Tamori on Asahi Tv's Music Station

In this video podcast I look at two ways to watch Japanese TV online.

The first is a free service called Keyhole TV and the second is a paid service called JPTV24.  But which service is best?  There is only one way to find out, so download this podcast and judge the services for yourself.

Keyhole TV is a free service but suffers from low audio and video quality, whilst JPTV24 is a paid service and offers much better quality audio and video streams.

The music played in the background is “Midnight” by norelpref (feat. many) and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Download Watching Japanese TV online

The museum contains 39 full size rolling stock exhibits ranging from a Steam Locomotive to the ultra modern Maglev which is still in an experimental stage.

It is a great day out if you are in Nagoya, and a must see location for railway enthusiasts.

The music in this podcast is “Butta Fly’s Jazz Handz” by KCentric and is freely available from ccmixter.org and licenced under an Attribution Non Commercial Share-a-like 2.5 Generic licence

For more information please visit the official website.

リニア鉄道館 (日本語)

Railway Park (English)

Download the SCMAGLEV Railway Park video

Urban Ladscape - Tokyo

This is another rather experimental audio podcast of various field recordings from Japan.  This might be of interest to anyone planning a trip to Japan, or nostalgic for people who have been to, or lived in Japan in the past.  The urban landscapes you’ll hear were recorded in Tokyo, Kobe, Nagoya and on the Tokaido Shinkansen.

The music played in this podcast is Wataru Lights by MorganTJ and is licensed under a Creative Commons license: sampling+1.0 and Look to La Luna by CDK licensed under a Creative Commons license: sampling+1.0.

Both are freely available from CCMixter.org

The image below is the view from Kobe Port Tower of the harbour area mentioned in this podcast.

View from Kobe Port Tower

Download Urban Landscapes podcast.

Tokyo at night

Tokyo Night Space is an experimental video with slow transitions, mixed images and ambient music.  I’ve often thought views of the Tokyo skyline at night and relaxing ambient music go together quite well.  There are also a number of images of the Tokyo Tower with various types of illumination.

Download Tokyo Night Space video.

The music is Spaces by 3vr3n and available from Musicalley.com.

Yasukuni Garden

Yasukuni is a Shinto shrine in Tokyo dedicated to the souls of Japanese soldiors killed in war. It is somewhat controversial due to the enshrinement of war criminals.

Despite this, there is a beautiful and peaceful Japanese garden within the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine.  The official name of the garden is Shinchi Teien, and is a Meiji era stroll garden with waterfall.  Admission is free, so it certainly worth a visit if your are in the area and a fan of Japanese gardens.

Download Yasukuni Garden video

Music: Naoki-Peaceful River from Music Alley

Mori Tower from Tokyo Tower

Every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night there is a live music event in the main observatory of Tokyo Tower.  You can enjoy spectacular night time views of Tokyo accompanied with suitable live music.  This audio was recorded Wednesday 22nd September 2010 on a recent trip to Japan and features an instrumental band called Benizaru.  Their offical web page is in Japanese only, but they also have a MySpace page in English and Japanese.  If you have plans to visit Tokyo Tower, you may wish to schedule your visit on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and sample the Tokyo sunset and night view together with live music at no extra cost.

I really enjoyed this trip to Tokyo Tower and although the audio quality is not that good, hopefully it gives a sense of the ambience and atmosphere of Tokyo Tower observatory on a live music night.

The music used for the introduction is “Sooner or Later” by Teru and is freely available from ccmixter.org released on the Creative Commons license.

Download Club 333 at Tokyo Tower

Tokyo

“Time Lapse Tokyo” is a rather experimental video.  I used 30-60 second intervals to take pictures of the views from various hotel rooms I stayed in whilst in Tokyo.

The resolution is quite poor in some clips since I used digital zoom to try to highlight the movement of shadows accross the floor.

Might try some more time lapse in the future, and keep the quality of the original images high, so I can add digital zooms etc in post production.  Hope you enjoy this 2 minute 24 second glipse of Tokyo.

Download Tokyo Time Lapse video

Download Tokyo Neon 2 – Ikebukuro

Act City, Hamamatsu

Hamamatsu is a large city in Shizuoka prefecture about half way between Tokyo and Osaka. In this video you can see the downtown area and sakura in Hamamatsu Castle Park.

Download Hamamatsu City and Sakura

Shouden-Ji, Kyoto

Shouden Ji is an Edo period dry stone garden in Kyoto. It is a peaceful place located in the northern hills of Kyoto and well away from other tourist locations.

Download Shouden-Ji video

Download Shinkansen GPS video

Sensou-Ji

Sensou-Ji is a popular tourist location in Asakusa, Tokyo.  Also known as Kannon-Ji, as it is home to a golden statue in the image of Kannon (the goddess of Mercy). This location is popular is locals and tourists alike and the smoke from the incense cauldron offers the promise of good health.

Download Sensou-Ji video

Shinagawa

One of Tokyos biggest hotels is the Shinagawa Prince Hotel with over 3000 rooms. On the 39th floor of the Main Tower is a Lounge Bar and Resaurant with excellent city views.

Download Top Of Shinagawa video

Nanzen-Ji

Nanzen-Ji is the headquarters of the Nanzen-ji branch of Rinzai Zen and it is considered one ot the top 5 zen temples in Kyoto. In this video we’ll visit Nanzen-Ji and a few of the smaller subtemples.

Download Nanzen-Ji video

Download Kyoto Tower video

Yodobashi Camera

Short video clip of Yodobashi Camera Akihabara store, accompanied by the instore Yodobashi promotional jingle.

Download Yodobashi Camera video

Osaka

Dotonbori is one of the main tourist destinations in Osaka. It is a busy shopping and restaurant area with many famous shop fronts and neon signs. Probably the most famous of all is the Glico neon sign.

Download Osaka – Dotonburi video

Zen Gardens

A short video with clips and photos from Kyoto’s most beautiful dry stone gardens (karesansui niwa). Sit back, relax and enjoy this montage of images from Daitoku-ji, Myoshin-ji, Ryoan-ji, Tenryu-ji and Toufuku-ji in Kyoto.

Download Zen Gardens video

Hamarikyu

Hamarikyu was the family garden of the Tokugawa Shogun. The imperial family donated the garden to the city of Toyko in 1945 and became open to the public in April 1946.

Download Hamarikyu video

Bank of Japan

This video is a guided tour around Nihombashi, the financial district in Tokyo. It is a follow up video to the popular Tokyo Stock Exchange mini documentary. Corporate giants Mitsubushi UFJ, Mizuho, Daiwa, Resona, Nomura etc are all featured.

Download Nihombashi video