This is a nice song by an interesting Japanese trio that I’m going to check out. But the video is simply fantastic in its creativity and vision. A true product of the interactive networks we inhabit.

Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath

A hypnotic and seductive look at the vastness of Tokyo.

I spent a total of nearly two years in Japan, living in Nagoya and Tokyo while I was a student in 2002-3 and then again in Kakogawa, Hyogo prefecture as a JET in 2004-05. Of course, the cell phone technology there is light years ahead of what we get in the US, and at the time, cameras were all the rage. The following collage is from that first year. Those of you who have followed What-What from its humble beginnings as first a mass email and then a website built with Frontpage may recognize it as the background image from that original site.

For the full resolution image (1150×1542), click here.

If you’ve come to Hungary as a traveler or as an expatriate, you could probably chalk up some of your impetus to “wanting to see the world.” Meeting the local peoples, sampling local cuisine – these are the things that we revel in. The jet-set hops from place to place by plane, students take the slow route by train, poets hop freights or hitchhike, and those on a mission might ride in a plastic car.

Keiichi Iwasaki, however, is doing something else entirely. He’s going around the world – by bicycle. Currently 6 years and more than 30,000km into an estimated 10-year trek, this air conditioning repairman left his native Gunma-ken, Japanin 2001 with 160 yen (USD 1.25 / HUF 235) in his pocket and a vague notion to yes, see the world. Since then he’s traveled through more than 25 countries and reached unimaginable highs and lows.

Read the rest of this entry »

*Title (and video) stolen from JapanProbe.

Ever wanted to know what it’s like to be the main attraction in one of those conveyor-belt sushi joints in Japan? Well this is it:

Another video link, equally worth your pleasurably-wasted time. It’s a 13 minute series of videos of AMAZING Rube Goldberg-type contraptions dreamed up by those wily Japanese.

I originally saw a shorter version at TokyoMango, and from there was lead to the video below, which contains additional footage. At the start and end of each segment they say “Pitagora suitchi”, which is the Japanese pronunciation of Pythagora Switch, apparently the name of a preschool-aged children’s show on Japanese National Television station, NHK. At one point there is a bit of singing, and the “words” are enunciations of either the sounds the ball is making, or the motions it is making.

お久しぶりです！お元気ですか。長い間手紙を書かなくてほんとにごめんなさい。生活が忙しく、練習時間がないのに日本語がとても下手になってしまいました。ハンガリーで一年と六ヶ月を過ごしました。秋の涼しいお天気は長かったけど、今のお天気はとても寒くて空がグレーばっかりです。雪はまだ降っていません。

今までの生活は浮き沈みでした。九ヶ月ぐらい仕事が見つけにくかったんです。でも、たくさんのアルバイトをして、とても面白かったです。最初から英語を教えることはしないと決めました。なぜなら、新しい経験がほしかったからです。最初の仕事はビジネスの雑誌で写真家でした。ビジネスのセミナーや高いビルの写真をとって、けっこうつまらなかったです。次は日本人の幼稚園で先生になりました。その幼稚園のウェブサイトも作りました：http://www.nakayoshi.hu/.　一回、日本の靴の会社がハンガリーでCMを作ったことがあって、私は日本語·英語の翻訳者でした。すごく寒い夜に２０時間ぐらい性格が強い二人の監督の真中で働きました！その後、他のビジネス新聞で、コピーエディターをしたり、個人英会話したり、インターネットのCMを作ったりしました。

Read the rest of this entry »