called Sekai Camera which uses the same technology, but also allows you to add your own ‘airtags’ – for example, I took a photo of a friend and placed it outside a shop in Shibuya (where we were), so from now on whenever you go there, they’ll be floating around. It’s still a kind of game at the moment, but the potential of these apps to majorly impact upon our lives (especially in places like Tokyo) is very exciting.

I’ll be posting about Sekai Camera later this week.

I also blogged about Koetan! – a fantastic voice-recognition Tokyo train route app.

Finally got Anki and iAnki (spaced repetition software for learning ANYTHING!) up and running – very excited about learning Japanese again.

Oh, had a meeting too about a dream like production studio myself and a friend would like to rent. It is a dream though.

Oh oh oh, and I watched TV for an hour too! First time in forever that I’ve done that. Used my dictionary throughout picking out unknown words – very beneficial.

Mind you, Japanese TV is absolutely terrible on the whole, and I can’t believe people actually pay so much for such limited choice, and such drivvle. It’s like paying US$200 (or whatever it is) per year for the privilege of watching 10 of the most mindless YouTube channels on Earth, whilst stabbing yourself in the eyes with red hot needles. I seriously wonder what people are thinking when they come up with some of the extraordinarily bizarre things you see.

Basically, I don’t really want to watch TV as I think it’s a complete waste of time (for me). It strikes me as being like pouring your life down the loo, but I do want to use it in my Japanese studies (thus my asking for recommendations earlier). You know, the average time spent in front of the TV in the UK is about 25 hours per week (and far more in Japan). Yes, I sit in front of my computer, but on the whole that’s productive time. I rarely find myself procrastinating these days as there’s just too much I want to do in the short time I have. I’m grateful in a way that Japanese TV is so awful as it means I’m unlikely to voluntarily indulge, instead only watching one of two things a week that are well-produced and help my studies.

Anyway, best go to bed. Don’t forget that we’re giving away free credit for use on www.hearjapan.com (Japanese music download site aimed at people outside of japan) to all listeners of the latest episode of Japanpodshow.com!

Oyasumi!

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It’s so sharp. So determined to cut through the air. So confident. You can’t help but admire an attitude like that.

It’s the corner of a building bordering Hamarikyu Gardens, photos of which you’ll find below.

But before we get into that, I have a favour to ask of any readers connected with the University of Sheffield (my uni) – my kohai (person in class below me) Alice is a lovely girl, and has entered a competition to help promote the university. To win, she needs a decent number of views of a Youtube video she and several other of my kohai made – so please go and watch it – it’s here (don’t be fooled by the black opening) Thank you.

Podcasts

I’ve got podcasts coming out me ears this week.

First off, I’m really enjoying my private podcast (that’s the one that shows up to the right of the Daily Mumble). In particular, this one got some attention this week. It’s about my renewed determination to improve my Japanese.

I’ve since restarted my personal Japanese podcast (feed links in sidebar of The Daily Mumble), and am using that to update my long-neglected Japanese blog.

With language study, I firmly believe that if one is meeting repeated failure due to a ‘lack of time’ etc, you have to figure something out that fits in with existing routines. This does for me.

I’ve also finally got the sumo video out, which underwent a major re-write following a private viewing for *Twinkle*!! This is not meant to be taken seriously.

(If you subscribe to Japan Podshow you’ll find this in the feed.

Then accompanying that, we have episode 11.5 of Japan Podshow. I don’t feel this is up to standard, and think this is mainly due to the fact that it was recorded outside of the studio where we were limited in what we could do. Still, that’s OK.

I drew the artwork on the Hibiya and Ginza subway lines, in case you were wondering. I do enjoy drawing elephants!

I just have to finish off the full interview with Nathan of Hear Japan for Making it in Japan – should be able to do that tomorrow.

I’m determined to start running again – and have run for the past two days, and will again tomorrow (GPS route with embedded photos of this morning’s jog here, courtesy of the iPhone).

I was happily surprised by how the iPhone handled this spider (which incidentally I blogged about this morning over on Dannychoo.com).

After the run it was off to Hamarikyu Gardens with *Twinkle* and a friend visiting from Madrid. I blogged this photo too.

Here’s a shot of Tokyo Bay from above, with Hamarikyu in the foreground (taken on the iPhone again. In fact all of these were).

Also this week I met up with dear friend Paul P back in Japan for a quick visit, with CNet / Japan Times journalist friend Rick to discuss Augmented Reality apps (he might use some of the info I provided in a JT article next week), oh, and continuing to correspond with Ian the documentary maker regarding film-making. Who knows what the future holds.

The day job is going OK.

Eyes are tired though, and the Macbook needs to be seen to – the sound card seems a bit dodgy, i.e. all system audio turns into loud static pops after lengthy editing sessions. Not good. Just need to get to a time when I don’t need it for video editing all the time, like the beginning of November when Japan Podshow is done.

Things are good though. Exhausted, but excitement and motivation levels are high. Gotta make the most of the time we’ve got!

Joseph

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I found it interesting how the pace of life seemed to be a lot slower there, outside of central Tokyo. There wasn’t the feeling that there was lots that needed to be done (as is the feeling at home). 9pm seemed late, like bed time. I was asleep before midnight for the first time in a long time.

Walking back to the station this morning (*Twinkle* left earlier, taking our niece to Disneyland), I took a few photos of everyday stuff, which I thought I’d share.

First off then, we have the cabbage fields between the apartment blocks. I think of these as the remnants of years gone by, when the kanto plain was more agriculture than housing. You’ll still find quite a lot of them in the outskirts of cities, but every year their number decreases. I think the primary motivation for planting up land these days is not producing crops, but rather to obtain tax breaks.

Next up, the dog poo sign. Isn’t it cute? The woman seems to be really enjoying herself. The text literally reads, “Let’s take dog poo home!”

Storage containers are on the rise, as people accumulate more ’stuff’ which they really have no need for. You can rent half of one of these containers for as little as 5,250 yen (GBP36) per month. Given the state of the Japanese economy, it won’t be long until we find people living in them, I’m sure.

