Urbanation - Sake and Ryokans

Another short clip from Urbanation, this time about sake and Ryokans. Searching for alternatives for those expensive hotels? You might want to check out the traditional ryokans guest houses.
Even though the family-run mini-hotels are being pushed out of the market by the big chains, there are still enough to be found in the suburbs. In [...]

Lost in Tokyo

Finally something I’m looking forward to see on Dutch television!The show where they drop 12 Dutch (and non Japtard) people in Tokyo, ala Lost in Translation.
In a nice mix of a reality slash game show, the competitors have to fight it out and learn how to keep their head up in Japan (or down).
They’ll also [...]

Urbanation - Extreme Shopping

Here’s the second clip from the show Urbanation, and it’s about Extreme shopping!
First up is Ragout, a boutique in Harajuku where they customise sneakers out of materials you bring. Ragout uses light colored sneakers which are dyed. The most popular designs are cheap prints of American cartoon figures that you can select in the [...]

Urbanation - Indoor Snowboarding

To break the silence I’m uploading a few clips of a show called Urbanation which I recorded a few days ago.
Snova is one of the many indoor snowboarding locations where boarding pro Debban trains out of season. The indoor slope has half pipes, ramps and rails. On the weekend the slope is so popular [...]

J-MELO 07/08/04

It’s time for another episode of J-Melo, the show that gives you the latest, cutting edge developments in Japanese music. They also invite guests on their show and this time Monkey Majik has been invited (Blaise Plant and Maynard plant) !
Monkey Majik quickly turned into one of my favorite groups so this episode was super!
The [...]

J-MELO 07/07/28

melody. loves m-flo - BoRn 2 luv U
I’ve been watching this show for a few weeks now and it has earned it’s own folder on the hard drive!
J-Melo is a weekly Japanese music television program broadcast by NHK and it is recorded entirely in the English language. J-MELO features the latest, cutting edge developments [...]

Japanorama 6 - Ganguro (Bad Girls)

It’s an all ladies episode this time! Following up the previous post about Gyaruru, this episode is just perfect to guide you in this rather interesting fashion style.
With the image of the Japanese woman as a sweet, submissive geisha radically changing in recent years, Japanorama looks at the current trends amongst young Japanese women and [...]

Japanorama 4 - Densetsu (Legends)

It’s time for another Japanorama,…..episode 4 Densetsu !
It’s all about famous timeless superheroes in this episode.
First up is, Japanorama celebrates the 40th birthday of Ultraman. Created in the mid-1960s, Ultraman is Earth’s best and only hope against the ceaseless onslaught of monsters and aliens…
Jonathan then swaps magic tricks with Princess Tenko, the world’s most beautiful [...]

Japanorama 3 - J-Art - Pop Art

Woo yea, it’s Japanorama 3!

By mashing up images of popular culture, Japanese artists have put themselves at the forefront of pop art. Jonathan meets two of the world’s biggest names in pop art - Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara - and sniffs out Japan’s next wave of budding young masters.
Japanese Pop Art is arguably the [...]

Japanorama 2 - Ai and Koi (Love and Romance)

The modern day meaning of Ai and Koi is Love and Romance.
With a declining birthrate it would appear that Love and Romance is in trouble in contemporary Japan. So if young Japanese aren’t doing it with each other, who and what exactly are they doing?
We look at the rise of the male host bar, the [...]