Hello everybody, today is your weather report from 作文 (sakubun) hell. Its October, but its still hot hot hot. I really haven’t had time to podcast lately, but I won’t make any excuses. I’ll just have to wait until I get some time to lay down some meaningful tracks.

In the meantime, I figured I’d share a little bit of my essay that I’m writing for my class. Since I compose on the computer and then transcribe to practice writing, I find this approach has the added benefit of allowing me to share it quickly with those who might be interested. Just a quick comparison with my last 作文 post and I can see that enough though I’ve come quite far, I still have so far to go.

So here it is with warts and all. I will be correcting it later this week. Mangled Japanese, 1, 2, 3 …. イコウ！!

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This picture was taken during the matsuri Alex and I participated in earlier this year. Much like how this little one feels, that’s how I feel today. The weather is finally starting to cool down and although the work is picking up, the spirits are not getting down.

I went up to Asakusa today to head on over to Starbucks for some studying, had an excellent conversation with the folks who try to get money out of tourists for donating to earthquake victims, and am now enjoying getting my life a little organized here at home. The windows are open and there is a nice cool breeze. Do I need any other reason to post to the blog.

Apparently not. Enjoy the pic!

Alex and I do a quick drink review, I reflect on my life for a hot second, and I attempt to talk about Japanese schoolboys but don’t quite get to it. Banging out the podcasts in less than an hour now, get this episode while its fresh!

Show Notes

• Genki Intro
• Audio Clip from Monday night
• New School Schedule and feeling mellow on a Monday evening
• Nice to see Tokyo skyline at night again
• Since Monday
• Stressing out
• What does one want to do with their life?
• “Reading” David Whyte’s - The Heart Aroused
• Celebrating a difficult week complete with a Shirokirin Beer
• Drink Review
• 2 SA’s - Calpis Fizz Light Style
• 1/2 SA - Nikka, Natural Mizuwari
• Trying to do math while drinking whiskey
• NEWSFLASH: Convenience stores in Japan are the first place new drinks are released!
• Check out Way of the Grape
• Next topic will have to wait

Listen Now:

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Scott Lockman’s latest episode beat me to the punch on the sumo update, but his update on sumo was much more informative than mine so go check it out. If you want audio from sumo, you can get that in this next episode. Recorded right after I was able to get my cord fixed last week, I touch upon sumo and a few other topics. Enjoy!

Show Notes:

• More about my power cord
• AppleCare rules!
• Homelessness in Japan
• The guy under the bridge
• The guy who asked me for “hungry”
• The guys who live in Internet cafe’s
• Only in Japan - strangest vending machine to date
• Sumo Wrestling
• Audio clip
• Zombie cleaning crew
• Audio clip

Listen Now:

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I’m sure most of you who are tuned in to Japanese issues heard about the Japanese journalist killed in Myanmar last week. For those who want more information, you can head on over to Japanprobe.com, a good source of information for things Japanese both cultural and political.

Be warned, there is footage of the actual shooting as well as the sad aftermath two minutes later as Nagai-san lay helpless in the streets of Rangoon.

My thoughts certainly go out to those in Burma fighting for freedom and I hope that those who have lost their lives find comfort in the days too come.

Link to story

On my way to Akiba (Akihabara), I speak on a few topics after discovering a huge fire hazard in my apartment. Find out more by listening below.

Show Notes:

• Walking to Akihabara
• Crazy thing with my power adapter
• A little gear-talk
• School starts on October 1st for me - skipping a level, suicide?
• Politics
• Too much politics research
• Waiting for Scott’s “What’s Up America”
• Being away from home and how it affects your views
• Darth Vader
• Looking like him
• Dream I had about him when I was a kid
• Tattoos in Japan
• More insights on work
• Emergency rescue kit bag
• Sleepy time
• Power using MS Excel
• My rant about “Lifehacking”
• The podcaster biorhythm
• Follow-up story

Listen Now:

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Seems like this turned out to be the review episode. A Kanji dictionary, a great g4 video podcast to share, and some podcasting software review action. Is this podcast really about Japan?! And why do I mention sheep being on the radio? Find out if you listen here. Let’s go!

Show Notes:

• Intro
• Getting motivated to bring out some more content
• Review of Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten DS Dictionary
• Who should get it
• Where you can get it
• Play Asia
• Features
• G4 Code Monkeys
• Great clip from a great online show
• iTunes RSS Feed here
• Other G4 podcasts
• Review of Ubercaster
• Podcasting tool
• Great functionality
• Poor performance in editing
• Update: Turning off waveforms really helps though
• Update: Ubercaster is now available for a discount, see the site for details.

Listen Now:

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So I fire up dashboard with my handy Japanese weather widget and I see…

I’ve never seen a RED umbrella before. Should I be worried? Apparently a typhoon is on the way. A co-worker says that the above-ground trains are often stopped when a typhoon comes. Since I take the simply wonderfully sky-high-above-windy-terrain-to-begin-with Yurikamome line every day on my way to work, I’m wondering if tomorrow/Friday might be my first real commuting adventure here in Japan.

Kotaku is reporting that there is an easter egg in Metroid Prime 3 with the voice of Satoru Iwata (President of Nintendo). I understood about 50% of this without the translation. Yay!

Translation according to Kotaku:

Hello, this is Iwata from Nintendo. You may not know from an outsiders point of view, but being a director is really hard! When things are really busy and stressful we (us directors) may look tired and sick, then people may feel sorry for us! But in my case, it’s the opposite, I get fatter and fatter, so then people don’t think I’m stressed at all!

No only if I could understand enough to play entire games in Japanese.