Next, we’re down by the riverside. Not sure I’d want to eat anything that comes from one of these rivers though.

Finally, we have the mikan – or are they some other kind of orange? I don’t know. I like fruit trees in cities. They’re a good reminder of the natural seasonal cycle that is going on around us, masked by the tarmac.

Anyway, I need to change trains now, so had better pack up.

Joseph

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The Ballad of Vicki and Jake is being shown at Nakano Zero Hall from 19:00 (doors open 18:30) this Sunday, 4th October 2009. Tickets 1,200 yen on the door. Invitation tickets for press available.

Care to join me?

Here’s the press release (click here for bilingual version):

Hard-hitting British documentary The Ballad of Vicki and Jake which won the Prix du Canton Vaud (best first film) at the international film festival in Nyon, Switzerland in April of 2006 in what the jury described as “honest and intelligent” will be shown on Sunday, October 4 at Zero Hall in Nakano (Tokyo).

The Ballad of Vicki and Jake is filmmaker Ian Thomas Ash’s first feature documentary. The film tells the story of Vicki, a single mother struggling with addiction, and her son Jake. Vicki and Jake combines uncompromising interviews, scenes of drug use and moments of touching intimacy between the filmmaker and his subjects.

Vicki and Jake is a truly international film. American Director Ian Thomas Ash and Singaporean cameraman Ken Kwek filmed in Bristol, a city in the South West of England, over a period of nine months. The production brought together new international filmmakers and experienced British professionals; Michael Croucher (Executive Producer), who sadly died shortly after the film was awarded the Prix du Canton Vaud, had a long career in British documentary, from his first films for the BBC, among them The Bashers (1962) to directing major documentary and drama series.

The screening of The Ballad of Vicki and Jake will take place at Nakano Zero (sho hall) on Sunday, Ocotber 4. Doors will open at 18:30 and the screening will begin at 19:00. The 84 minute film will be followed by a Q and A session with the director. Tickets are ￥1,200 and are available on the door. The screening will be subtitled in both English and Japanese. Minors under 18 wilBallad of Vicki and Jake Press Releasel not be admitted without a parent or guardian.

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It started off as most Monday’s do – volunteer work at city hall. I went extra early today, in order to finish early and meet George an hour before our lunchtime appointment at the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo re. Japan Podshow – George and I deserve a break at the end of our 6-month stint! It was about then that I posted this photo – note Tokyo tower in the background. I wrote a short blog to accompany this on dannychoo.com.

I also briefly posted the following photo to this blog by mistake – I’m posting by email a lot of the time and made a little mistake with the email address, sending it here instead of just to Flickr.

I tell you, that place is incredible. Lunch is pretty reasonable too, starting at 3,500yen. We had the Chef’s special which would have been 4,500 yen (had we been paying More info here. Mondays are Ladies Day – 4 for the price of 3.

I note from the site that dress is ‘Casual Elegance’ – George and I were there in our jeans and T-shirts!

The staff were extremely friendly. Linda, the pr manager whom we’re working with to make this happen, is very kind. The catering and restaurant managers knew that we’d be visiting and came out to say hello too, which was nice.

We have a preliminary date set to shoot the last episode of Japan Podshow for late next month – our venue may well be the most expensive suite in the whole of Tokyo (and possibly Japan?) – it’s 3,300 metres of floor space, over 50 floors up. Whilst we’re pencilled in, if someone books it, we’ll use another suite.

We’re thinking this will be something along the lines of Cirque du Soleil.

Sat down at starbucks, posted another live blog to Dannychoo – and then later got an email from a stranger – who turned out to be the person who sat at that table just prior to me, had read my post on DannyChoo.com and also coincidentally had discovered Japanpodshow, and had seem me walking around with a tripod – small world!

After doing a bit of podcast editing I met up with Kamasami Kong of the Metpod, and together we attended a Media Tectonics gig at which Twitter/real life friend 1rick was presenting. Great stuff. very sexy keynote.

Also bumped into Christine there who presented with me on our podcasts from Wireless Japan Expo. Oh, and Lem Fugitt of Robot Dreams – whom we’ll be working with to make some videos at the international robotics expo in November – very excited about that!!

Also met Ian Thomas Ash, producer / director of The Ballad of Vicki and Jake – a hard-hitting documentary which will have its Japanese premier this Sunday in Nakana Zero Hall. The second film in this series will be out in December.

Anyway, Ian, a very nice man, lives not all that far away, and could do with a hand getting his work out there, and we could learn a lot from him and possibly borrow some equipment, so I hope we’ll do some work together.

All in all it’s been a fabulous day. Opportunities are continuing to present themselves as and when needed. I think we’ll be able to do some fantastic stuff this autumn, and hopefully start to benefit financially from the effort too!

Anyway, back to the full time job in 8 hours!

Joseph

(p.s. ‘Sutarto’ is japanese for ’start’!)

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Here’s a short video of some of the dances, and a few shots I took of the dancing on stage.

Apologies for the movement of the camera – it was all handheld!

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A couple of days back Danny blogged about leaving bags on chairs in restaurants to save a table whilst going to order. That reminded me of the practice of local plant shops, where they leave half of their stock outside every night, just protected by a net. I know of a couple that do it round here.

I like that. Shows that people can be trusted.

Having said that, when I attended the local park meeting there was talk of the newly-planted shrubs being stolen. I’m guessing it’s because there’s less chance of getting caught if you steal from a park vs. a shop.

The local toilet seat shop does the same. They leave a range of loo seats out overnight – the good ones with built in washlet (thing that squirts water at your bum after you’ve done your business).

Ho hum.

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It is the story of how one man has achieved something absolutely remarkable. It is a story that proves that if you have a good idea, believe in it strongly enough, refuse to listen to the sceptics, and put in massive effort, you can change the world.

