See, the great thing about only having work now is that I have time to do stuff like this. This video is from the Osaka Aquarium, one of the largest in the world according to their website. In this clip, we get a good view of the main tank for a few moments while I rested amidst the gaggles of children.

Short video clip from the Tokyo Game Show. I only had my cell phone on me that day so I was only able to get some small video. No narration or commentary, just some sights from the show. Hope you enjoy!

Man and beast collide… well not really. But we did get to hang out with some deer. Enjoy the sites of us interacting with some deer on the island of Miyajima during our vacation in this quick 3 minute video, complete with mellow music for your deer-viewing enjoyment.

Notice he goes right for the star in that photo!

Unfortunately, we haven’t seen Mr. Yaki Imo in a while so we’re not quite sure if we will ever get to eat one. But if he comes back, rest assured I will be the first one on my block waiting for that sweet delicious treat. Enjoy!

Oh, and here are the lyrics to the song. Let’s all sing along.

焼き芋〜〜、焼き芋〜〜〜、石焼〜〜〜〜〜〜き芋〜〜〜、焼き芋〜〜〜

yakimo~~, yakiimo~~~, ishi ya~~~~kiimo~~~~~, yakiimo~~~~

roasted potato, roasted potato, stone roasted potato, roasted potato

This is a short slideshow of some sights and sounds captured in Asakusa during the Tanabata festival. The history and meaning behind the Tanabata festival is quite romantic and really quite interesting. Check out some more info here on Wikipedia.

Enjoy the mellow music and shades of blue as I walk you through Asakusa to Ueno taking in the sights and sounds of the festival. This is a larger frame size file but the download should be very short, only about 4MB or so. Make sure you download and view it. Viewing it here on the website will not let it display in its full size.
If you like this format, please let me know. I would love to get some feedback on it. This type of video podcast is very fun to put together and doesn’t take much time. I’m using what I’ve learned from Stuart Isset’s piece I featured back in April.

Video killed the podcast star. Well, I’m certainly no star, so I guess I have nothing to worry about.

Today’s episode comes in video form. This little gem has been on my hard drive for over 2 months! Finally time to get it out as I rev up for some more audio goodness. In this episode, you can watch me play Sega Initial-D, my favorite arcade game at the moment. Why is it my favorite? Well because I have a little Initial-D IC card license that allows me to save my progress. So it’s much more satisfying to know that my 100円 coins are going to a pointless accomplishment that can be tracked, rather than just a pointless activity.

Caution, this is poorly edited and for video game nerds only. Editing my camera phone footage doesn’t exactly jive with Final Cut Pro at the moment. But do check out the vibration effect from the camera phone. It’s like you’re really there playing the game with me! (^_^)

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

Alternate video link (Google Video)

Original photo here (used via CC license)

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

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.

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)

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)

(Sorry for the late posting, was on the run to my first day of work this morning!) ^_^

Yes yes, another video episode. I have finally nailed down my video episode creation workflow so this isn’t all that time-consuming to put together anymore. Hopefully I will have time to do more in the future, however with work starting I have a feeling we’ll be getting quite a few more commute-casts in the near future. Anyway, onto the video…

This video contains some various clips of Sakura blossoms I have taken over the past week. Tokyo has had a fairly long (at least from my perspective) cherry blossom viewing season. I believe it peaked early last week, but even this weekend there was some cherry blossoms still out for the viewing. Some of these clips were taken as late as last Friday, when I did the podcast from the park.

As a bonus, I’ve also put in Alex trying a little bit of we dubbed “juice-box sake” (photo above). These are available in almost all convenience stores. I haven’t had any sort of liquid in this type of container since I was a child and I had them put in my lunch box. Drinking sake out of these was quite a weird trip back in time. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. Cheers!

Alternative video link (Google Video)

I’m constantly posting from the past it seems. This weekend was busy with hanami activities (and subsequent recovery). I will be posting some video and audio from that as well. However, as promised, here is the Meiji-jingu video from last week.

I shot most of this footage from that day. Meiji-jingu is my favorite place to visit when I need some peace and quiet. Right in the heart of Yoyogi park, it never ceases to have a calming and quieting effect on me. Enjoy!

Alternative video link (Google Video)

Show Notes:

• Finding an Apartment
• Google Earth
• Familiarity
• Location Awareness
• Wards of Tokyo
• Public Transit
• Needed Places
• Translation
• Searching in English / Japanese
• Rikaichan
• Tricks
• Getting Started
• Apartment Links
• Google Overlay Links
• Music Credits:
• Melissa Welch - Sleep-wake [cam076] Camomille Music CC License

My first impressions of Amsterdam where a bit unnerving. Just the rawness of the city can be a little unsettling. Being an American in Europe doesn’t put me completely at ease given recent events in the world. In addition, Europe in general seems to have a lack of explicit safety precautions. The trams and bikes will run you over if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is your own responsibility as a human to keep yourself alive. If you get crushed, your fault. I somewhat like that. Europe seems to enact a sort of species selection this way - evolution in action.

