Want to meet other Learn Japanese Podders? Tired of Tokyo and want to party at the foot of mount Fuji with some amazing music? Then come to our Learn Japanese Pod weekend party in Yamanashi on 29th and 30th August. It’s going to be held at the Earth Embassy Odyssey weekend party. The entrance fee is ¥3500. You get a weekend of amazing music, DJs and live bands. There will be food stalls, a bar and cafe plus some other interesting events. (Stay tuned for more information on that)

Getting there is easy. There is a Keio bus that runs from Shinjuku directly to the Earth Embassy. For more information please contact the Earth Embassy or me directy at info(at)learnjapanesepod(dot)com. Alternatively you can twitter me at http://twitter.com/japanesepodcast We also have a facebook event for this here. Please make sure to contact me as soon as possible so I can organize bus tickets for those with no wheels.

Incidentally this Learn Japanese Pod party is our first anniversary party. Doesn’t time fly?!

View Earth Embassy Odyssey Party 29th/30th August 2009 in a larger map

Muzie is a site for you to listen to and download free Japanese music. A lot of the featured artists are not signed to major lables so there is a high chance you will find something new.

Most of the MP3s are streamed via Real Player with a medium bit rate quality so the sound isn’t perfect. There are a few high quality MP3 downloads however.

You will need to be able to read Japanese to navigate the site. Alternatively you could just about get the gist of whats going on with this Google translation of Muzie. Again, this site is best if viewed as a place to discover new music and artists.

Check it out!

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We kicked off this week’s Fun Friday with some awesome rap from Kenjiman. Check out his Myspace page for some excellent tunes and incredible rapping from Tokyo. (If you are a band in Japan, please contact us at info(at)learnjapanesepod(dot)com if you would like your music to be considered for our podcast)

The festival season was today’s theme which is starting in Japan. Waka sensei and myself will be checking out as many summer events as we can in Japan and reporting you about it stay tuned. Check out our festival calendars for Kanto and Kansai to find some great events to attend.

We also talked about the latest Eco convenience store located in Kyoto which doesn’t sell plastic bottles or provide plastic shopping bags for customers. It’s the first of its kind in Japan and we will be waiting to see if the idea spreads. Waka sensei suggested that plastic manufacturers had try to protect the “pet bottle” in Japan which is why this idea hadn’t taken off sooner. I suggested that plastic bottle making ninjas would soon put a stop to this. Waka sensei didn’t agree…

A big shout out to Dennis for sending this photo of an ad to ask people to smoke more responsibly.

The interesting thing is, in the UK you have posters telling you to quit smoking whereas in Japan they tell you how to be a good smoker. And being good is not disturbing those around you.  The tide is slowly turning in Japan as more and more public areas are designated as smoke free areas. I’m not sure what will happen when they take the last cigarette away from the hassled and stressed salaryman. Japan could have a revolt on their hands.

Again thanks to Dennis for the picture. Please send us your own Japan related pictures, comments, questions and suggestions to info(at)learnjapanesepod(dot)com or alternatively leave a comment at the end of this post. DOMO!

[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/japanese/ff20090626.mp3[/podcast]

Holy okonomiyaki, it’s Fun Friday podcasting at you from a humid Shibuya with me Alex and the lovely Waka sensei. If you don’t know what Fun Friday is, it’s a podcast with music, chat, news and other general hilarity from Japan.

In this week’s show we covered quite a few topics including the weather, haiku, the economy and a story about a crazy guy who has been stealing garden ornaments. The poor man said he stole the ornaments, took them home and then he talked to them as he was lonely. Maybe not as original as most traveling gnome pranks but more bizarrely entertaining. (Original article here)

The featured bands in this week’s show were Natccu, a talented singer song writer who will be touring the UK soon. Check here site for details.

At the end of the show we played some Yugo Sato, a  unique blues guitarist and singer from Tokyo. Yugo Sato was introduced to me by my good friend Ethan Green, creator of Tokyo Werewolf, a website that covers the underground music scene in Japan. Someone give this talented man a job.

We also talked about the latest goings on at Learn Japanese Pod which involve tidying up the site and a new set of articles and lessons which will be posted on the main site. Here’s what it looks like:

Monday – J-Slang

Weekly lessons on slang and the street Japanese you usually don’t find in text books

Tuesday – Main Lesson

As always we will be bringing you the main podcast lesson on Tuesdays

Wednesday -Kanji

We are thinking of doing some sort of weekly kanji lesson. Still thinking about the details but that should be coming up in the next week or so

Thursday – Japan guide

We will try to post some kind of travel guide and reviews at least twice a month for those interested in exploring Japan

Friday – Fun Friday

Of course. Did we really need to tell you that?

If you have any questions or comments either leave a comment at the bottom of this post or send us an email at info[at]learnjapanesepod[dot]com