Meet documentary filmaker Jeremy Gilley, and the movement that he began, Peace One Day

The short version

I recommend you watch the full version

This makes me look at what I’m doing. And think again. Hmm. It’s a question that won’t go away.

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To describe this photo, here’s the text from my post for Dannychoo.com uploaded earlier today:

*Twinkle* and I are having a lazy day today, the fourth day of the Silver Week holiday.

We’ve come out to Jiyugaoka, just a couple of stops down the line from our station, and 10 mins from Shibuya on the Tokyu Toyoko line.

Jiyugaoka (自由が丘, meaning ‘free hill’) is a pretty posh shopping area: with a lot of international brands and high-class cafes it’s popular with celebrities – a friend of mine regularly hangs out in the road outside the station (Marie Claire St.), celebrity spotting!

We’re in La Maison, one of the cafes that makes the town famous for cakes and sweets. Whilst I’d originally chosen the Special Autumn Set, and my wife the Mont Blanc, it seems that the tiramisu and caramel ice cream was too much for her to resist, so she’s swapped our plates, as you can see in the photo!

We’re just promising each other that we’ll start our diets tomorrow!

Here’s some more photos from our evening exploring Jiyugaoka

The lowest bridge in Tokyo?

A red-carpeted street

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It’s the first time I’ve been to see a sumo tournament. Despite having the cheapest seats in the house, we had a perfect view of the ring.

I don’t know much about sumo, and as there’s plenty of information out there I don’t think I’ll try and explain either. Instead, here’s a few shots of the action – a video will follow.

Flying Rikishi

Rolling huggles are a prominent feature of bouts.

Biting is prohibited but sometimes unavoidable.

Advertising Sumo style – these moving commercials parade around the ring between bouts.

Go for the throat!

Here, the famous non-Japanese wrestler whose name I forget picks up his opponent by his pony tail and throws him out of the ring.

On losing, it is common for wrestlers to crawl around and cry

These chaps get together to make decisions following bouts where it is not clear who has won

There’s a lot of posing. The higher ranking the wrestler, the longer they spend stomping and slapping.

Now there’s a sign of affection if ever I saw one.

The chap who declares the winner

When the wrestling is over, a wrestler performs a closing ceremony with a spinning baton.

Check out Mike’s blog entry here

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This is a test post – we’re seeing if Flickr can publish straight to
my blog, The Daily Mumble.

[Edit] And the result? It can. I just email my photo and description to Flickr (from my iPhone when out and about), which then in turn posts it to this blog automatically. This is good news.

I think I’ll start cross-posting a few of the articles I write for www.dannychoo.com, a little while after they’ve gone live over there, by means of keeping a copy of all my work in one place. This means we should see daily posts around here.

They’ll be Japan-themed. Let’s see how it goes.

Hope you like today’s picture, shot in a local park of an ancient Japanese house. It comes complete with plastic inhabitants and electric fire.

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But before I talk about that (or the elephant wearing the iPod, or the rhinos who roam the plains of Japan in Sendai), just a quick note about an exciting development that’s come about in the past 24 hours.

Tokyo Live Blogging on www.dannychoo.com

If you’re interested in Japan and blogging, chances are you’ll be familiar with www.dannychoo.com, probably the most popular Japan-themed English-language blog in the world. It’s pretty incredible what Danny’s built over there. The result of a lot of time, effort – and the implementation of strategies to empower others to contribute, and thus build the community.

I can hardly comprehend those figures. I mean, look at any of his recent posts – one that he wrote just a couple of days ago has already had over 52,000 hits!

I’ve been fortunate to get to know Danny over the past few months, with him (or more accurately, his wife!) very kindly giving me a lift home from various events – they live not far from us. Anyway, this, and the stuff I’ve done online, has led to my being invited to join the Tokyo Live Bloggers crew.

The idea behind the Tokyo Live bloggers (whose latest posts appear on the front page of dannychoo.com) is that we’re documenting everyday life in Japan, as it happens. We’re all iPhone equipped, and use these to send our photos and descriptions to the site.

Here’s an example of a story that I posted a few hours back.

Part of the idea is to initiate conversations, which is why the descriptions often end in questions. You’ll notice the style of writing is also a little different from what I normally write – this is because I’m thinking of the target audience, which is a little different from my usual target audience.

Anyway, delighted to be a part of the project.

Japan Podshow developments

So, we finally got episode 11 out, “Harajuku and the Weblish Wonder“. This was a LOT of fun to make – well, I think if you give it a listen you can hear that…!

George and I have been toying with the idea of singing bits and bobs for some time, but it’s only now we’re nearly at the end of series 1 that we’ve actually done it! With an 8,000 yen guitar (about GBP35) and our untrained voices – what do you think? Do we have a career in music ahead of us?!

Accompanying the episode we have two videos, a pretty funny one of some of the people we interviewed in Harajuku, and one of Nobuki Ueda who sang for us in the kitchen. Nobuki is actually *Twinkle*s old classmate, whom she literally bumped into in the street last week. She invited him round, and I decided that it wouldn’t be too cheeky to ask him to perform. Check out his music on iTunes – really fantastic, especially when combined with his band.

In episode 11 we also featured an extract of an interview I did with John Daub of Weblish. It’s pretty incredible what he’s achieved – 100,000 subscribers to his educational entertainment video podcast (aimed at English learners). He’s regularly top of the iTunes Japan charts, passing the likes of Discovery Channel and CNN.

The full interview with John is over on Making it in Japan podcast. Personally, I think it’s a great interview. I love his story of Kilimanjaro, and there’s some great advice for people setting up business in Japan.

You’ll have to listen to japan podshow to find out about the rhinos that roam japan.

Metpod developments

Tonight I met up with radio DJ, producer and general all-round nice guy Kamasami Kong. With series one of Japan Podshow coming to an end, it seems the timing is pretty good for me to take the Pokya project to the next level by accepting an offer to produce one of the daily Metropolis Magazine’s Metpod Podcast shows. We’re being given total control over production here which is very exciting. Our material will also be included in daily radio broadcasts.

