Another short video post. This time, lets ride the Yurikamome 8-bit style! Enjoy!

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It’s snowing in Tokyo, so what better way to spend it than bring you all with me on a trip to McDonalds for breakfast. In this episode, I tough it out through the muck and power-line slush bombs to chat about Japanese people and alcohol consumption. This episode is not very organized but there’s plenty to listen to and some music mixed in as well. Enjoy.

Show Notes

• Part One
• It’s snowing
• The guy who drank too much last night
• Yakiniku 食べ放題、飲み放題
• Japanese paramedics
• Intermission
• “Fixing My Brain” by Gillies (from CCMixter.org)
• Ordering breakfast at McDonalds
• “Colors Shifting” by Electric West (from CCMixter.org)
• Part Two
• Throwup girl in the train station
• San Nakji’s interview series, I’m next
• Phone call
• Bought some Dekavita
• 

Listen Now:

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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.

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Probably the fast episode I have ever put together, but a good one at that. I’ve got two main chunks of goodness in this episode. First, I talk a little about the CEO at my company and how I see Japanese companies changing. Second, we go on a sound tour of arcades in Ikebukuro looking for Guitar Hero. Will we find it? Listen in.

Show Notes:

• Working full time
• CEO Story
• Ikebukuro Arcade “Sound Tour”

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A little different approach today. I take a stab at story telling and answer a letter from my future self. It finally came today!

Show Notes:

• School’s out! Well almost
• Answering a letter to my future self
• The Overcoat
• Dan Carlin’s website
• WNYC Radio Lab website
• Brief comment about the awards thing

Listen Now:

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I was just looking at some Google stats and log stats from my hosting company yesterday and wanted to share with you all how great this year has been for Finding Japan. This has been the most successful online project I’ve ever worked on. Even if I haven’t formally defined success criteria, it sure feels like it.
Finding Japan 2007 Statistics

• 13,163 visits (6,107 unique) from 1,556 cities in 97 countries on 6 continents
• 16% of visitors were from Japan
• 20% of visitors use do not use English as their primary language for their browser
• Over 400 GB of data was transferred to you all
• The pre-episode from Feb 22nd was the most downloaded podcast episode
• Tokyo Calling had the most referrals of any other personal site

Thanks again for a wonderful year and I look forward to even more fun this year. Best to you all.

This is for all of you who have had trouble downloading the latest episode. I put a link in the blog post itself as well, which I think confused Feedburner. So because of that, here’s a quick repost. If you’ve already downloaded, I apologize but I wanted to make sure the people who were having trouble are able to get it.

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I just wanted to make the readers of this blog aware of the explosion of Japanese McDonalds commercial remixes available on YouTube. Sometimes its best not to ask.

RAN RAN RUUUU!!!

And just in case that made you hungry, here’s the MegaMac that’s back again! There goes the heart.

Perhaps I should have accepted an award for the worst haircut-cast ever. At any rate, we’ve got two topics for you this time around. A bit about the award discussion from the previous blog post but even more from the center of cheap haircuts in Japan, QB House.

Show Notes:

• Leopard upgrade completed
• Throat hurts - getting a cold?
• Great discussion on the site, thanks!
• Award Discussion
• Make sure you check out JapanPodcasters.com
• Brief listing of some of the podcasts there
• We need to resurrect the Kobe Beef show
• Haircut at QB House
• 
• QB House Website
• Haircut costs only 1000円, how can you lose!
• Prior art: Rich Pav’s Hair Cut Cast from May 2005
• Notes about audio
• Television sounding thing - radio
• Fascination with vacuuming my head
• A little weather and language discussion
• The entire audio clip available here: QB House Full

Listen Now:

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I came back to Japan to learn that Finding Japan has won the 2008 Japan Podcasters’ Exploration Award. I am both pleased and surprised. Even just to be associated with some of the other winners and podcasts listed in this directory is an honor.

When I started this podcast, I really didn’t think much in terms of trying to win awards or to gain any press. In fact, I can’t remember any promotion that I have done outside of this site itself and registering it in the iTunes directory.

Truly, I’m satisfied if only one person learns something new about Japan and even more so if people can add to my own impressions and thoughts. It is the friends I have met and the people I have had the opportunity to interact with that has made this much more than a singular experience.

So thanks to all of you and I share this award with all of the listeners who have contributed comments and feedback. I hope to make 2008 just as fun and hopefully share even more about finding Japan. Thanks.

Also, if you are not familiar with JapanPodcasters.com you should check it out, especially if you are interested in other Japanese podcasts. There is also a review of Finding Japan available. ^_^