Tokyo Podcast

Neil Simon is a documentary filmmaker who's film 'Prisoners and Patriots: The Untold Story of Japanese Internment in Santa Fe' hopes to bring awareness to the camp in Santa Fe and this untold story from World War II.

Tokyo Podcast TV: First Snow

What happened to the economic powerhouse that Japan was in the 1980's? Where did the innovation and entrepreneurialism go? Is it still alive or has Japan Inc. suffered from too much by bureaucracy and lack of leadership? Anthony Joh talks to William Saito who is an accomplished entrepreneur, venture capitalist, educator and consultant to governments worldwide. He talks about how the Japanese economic train got derailed and what steps can be taken to get it back on track.

Tokyo Podcast TV: Joyopolis

Having grown up in Japan, Yushi Shinoda developed a love of languages at a very young age when he started studying English and Chinese. An opportunity to study in China cemented his love of languages and he has been adding to his repertoire ever since. Yushi joins us today to talk about how he is able to learn so many languages and offers suggestions on how we can improve our language learning ability.

Surviving in Japan offers all sorts of valuable tips on setting up your new life in Japan. Site owner Ashley Thompson recently had her first child and joins us to talk about her experience giving birth in Japan.

Tokyo Podcast TV: Mount Takao

Of the 3000 castles that once dotted the Japanese landscape only 12 remain in their original condition. From old ruins to modern replicas, on this show we talk to Daniel O`Grady from Japanese Castle Explorer about the historic and modern significance of Japanese castles.

Isaku Kageyama who is two-time National Odaiko (large drum) Champion and is the youngest person to win such honors. He is also the first person to be accepted into a major American music university for playing taiko. I talk to Isaku about the history of taiko, how the Japanese system makes it difficult for younger players to get noticed and how more traditional Japanese music might be headed overseas.

Many foreigners come to Japan to teach English for a short time but few stay long enough to set up their own English language school. On this show I talk to John Bardos from Jet Set Citizen about his 10 years as the owner of a successful English language school in Japan and the difficult decision he made to dramatically change his lifestyle. 

Japanese manga and anime are hugely popular around the world and is a multi billion yen industry but despite its popularity there is some controversy over whether it is possible to learn Japanese from watching anime. Anthony Joh talks to Ken Cannon who not only claims that it is possible to learn Japanese from anime but he teaches a course on how to do it.

We also take a walk through the majestic Imperial Palace located in the heart of Tokyo with Paul Christie from Walk Japan. Paul leads us on a fascinating walking tour of the historical significance of the Imperial Palace and the role it played in establishing Tokyo as the economic centre of Japan.

On this show I talk to Lara Perez Takagi and Megumi Nishikura who are making a documentary film about the lives of five half Japanese or 'Hafus' living in Japan. For some being a mixed race person living in Japan has posed no problems but others have struggled to find their own identity and even going to far as to hide their non Japanese side.

The number of people making YouTube videos about their life in Japan has exploded over the past few years. However many of these videos are geared towards childish entertainment rather than actually providing any information about what it's like to live in Japan. On this episode of Tokyo Podcast Anthony talks to Unrested who has a very popular YouTube channel and with 140 videos and over 850,000 views Unrested's channel offers a good insight into what it is like to live and work in Japan.

Many foreigners who come to Japan start their first job as an English teacher and sadly many stay in that job for their entire time in Japan. My guest today is David Chester who wrote a book exploring the many other freelancing jobs that are available to English speakers. From staring in Japanese TV shows, teaching cooking classes or performing as musicians there are many freelancing opportunities in Tokyo if you know where to find them.