It also means that we can get some experience of monetising. It’s all very well doing this stuff for free, but without funding, the constraints of time will not be lifted. Anyway, watch this space for more on that.

Summary: the way things are

Things are working out really well. I feel the ‘experiment’ in establishing myself in Japan through the use of online media and offline interactions with others is working out a lot better than I could have hoped. Opportunities are being presented when needed, and resources turning up out of the blue. It’s kind of like magic really. Only it’s not magic.

Things with *Twinkle* are great too.

Happy.

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Been a great day today. You can hear all about it in the Audioboo embedded below, but I just wanted to share this photo, taken whilst I was interviewing our special guest musician on Japan Podshow earlier today, Nobuki Ueda.

I’m a lot less stressed now. Not entirely sure why, but one reason might be that I’ve given up being grumpy at home (as I had been for a couple of sleep-deprived weeks). Makes such a difference!

Life is bloomin wonderful.

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Thanks to years of mind-bending grammar study, many Japanese students of English have pretty good grammar knowledge. Well, perhaps that’s not quite correct. Perhaps I should say that many Japanese students of English can only understand things if you explain it to them in (Japanese) grammatical terms (”Verb + noun” etc).

One thing I often find myself saying when teaching is something along the lines of, “Whilst it may not be grammatically correct, we do use it in this way”. That is, we often break the ‘rules’.

It’s only since I’ve started editing interviews for our podcasts thought that I’ve started to appreciate just how much we break the rules. Like, all the time. The random jumbles of words, half-formed sentences, interjections of erms and ahs – they’re all over the place – yet if you’re not listening out for them the people I’m interviewing sound perfectly natural and are totally understandable.

For the podcast I do try and clean them up a bit. Take the above picture – this is a 15-minute ish interview from earlier this year – every one of those little ‘bubbles’ of audio in the top section is the result of an erm or an ah being cut out of each side of them. Yet when I recorded the interview, I didn’t notice them all that much.

Having said that, these days I do notice them as I know just how much more work it’s going to be when I get around to editing the audio. Mind you, I quite enjoy that. It’s satisfying, and not all that time consuming now I’m practiced at it.

Ho hum.

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One thing that’s concerned me of late is my general stress levels. It’s an interesting kind of stress though – a kind that doesn’t really stress me out, that is, I don’t have a general feeling of ‘being stressed’.

Thinking on why this might be, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because it tends to be short-term stress induced by having a lot to do within short periods of time. It’s contained, marked off by (for example) the start and end of my day at the office, or a weekend in which I put myself under pressure to achieve X Y and Z.

So, it’s not an overwhelming “I’ll never catch up” stress.

And of course, It’s all my own doing. I don’t say ‘no’ enough.

Restructuring in my day job has resulted in my having more responsibilities, that is, more to do in a limited amount of time. But as I may have mentioned before, I’ve decided to not allow this to extend beyond 7pm – and I must say, this has been met with considerable success, in that I don’t tend to spend any time thinking about work outside of the office. (It’s not that I don’t enjoy my job. In fact recently, having been given the opportunity to catch a glimpse inside a few other companies that in the past I might have been interested in working for, I’ve come to feel pretty fortunate that I do work here).

But no matter whether the stress is long term or short time, I appreciate that it is not good for me, and with our family’s history of heart problems is something I need to watch. I guess at the moment I’m putting up with it because I see an end in sight – it’s a bit of a vague end, but it’s around next Spring, when I hope to significantly change how I use my weekdays.

I’m glad the heat of summer is over (well, at least the humidity of post-rainy season summer) and that glorious Autumn is on its way. Thinking of autumnal weather in Japan, and the accompaniment of the stunning display of leaves really moves me – to the extent that a tear comes to my eye. I’m grateful for this. It’s a sign that despite living in a concrete jungle, my natural link with nature is still as strong as ever. With few opportunities to express itself, when it does, it’s pretty powerful.

Long term, the city is not for me.

I try not to think of winter, which I distinctly remember last year wishing would come to an end. One day our house will have insulation. Might have to get it shipped in from the UK though as it seems to be illegal here.

Last week, whilst doing the washing up, I looked down at my stomach, and was pretty shocked to see that it was touching the sink, despite my standing a little way away. I was FAT! Twinkle was there, and was pretty impressed by how pregnant I was able to look. Admittedly I had just eaten a fair bit, but nonetheless, this was pretty shocking for me.

I know the reasons for this. For a start, there’s a lack of exercise, which needs to come to an end anyway as the November Ekiden (relay race) is approaching. More than that though, there’s all the convenience store crap I’ve been  eating. We’re talking chocolate and cakes mainly. The thing is, I have a sweet tooth, and am not prepared to not cater for it. So, I’ve decided instead to buy fresh fruit whenever I feel the need for sugar. So far it’s working! I love fruit more than almost any other food, but the expense of it here in Japan means I don’t eat as much as I’d like to. However, given my condition, I’ve decided it’s worth spending a bit more and being healthier in return.

In other news, it’s an absolutely beautiful day in Tokyo today, and I’m pretty happy.

No related posts.

Still, very productive. Had a great meeting with Kong of the Metpod, talking about where it could go from here. Interesting ideas for collaboration once japanpodshow is done. Look out for changes in the autumn.

Also published not one but TWO podcasts tonight – the first is an audio interview with Mike Sheetal of the incredibly innovative design agency UltraSuperNew Inc (based in Shibuya).

Check it out over at Making it in Japan. It’s a good interview – hear about some very original marketing campaigns carried out for the likes of Red Bull, Audi and Panasonic. Also, Mike has advice for others wanting to set up in Japan.

The second is the video I shot at Tokyo Hacker Space’s first Open House event on Sunday, uploaded to the neglected Japan Tech Show. The video looks much better in High Definition on our Facebook page or on YouTube.

That brain machine was pretty crazy. I can hardly believe just those two LEDs caused me to see all those patterns etc.

Really enjoying learning video editing. Have a way to go!

