A audio and video podcast blog about finding our own Japan during our 20s, 30s, and now 40s.
Learning the language.
Excited to have my akogare (we talk about this word) Terri MacMillian on the show.
We talk about her music management experience (Pizzicato Five?!), life in Japan in general, her favorite actor (super cool), and of course we get a touch ornery about Black Lives Matter.
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It’s Finding Japan’s 80th show! Terrance is joined in celebration with his friend and veteran Japan raconteur Todd Rucynski. Todd’s been in Japan for a long time has done everything from the good ol’ gaijin mainstay of teaching English to owning video stores (wuh?) to appearing on Japanese TV. They sat down at his secret office on a secret university campus to talk about what got him to Japan and some adventures since arriving more than 20 years ago. Note: The conversation was pretty long and Todd and Terrance could’ve kept going, so we’re sure there will be more, whether you all want it or not.
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It’s been awhile but we’re excited about this episode. Terrance’s guest is the always hungry, always charismatic Shaka Haynes. Shaka works with Terrance at the world famous fruit shop. More importantly, he’s making moves in the world of entertainment bringing his experience producing and promoting artists to the Japan scene. They talk about how he “found Japan” and his current experiences and future plans. Plus, they take an interesting detour and Shaka makes his case for why Boston is the most American of cities.
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This is a very personal and special episode in which Terrance talks about his experiences in the Japanese slammer. Many of you may know what happened but just to make things clear, the matter is settled, he’s ok, he doesn’t have a record, and technically it was detention, not imprisonment.
Chris Rock has a joke about low expectation boasting. “I ain’t ever been to jail.” “You ain’t supposed to go to jail, you low expectation having…” Sadly, he can no longer laugh at this joke. He’s been to jail and here is the story.
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It’s been awhile but the Godfather of Finding Japan, Chris, is back in the land! Chris and Terrance have teamed up to continue bringing our discoveries and observations of this sometimes mystifying, almost always interesting country. In this episode we get you caught up with what’s been going on with our lives, as well as where we plan on taking the show.
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The co-host on today’s show is the Artistic Mr. Mertens. Craig and Terrance talk about the Oscars, do a bit of a detour into the LGBT situation in Japan and in general, and most importantly pimp his current art exhibition Ladies First.
If you’re in the Osaka area check out Ladies First at Cafe Absinthe:
http://www.absinthe-jp.com/cafe-absinthe/news/578
And pick up Craig’s artistic wares at Society6:
http://society6.com/CraigMertens/Ladies-First-Exhibition-Poster_Print#1=45
P.S. Sorry if the sound levels are a bit high and we hope
we don’t blowout your eardrums – every episode is a learning experience f^_^;
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Another day, another episode. This time it’s a laid back interview over wine and cheese with Brian J. at Freestyle in Shibuya. Brian’s had a few adventures around the world and we talk about how came he from Italy to the US and then to Japan and how music shaped his journey.
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Finally, a long-awaited (probably only by the host himself) interview episode. My inaugural interview guest is Tom Schmid, licensed attorney and linguistic advisor at the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI). Whoof… that’s a mouthful. Still doesn’t change the fact that Tom is an awesome guy and was a great interview. We talked about his crime preventing shenanigans, a bit about lawyering, and of course life in Japan. We were at the Aldegate pub in Shibuya so there’s a bit of background din and I’d set the gain on the mic a bit low but fortunately Tom has a strong voice and comes through clear. At about an hour and ten minutes it’s a bit long but I think you’ll enjoy the talk. I sure did.
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Here we go! Finally another episode of the most inconsistent relaunch in podcast history. But it’s all good as I talk about the documentary Hafu and read a poem to honor Mandela’s passing without properly explaining why I’m reading said poem. It was the poem that gave him strength while he was imprisoned. Takes two seconds to explain and yet somehow I start reading the poem with only a half-assed explanation and melodramatic classical music as BGM.
It’s all good.
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Yes, a new episode of Finding Japan is finally here. It’s a bit rough around the edges and I’m still developing where I want to take the show so bear with me. On this ep I have my good friend David on as co-host and we discuss a variety of things about Japan, mostly in comparison with with his home country Australia.
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