New Years Eve in Dam Square was incredible. (see video). I’ve experienced the human cattle herding of New York City’s Times Square event and, unlike this event, Amsterdam is completely different. Dam Square is blocked off from traffic and pedestrian traffic is completely unrestricted. You can drink, shoot off fireworks, or just generally cruise around the entire area. People are shooting off fireworks nearly constantly for the 24 preceeding hours up to the countdown. At the countdown, this amount nearly quadruples into explosions of light directly above your head.

After checking out most of the museums, taking a canal tour, and eating way more than I should have we finished our touring of the city after nearly 6 complete days. Though I think that such an extended period of time in this city is a bit overkill, I enjoyed every minute of it and had a great time. Photos are available here.

Bottom line: Amsterdam for the New Year, highly recommended. Enjoy the brief video.

Are you confused?

So first there was the news that Justin Long was no longer making Apple commercials. Next, I had discovered that there were equally compelling commercials using the same schtick for Japan. Following this, I posted some borish comments on the topic. Then, I read another article today claiming that the long-man himself is denying it. Whatever, I’m so confused, and yet I don’t care. I still like the Japanese commercials better.

But in all this, I couldn’t help but wonder, what if this guy were in the Japanese commercials. Would he be confused? Would he brush it off? Would he try to talk to the hot Japanese camera girl again?

So to add to the confusion, here is a little ditty done I did with Final Cut Pro while taking a study break, just for each and every one of you. Enjoy.

From: Saturday, November 19th: I think I had mentioned before that I had accidentally deleted the backup footage from my trip. I gave it the old college try and even looked for the footage on various hard drives. Please accept this slideshow as a proper substitute and just pretend the objects and people in the photos are moving.

This post contains sights from around Ginza and Shimbashi on our last night in Tokyo and will also be the very last video edition of this particular trip. If you missed any of the prior espisodes, you can still catch them here. I will start to post more current videos next week. (^.^) またね！

From Thursday, November 17th: Day six of my Japan trip was spent wandering around the underground malls of Osaka. When we finally popped our heads up for air, we realized we were fairly close the Osaka Aquarium. Let’s head on over.

I present to you, “Today’s Zen Moment” with a dozen or so photos of the critters inside the aquarium, and not always just the fish. More photos here.

From Wednesday, November 16th, 2005: This is day 5 of my November trip to Japan. This morning, we were awoken by a ringing of a bell at 5:30am. We shuffled off to the services area and sat quietly while the monks performed their morning prayers. It was cold, peaceful, and humbling.

The remainder of the day was spent walking through the stone paths of Koyasan and checking out the old buildings. We ended the day by traveling back to Osaka, which I will post pictures of later.

From Tuesday, November 15th, 2005: The Ryokan room, and the Yukatta Battle between Fred and Chris. Do not miss this episode. I had to break the arrival at Shojoshin-in into a separate video feed. We basically got into the room and spent the whole day just chilling out. We were both pretty beat after the day of traveling and battling Kung-fu style!

From Tuesday, November 15th, 2005: On our way to Koyasan to visit some monks and keep in a traditional Japanese Ryokan. The entire day was spent traveling to Koyasan. First, JR Loop line from Shinjuku to Tokyo Station. Bullet train to Shin-Osaka. Loop line to Shin-Imamiya. Nankai Koya Line to Gokurakubashi. Cable car to Koyasan. Bus to Ryokan. Fun!

From Monday, November 14th, 2005: Welcome to Day 3 of the Japan Trip. Our first real big day of formal sight-seeing. I was finally feeling back to normal after recovering from the jet lag and the nice cold I caught. We managed to figure out the trains well enough to make it to the Imperial Palace, the Meiji Shrine, and meet up with our friend Saya-san in Shimbashi in the evening. Unfortunately, I didn’t take too much video except on the trains themselves. There’s a quick bit about navigating the trains and what you see inside of them but that’s about all. The rest is pictures that you can also see in Flickr.

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

From Sunday, November 13th, 2005: Lots to see and lots to do in grand ol’ Tokyo. This day, we started it off right by visiting the Shinjuku Center, Sumitomo, and NS buildings for some high flying sight seeing. It was pretty amazing to be able to see metro spread for so far. We walked from downtown Shinjuku through Yoyogi, discovering vending machines, weird looking buildings, video games and pachinko parlors, and finally found the Sapporo beer museum in Ebisu.

We finished off the night by sitting in downtown Shinjuku totally wiped out and still not over our jetlag. It was somewhat surreal towards the end of the night and hence the weird music. I think it really captures the theme even though I totally ripped it off from “Lost in Translation”. Enjoy!

From Saturday, November 12th, 2005: We arrived in Tokyo on Saturday November 12th, completely exhausted and tired from the 2 hour connecting flights, the 14 hour flight to Narita, the 1 hour long train ride to Shinjuku from Narita Airport, and the 1 hour jaunt to find our hotel. Needless to say, getting to Shinjuku is a multi-stage journey.

Upon arrival, it was a bit overwhelming, but really exciting. After the final leg of the journey, I was feeling a bit punchy. My only regret … I wish I took more video footage so this first installment is a little thin. Hope you enjoy!