Ok, off to bed for me.

xx

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been a great day today. Very productive. Voluntary work this morning at the city hall, editing a video I shot yesterday at Tokyo Hacker Space this afternoon, then edited almost an entire episode of Making it in Japan on the Hibiya subway line before meeting Christine and Steve (both of whom have appeared in Japan Techshow) to help Christine choose an eeeeeepc at Akiba Yodobashi.

Started to shoot some stock footage around Akiba – sell on iStock photo perhaps? Good way to at least start making an income from it!

Back to Meguro for an English lesson, then back home.

One issue I have with the Canon HF S11 is that the lens isn’t wide enough. But this is deliberate – they sell wide angle attachments separately, and I’ll think I’ll get one, as I’m so impressed with what this consumer model can do. Cost a pretty 25,000 yen though!

Looking forward to tomorrow too as I have the afternoon off for a meeting – and more editing. Really enjoying being creative and productive.

Things are moving in the right direction – it’s all good!

Below – my video from Koenji Awaodori, one of the three biggest annual festivals in Tokyo with over 12,000 performers. You can watch it in HD (big) mode here.

As you can see I stuffed up the aspect ratio as I’m a newbie at Final Cut (video editing software), and there’s a significant loss in quality due to it being on YouTube. You can download the original from Japan Podshow.

Nighty night!

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Yikes. 1.34am again. It was yesterday too. I’ve been wanting to write for a few days now, but, well, it’s not going to happen, I mean, not in the way that i would like. So rather than it not happen at all it’ll happen like this.

It’s turned out that Pepe (pictured above) is heavily trademarked, copyrighted and has all his rights reserved, so until a new Pepe is made the brakes are on his twitter / website / book.

Japan Podshow is doing very well. We’re close on 12,000 downloads now – that excludes listens using the built-in flash player, YouTube and Facebook video views. There are rumours that for the next episode George and I will be reporting from an NHK TV set… more on that if it all works out.

Tonight I was fortunate to meet the founder of a fantastic online Japanese music store – we have an interview for Making it in Japan, and hopefully a decent prize for Japan Podshow listeners too. It’s pretty exciting – now we have an established online presence we’re being approached by some pretty cool people with collaboration proposals. If only we had the time!

Last week saw an extraordinary turn of events. Thanks to the stuff we’ve done on Japan Podshow, a business owner from Australia who was wanting to make a video here in Japan to promote his brand, was put in touch with me via a friend whom I met on Twitter – would I like to direct / shoot the video? It sounded like a pretty interesting project.

Aside from getting to spend some time with the very cute and ultra-nice Rei Hamada, I was also able to learn a fair bit about shooting video in dark, crowded bars.

But of more significance for us, we now have the full-time use of a Canon HF-11 – the most advanced consumer level HD camcorder on the market at present (well, the Japanese market at least, it’s yet to be released in the US / UK).

The camera is AMAZING. It takes TV-quality video, I kid you not. Looks incredible on my 17″ display. Great sound too – especially with the gun-mic we have for the shoe. I’ll be posting a podcast filmed at Koenji Awaodori next week, which provides a great demo of the incredible image stabilisation system this thing has.

I can’t over-emphasise just how much of a dream come true this is. Along with the lighting rig and extra mic that we were gifted we now have our first full ’studio’ setup. I am deeply grateful to the business owner and my friend InvisibleGaijin for this extraordinary act of trust and generosity.

I also have a strong feeling that this came to us as a result of us strongly wishing it to, and working hard to enable it to do so (preparing for it). You may laugh, but I have the evidence!

You know, they say that if you want to succeed at something, you just have to get up and give it a go, even if you have no idea how you’ll be able to do it. Don’t worry about the HOW. Here’s a perfect example of that. We’ve been wanted an HD camera for months, but haven’t had the funding. And this happens, out of the blue. Incredible.

We’ll be doing more shooting with this company when they’re back in Japan.

I’m looking forward to a friend’s birthday party this Saturday after work, and then on Sunday a launch party for Kat McDowell’s great new Album Echoes Over the Ocean (which incidentally we’re giving away on Japan Podshow). I’ll also be squeezing in a Wordpress training session for a friend, and writing a bio for Kat too. I’ve also decided to redirect the effort I’m putting in Metropolis Magazine’s Metpod Podcast, and so will take half a day off work next week to meet with the magazine’s web editor to discuss my taking over (developing and maintaining) the website for the podcast (as opposed to audio sections).

My day job’s been pretty mental lately. So busy, I’m way behind with my regular work as urgent projects keep on popping up. I’m not bringing it home though so that’s OK.

Tomorrow morning (5 hours from now) I leave for the immigration dept to get my spouse visa renewed. Gaijin card expires tomorrow too.

Spent an hour on the phone to my brother in the UK tonight. That was wonderful. Really great to connect. I also like the fact that the call, made on my iPhone, was basically free thanks to Skype.

Oh, I’ve decided to not upgrade to Snow Leopard just yet – will wait till apps are updated as there’s no real rush and I need my computer to work, not just look sexy.

OK, must sleep. wiped out!

I wonder how long this routine can go on for?

jsoeph

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At the time I said

Whilst geekery is fun, sometimes I do wonder what the point to it all is. If, ultimately, it doesn’t contribute to the overall good of society, then it could be entirely pointless. Just a waste of precious time. But put a valuable cause at the end of the road and suddenly there’s a burning reason to continue to push original material out there, to grow a community, to create a movement of sorts.

My feelings remain unchanged.

John Janzen has recently returned from the trip to Cambodia that was discussed on the night, and here’s one of his videos. Had my attention. I watched it twice.

Made me think – am I making the best use of my time by doing what I’m doing, here in Tokyo?

