Josh in Japan

well, the wife finally popped the big cork this morning at 0513. being as such, i might not be able to get to reply to your emails and comments in a timely fashion, but don’t worry, i will as soon as we get back home and settled in. thanks for your patience, and thanks for listening!

In episode #9, I read an email from one of my favorite movie characters, from office space.

Bill had some great “out of the box” questions that didn’t focus too much on one particular subject. Join us as we go over some questions that the typical gaijin might have about life in Japan.

Our “Japanese Phrases of the Week” are as follows:

えいご　は　はなせ　ますか？
(ay-go wa ha-na-say-ma-sue-ka) Can you speak english?

て　を　やかすな　よ！
(tay o ya-ka-su-na yo) Dont give me any trouble/crap/shit!

As always, shoot any comments or suggestions for show material to josh|at|joshinjapan|dot|com.

until next time, mata-ne!

Also, I talked about a great flash movie about the kikkoman-man. Thanks to John from Newport News for that one!

well, i joined the navy expecting to avoid hurricane season back home, but instead, i move to a place with a constant seasonal flow of typhoons! at least here no one tapes up their windows to make the neighborhood look like a bum-town….

dan was nice enough to email me this pic of an old style lamune (or ramune) bottle with a glass top instead of a plastic one. next to it is a bottle of ichigo yakult lamune…… which is kinda like strawberry milk, but maybe carbonated…. i dunno, i have never seen yakult lamune….. maybe a carbonated milk drink. i had that idea in high school but everyone thought i was nuts…. now you see my ideas have prospered you fools! hahaha

In episode#8, I discuss the wonderful magic of cell phones in Japan. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know by sending me an email to josh@joshinjapan.com, or leave a comment here on the blog.

This episode is hosted on libsyn this week. If you experience any slow downloads or down times, please let me know, and I will publish the address of the file on my blog servers.

The “Japanese Phrases of the Week” are as follow:

しんじて　いい　(shin-gee-tay ee ee) may i trust you?

つまがいたらきみをあいしちゃいけんあいの (tsu-ma ga ee-tara key-me oh aye-she-cha ee-ken-ah-ee no) i can’t love you if i have a wife

sorry about my pronunciation since I never read these before until i actually read them on the podcast

thanks, and until next time,

mata-ne!

due to overwhelming requests for me to trash the promo I had, I went ahead and did so, and added a new one. i paid good money to matt damon, and this is the crap that gets sent back… what a crock! anyways, i can’t actually post the new promo or it will count as a podcast submission, which it is not, so instead, here is a link to the post from earlier with the PROMO LINK hope you like it a little more than the last one…….

also, something that i wanted to point out…. i discovered a new drink…. it’s soda, so don’t get all excited…. i had never seen it before, but 2 weeks ago at “soreyu no oka” my wife introduced me to LAMUNE. it comes in a glass bottle, and is sealed at the top with a plastic mouthpiece, and a glass marble….

to open it, you remove the seal, and when you take it off, a plastic piece falls out. you put it on the top of the bottle as pictured below, and press down really hard…. that breaks the pressure seal of the glass marble which is holding it closed… fizz sprays everywhere if you’re not careful, and now you have a nice cold beverage…..

it tastes pretty good… it has a little bit of a lemon/lime taste, but not too strong…. it is very well carbonated though so be careful when you open it, especially if you are out in the hot sun, it will spray everywhere…. below you can see the empty bottle with the marble inside…. kids will try their hardest to pop the plastic top to recover the marble, but you definitely need some sort of pry bar or something to get it out…. some kids succeed though, and keep their marbles as souveniers….. kinda like the yoo-hoo commercials from when i was growing up….. you weren’t cool unless you could flick a yoo-hoo top into a fishbowl…..

ok, well that’s it for today, until next time…… mata-ne!

matt damon

yes folks, i am a podcasting whore….. in my adventures to bring more folks in to my wonderful world, I have subscribed with podcasting clicks. The new banner you noticed that is engulfing a majority of the sidebar is a random banner that podcsters can submit links to for their show. this way, people can be introduced to my show through other people’s websites, and vice-versa. pretty cool. so does that make me a podcasting whore, just looking to satisfy more and more listeners for free? ya, ok, i guess it does….

oh, BTW, if you click on the ad, i make a couple cents……

In Episode #7, I talk about all of the different vending machines you may find in the wonderful land of the rising sun.

The audio levels on this episode are very shitty! Please excuse the LOUD intro music. My monitor levels weren’t exactly what I was actually recording at!

The “Japanese Phrases of the Week”……

はじめまして　hajimemashite (ha-gee-may-mahshe-tay) “it’s nice to meet you”

どいてでぶちゃん doite debu-chan (doy-e-tay deb-bu-chan) “move fat kid!”

As always, if you have any questions or comments, post a comment, or email me at Josh@JoshInJapan.com….

until next time, mata-ne!

well, today was friendship day, and the friendship festival was all weekend here in Yokosuka. the actual festival was today, and the parade was yesterday. i had to work today, but it wasn’t that bad…….

i couldn’t leave work all day, but the wifey and I took the kid to the waterfront after work to watch the fireworks. they were pretty cool, and it was a very long show!

if you’re not sure what friendship day is, it is one of the few days of the year where the base is open to all persons. the public service areas are all open, but the housing, hospital, secured buildings, and other places where strangers shouldn’t be are roped off and patrolled by security personnel. all of the restaurants close their doors, and bring all of their food out to tables set up for outdoor sales…….. since pizza is so cheap by japanese prices on base, there is always a very, VERY long line to get anthony’s (exchange service pizza), and sbarro’s pizza. most of the Japanese people who get pizza wait a good 3 hours in line to get a pie, and it’s one pie per person for each restaurant. you see people walking all around all over town outside of base with pizza boxes in their hands. it’s friggin hillarious!!!!! it’s the one time a year when pizza is affordable for normal Japanese citizens (japanese pizza hut costs on average $35 for one meal, and anthony’s is $11). it’s not just pizza though. they also love the larger sizes of our mc’donalds servings….

all in all, it’s a great way for japanese people to find out how we live on base, and for americans to get a good feeling of what japanese festivals are all about… great time had by all…..

In episode #6, I discuss how to do your banking in Japan.

Also, a new portion of the show was added…… the weekly “Japanese Phrases of the Week”…. now you can learn from my limited Japanese skills

As always, email me at josh(at)joshinjapan.com if you have any comments, suggestions, corrections, gripes, moans, bitches, whatever….

Also, if you’re a podcaster, and have a promo, please send them my way…….

Many improvements are on the way for the blog and the cast, so just stay tuned!

take care, and until next time….. mata-ne!

I’m working all weekend, but not to worry, the show for sunday is already recorded and on the server ready to go. Either saturday or sunday, I will post it up on the blog, and you’ll be good to go.

Thanks to all of you new listeners for all of your support. And by support, I mean listening to my lame ass!

For episode #7, I will be moving the files over to Libsyn, but my blog will stay where it is. I’ll just be moving the big files to save my bandwidth. I know i’ve been talking alot about this crap lately, and I know not many care, but I honestly have not much else to talk about.

Ok, until next time…..

mata-ne!