John wrote an intro piece on Japan Probe, which I quote in almost its entirety here:

I recently came back from a trip to Cambodia with HOPE Japan, an NGO that builds wells and provides micro-loans in the very poor rural areas of the country. Our team members were all either Japanese or people living in Japan, so we were quick to notice the influence of Japan in Cambodia. When we were driving out of the capital city of Phnom Penh headed for the rural areas, we encountered a massive, under-construction bridge that was nicknamed the “Toyota Bridge”. Apparently, the money for the bridge was provided by the Japanese government, with Toyota and friends providing the expertise. I suppose that both are anxious to get more Toyotas flowing into the country.
But Japan’s involvement isn’t all corporate and governmental. In the following video we headed out to a floating village near the village of Krakor where we encountered something completely unanticipated (about at the halfway point of the video):

Be sure to check out John’s other videos on his YouTube channel.

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Yes indeed. The world’s first Moled space flight. Captured on the Hibiya subway line.

So, it’s been a pretty full-on week this week. The day job has been hectic as we’ve had a lot of new contracts starting, and I’ll be out of the office most of next week teaching at a major electronics manufacturer. Still, it’s going much better than earlier in the year as it has been established that I know what I’m doing, and whilst I may occasionally make small mistakes I’m indispensable enough to treated with respect at all times (I don’t mean that to sound arrogant, it’s a true reflection of my reality of the situation). It’s good not being the office idiot.

I’ve also been trying to get my new podcast, Making it in Japan off the ground. It took about 25 hours to get it to look and behave the same way as the one I had in my head at the start. That includes time spent designing and creating original images, adjusting the template layout / design, re-recording the audio intros and outros, getting the feed sorted and submitting it to the iTunes Store etc.

I’m quite pleased with the result. It’s the most minimalistic (wp-driven) website I’ve made to date, with deliberately few distractions and only a few things for people to click on. Very different from Japan Podshow which is all php whizzy bangs and html ferris wheels.

Check out the site here, subscribe in iTunes here.

The simple layout is echoed in the audio content. It’s just interviews. Interviews with inspirational English-speaking entrepreneurs and artists here in Japan. The idea is that it will appeal to those who don’t like long podcasts / don’t appreciate the humour of Joseph and George / just want to learn. Whilst most of the interviews will be repeats of those featured in Japan Podshow for the time being, those on Making it in Japan will be fuller in body, more detailed, and of course will continue past the end of Series 1 of Japan Podshow (episode 12 will bring it to a close in October).

By re-using content (in a way that I believe serves a different audience), I feel that I am not setting myself up for failure, as I am not having to do the main job of interviewing people twice over. I’m not creating a whole load more work for myself. I hope it’s a success.

I spent several hours today preparing for the next episode of Japan Podshow. This involved calling a stranger in London for an interview (successfully captured) – I can’t give any more details as it’s a surprise but I hope people enjoy it when it goes out. I also edited the interview I recorded with Kat McDowell at Sony Music – I find her very inspiring, and what a great voice (video).

(note the note-book corners captured when the image was scanned)

I also began work in earnest on the Pepe photo / book project. This is something I’ve talked about for two long. Something that everyone says “ah yeah that would be great!” when they hear about it. And I say, “yeah, I’ll do it sometime”. I’m going to treat it as an experimental project, utilising all the online and offline tools I use all the time anyway (social networking sites / blogging platforms / photo sites / iPhone 3GS / MacBook Pro / Adobe Lightroom etc) I was looking at the cost of printing earlier today, and it’s pretty affordable now.

Also, this will be a bilingual project, meaning that I have another reason to use my Japanese. I hesitate to use Japanese on Twitter etc at the moment, as I’m aware that most people who subscribe are not able to read Japanese. However, the Pepe sites will be bilingual from the start. And of course being a penguin, Japanese is not his native language = mistakes make it more realistic.

I’ll announce the links etc when they’re all set up.

Speaking of Japanese, it was quite funny when I was editing the interview with Jeffrey Rowe for Making it in Japan. In that Jeffrey was asking me about learning Japanese, and I was talking about how much of a difference it made …and by the time I’d finished editing I’d re-sworn to study on a regular basis (I’ve since started using my iPhone flash cards again)! Wow! I really am a motivational speaker!

The week ahead looks interesting. Tomorrow I’m doing my regular voluntary work at the city hall – then meeting an old course-mate who’s just arrived in Japan. After that I’m meeting a chap from Australia who I’ll be helping out for an interesting little video project on Wednesday… more on that in due course. Then it’s back to Tokyo 2.0 for what sounds like will be a very interesting talk by futurist, blogger, digerati, writer, speaker and advisor Gerd Leonard. Thursday it’s my Japanese class time, Friday I may be interviewing the founder of one of Tokyo’s most well-respected media production companies, whom I personally am a big fan of.

Overall, things are progressing well. The one thing I’d like to change over which I feel I have little control is the workload in my day job. It’s set to become pretty stupid come the autumn when our main season starts. I guess I just have to remember that I can only do what I can do. It is not to take over.

Anyway, I’d best sleep.

oyasumi xxx

P.s. Music really is a wonderful thing.

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Here’s a little promo video using some random footage from the day we recorded it:

The editing process has been quite epic in it’s dramaticness. But overall, making this has been a lot of fun.

Remember – it aint over till the fat rooster calls. Although in this episode I cut off the end of the rooster’s call!

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This is my favourite building in Tokyo at the moment. It’s the IMode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, winner of the prestigious ‘Skyscraper of the Year Award 2008′. I wonder if it attended the awards ceremony or just sent a video message explaining it was a bit tied up that night.

On Saturday George and I recorded episode 9 of Japan Podshow on the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building – from there we had a great view of the cocoon – and the reflection of another skyscraper in it’s multi-story eye near the top.

I liked that.

Today’s been quite a productive day. Following my voluntary work updating a section of the local city hall English website this morning, I returned home and set about editing the podcast. I’m quite happy with it.

At 5pm I went to meet Kat McDowell whose first album is out on the 28th August. The interview (for Japan Podshow) was recorded at Sony Music, and she was accompanied by her management team of 3. It was a little intimidating, as they all sat across from me like an interview panel might – could I please explain what the podcast was and why I wanted to interview Kat?

I thought afterwards just how grateful I am that I put all that effort into learning Japanese. Had I not been able to explain myself, I feel it all would have been extremely awkward, and I would have felt like a right idiot. But as it was, it was cool. I could do it almost without thinking. (Although I realised afterwards that during a quick conversation about American Idol I inadvertently referred to her management team as ‘things’ instead of people!)

Kat, incidentally, is incredibly talented, and I reckon her album will be a big success when it’s out (I’ve had it on repeat play). We’ll be doing a Japan Podshow special on her.

Anyways, the next stage of production awaits – best get on.

Joseph

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I’ve been enjoying drawing lately. It started out when I tried to create some original art to illustrate episodes of Japan Podshow. As the series has progressed so I’ve spent a little more time on the pictures. It was inevitable in a way that I would find myself drawing elephants again – something I’ve done for many years when doodling.

I’m now in the process of creating a whole series of pictures which may or may not then have little messages added in Japanese and English, before being printed as postcards. Most of the drawing takes place on the Hibiya Subway line – my creative space. This means it doesn’t eat into the time I need for podcasting, allowing me to do it without stress.

Also, later today I’l be going out with Pepe and my friend / Japanese teacher / ideas guru @naminamy. We’ll be taking photos with Pepe for a book that I’m going to publish. Whether this means self-publishing or pro-publishing, at this stage I don’t know.

I’m also working on a more ‘professional’ podcast aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs / artists etc in Japan. The website’s nearly complete, and I hope to launch in the next few days. Initially, it’ll just feature the interviews I record for Japan Podshow (without all the bumph). It’ll be interesting to see where it heads.

One thing I’m enjoying is seeing that a lot of what I read in literature on achieving dreams is ‘correct’. Life has a truly uncanny way of working out for the best. It’s just a case of making a decision, acting on that decision, and having faith that those actions will lead to the goal (which of course may be somewhat different from that initially outlined). Whilst all these elements are vital, if I was to write a ‘keys to success’ book it would only contain two words:

“Just act”.

Books such as The Secret are all very well and good, and I agree that it’s important to align thinking with desired outcome, but at the end of the day, the single biggest factor that will determine if you reach a goal is whether you act on your ideas.

(Wow Joseph. What groundbreaking stuff!!!)

I have to laugh at myself for having put up all these imaginary barriers that ‘prevented’ me from doing what I wanted to do, whether it was a lack of time / lack of contacts / lack of money. It’s nothing that can’t be changed through action.

Life’s generally pretty cool at the moment. I’ve applied for a renewal of my spouse visa, which should be a three-year visa this time. I’m eating banana-and weetabix or banana-and-muesli milkshakes most mornings – it’s incredible how much easier 5 bananas slip down when drunk as opposed to being eaten. We’ve entered two teams for the next ekiden (relay race) in November, and Tom and I have submitted our entries for the Tokyo Marathon – being oversubscribed we get put into a lottery for places (result October).

Work is going OK. Now I know the basics of most things I’m not having such a hard time. I’m extremely busy most days, which is a good thing (no overtime so I just do what I do).

I grew a magic bean this week. It really was magic. This is what happened in 4 days.

With so much to do for the podcast I don’t have a social life as such, but that’s OK for now. I do of course meet people in the process of gathering material, and am always making new contacts.

Anyway, I’m feeling quite hungry now. Time for breakkie, then editing – we recorded episode 9 at the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building this week. It was a lot of fun but there’s a fair bit of material to wade through!

TTFN.

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But first, lets go back to Tuesday 5am when south eastern Japan was struck by a quake that registered 6.9 on the Japanese scale. It was the first one I’d experienced since moving to our 30 year old house in Meguro, and boy did it freak me out. In order to survive tremors, Japanese houses are designed to be flexible – rather than try and resist the movement, they go with the flow – thus walls will sway, glass-doors will bang against each other and bookshelves will attempt to walk across the floor (unless you tether them to window frames as we’ve done).

Old Houses like to swing

Until now I’ve nearly always lived in modern concrete apartments, which whilst flexible, are pretty quiet when dancing to the waves. It’s pretty surreal seeing concrete walls flex.

When quakes strike this place however, it sounds like a chorus of old wheelbarrows playing along to a symphony of barn doors – the creaking and rattling are loud enough to convince you that the place really is about to fall down, even if the quake is only a relatively minor one – such as this week’s – which whilst a 6.9 at the epicenter a couple of hundred miles from Tokyo, was only a 4 on the Japanese earthquake scale here in Tokyo.

In a major quake, Twitter will be the death of me

Rather worryingly, looking back at what I chose to do during this earthquake made me realize that technology may well be the death of me, as whilst *Twinkle* was hurridly getting dressed ready to run for the door, I was desperately trying to be the first one to get news of the quake out on Twitter and the other social networks, whilst simultaneously trying to judge if the house was going to fall down.

(At least if I were to be trapped in the house due to twitter activity I’d be able to tweet my location using the iPhone’s GPS function, complete with a video showing what it’s like to be stuck under a pile of rubble. Being a regular user of the Tokyo Metro, I have plenty of practice of using my iPhone in places where the only movement one can make is a twitch of the thumb).

Getting information on earthquakes in Japan: the Met office’s early-warning system

Following that, heart pounding but brain still asleep, I desperately stabbed at the keyboard trying to remember the web address of Japan’s meteorological office that provides reports on earthquakes. This website will be the first to be updated whenever there’s an earthquake in japan – typically about 1-2 minutes after a quake strikes, thus it’s a good one to bookmark and add to your iPhone’s home screen.

A few moments later the quake ended, and as I scanned through the live updates of other Twitter users in Japan, so my eye was caught by one written by @genkiu:

“My Cellphone just gave me a Red Alert before the quake. That is soooo cool.”

What? You have to be kidding me!

Well, it turns out that Japan’s early-warning earthquake system, which began operation a couple of years ago, now not only automatically sends alerts to train lines and elevators, but also to cellphones on the NTT DoCoMo and AU networks in the affected area.

How the early-warning system works

First installed in 2006 for government and industry, and then expanded to include the general public in 2007, Japan’s early warning system is one of the most advanced in the world. The principles of the system are pretty simple.

Earthquakes produce two waves: the first is the faster ‘P’ wave which is relatively non-destructive due to its relative lack of shakiness (technical term that).
The second is a slower ‘S’ (Secondary) wave – this typically moves at about 60% of the speed of the first, and is highly destructive.

The Early Warning System basically works by detecting that faster P wave, calculating the intensity and epicentre location using data from multiple monitoring stations, and then automatically sends a warning to the network used by end subscribers (such as nuclear power plant operators and cellphone companies).

Of course, the closer you are to the epicentre, the less warning you’ll have.

How to get warnings of incoming earthquakes on your cellphone

Here’s links to instructions for the different cellphone networks (Japanese)

• General info on the cellphone warning system
• NTT DoCoMo’s AreaMail
• AU Jishin Sokuho
• Softbank Area Service – currently only enabled on 831N handsets, full support coming in Autumn 2009

Switching this function on is easy – its just a matter of selecting it on your handset menu – as I did with *Twinkle’s* (in the Cmail menu, 4th option).

A few seconds before a quake strikes, you’ll be alerted by your phone making the sound of a claxon and a text message providing basic information on the strength and location of the quake. This will give you time to crawl under a table or dive to the other side of the room to catch your TV.

iPhone users

If you’re an iPhone user, whilst we can’t yet get early warnings from Softbank, there’s a very cool app that does give you all the vital details within minutes of it occurring. It’s called “今日の地震+” (Kyou no jishin + / Today’s Earthquakes+), and once installed, this free app will automatically push the details to your iPhone like an SMS, typically within a few minutes of it occuring. Note that at the moment the push service is over-subscribed, but they are enabling it for 1000 more users every day.

Early-warning-equipped homes

Speaking to my Japanese teacher @namynami, I heard an even more incredible story of the early warning system in action. A friend of hers has recently moved into a new apartment block, which is equipped with the early-warning system. This week, they were woken by a pre-recorded announcement warning of the quake no less than 24 seconds prior to it hitting – ample time to get on twitter and warn the world before the internet connection is severed by a building collapse.

It should be noted that this amount of pre-warning was only possible as they were situated a fair distance from the epicentre (the epicentre was to the west of the Izu Peninsula, they live in Chiba), but nonetheless, very groovy.

Early-warning equipped elevators

As mentioned above, new elevators also use this system. Until now, they’ve had to make do with standard motion sensors. Located at the bottom of lift shafts, when a quake strikes they automatically apply the brakes. However, more recent elevators have a second sensor mounted at the top of the shaft, which is connected wirelessly to the early warning system. Upon receiving notification of the incoming quake, the lift will stop and wait. Then, when the shaking’s come and gone, the elevator will slowly move to the nearest exit and open the doors.

Neat.

All gas metres in Japan must by law have motion sensors so as to switch off when a quake strikes. It would only make sense to add a remote trigger operated by the gas company via the government’s early warning system (perhaps this is already being done?).

Anti-earthquake buildings

There are many techniques used to earthquake -proof buildings.

For example, Yokohama’s Landmark Tower, the country’s tallest building at present, was built using a special structure similar to that used in the construction of traditional Pagodas (none of which have been felled by the many earthquakes that have hit Japan over the past few hundred years).

There’s also of course houses built on ball bearings (not unlike the one that fell down in this video), those with balls suspended at the tope of them (see the one in Taipei 101 in action) and more recently floating buildings.

One can see though that this really is only the beginning. As the early-warning system learns so the alerts should become more accurate, and of course we’ll see all phone operators signed up to provide warnings. Additionally, wireless technology will continue to develop, allowing more devices to easily receive warnings.

Early-warning equipped Shoes

But it also won’t be long before we start to see alert-equipped shoes. Upon receiving the report wirelessly from Japan’s Met office, they will deploy these miniature wheels and drive you out of the building you’re in to the nearest open space. Don’t believe me? See the picture.

Early-warning equipped coasters for T-Pots

One of my worst earthquake fears is that our Laura Ashley T-pot will fall off the top shelf and smash to ground when the big one strikes. However, early-warning anti-smash pad prototypes for things like T-Pots and glasses are now being developed. Ordinarily, they’ll just be like miniature coasters stuck to the bottom of your best china, but when the wireless alert is received, a tiny suction capsule will be triggered, locking the T-pot to the surface it’s standing on.

Early-warning equipped Sushi

Additionally, new conveyor belt sushi restaurants are being equipped with emergency-breaking systems, and the chairs of Japan’s workaholic salarymen now often come with hydraulic seats that flip them under their desks, along with their computers.

Cigarette vending machines become life savers

Japan Tobacco is constantly looking for ways to improve its image, whether by teaching us what is make-up we don’t want to see or by sponsoring a volleyball team.

They are now planning to turn their network of 45,000 cigarette vending machines into emergency shelters*. When a quake strikes, the vending machine will open, allowing small children to step inside and be protected from falling buildings. Cynics point out though that this is just another attempt to recruit smokers, as the meals provided inside the vending machine (enough for up to three days) are laced with nicotine, and when one’s finished eating a recorded message comes on saying “Time for an after dinner cigarette perhaps?”, presenting a free box.

Well, whatever their motives, I think these innovative uses of technology to make our lives safer are very welcome. No doubt we’ll see great leaps forward in earthquake countermeasures, so when the big one does finally strike we should fare better than they did in 1923.

* This is not true

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We’ll start with my most recent contribution, talking about the Uchimizu performance that went on last weekend in Akiba (to play it without leaving this page see the little grey player below)

Uchimizu in Akiba 3.5mb MP3

Next up, my summary of the Mt Fuji hike which went out last week.

I’m enjoying creating these. I like the time limit, and the necessity for a script. I feel it’s good practice.

Catching up on a backlog of minor editing / blogging jobs this evening. It’s neverending!

TTFN

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