Videos

Japan Images: Takeshita Maid
September 1st, 2011

There’s always plenty going on along the famous Takeshita-dori in Harajuku, Tokyo. An endless sea of people flood the narrow streets with everyone from lost 70-year-old American tourists to Nigerian salesmen through to the most eclectically dressed Japanese twenty-somethings. Everyone is there for the same reason – it is a truly unique experience. Make sure you drop by on your next trip to Tokyo ^^

Japanese TV: Expect The Unexpected
June 18th, 2011

One of the things ex-pats complain about when first moving out to Japan is the quality of TV. Being British, my only prior exposure to Japanese TV, apart from Pokémon, was Takeshi’s Castle. So upon arriving in Japan I expected TV to be chock-full of cheerful Japanese willing to be injured for my enjoyment. What I actually saw was a collection of “Gourmet travel” shows, ropey dramas, game shows and variety shows.

Historic Japan: The World of Albert Kahn
June 13th, 2011

If you’re in to finding out more about Japan before the neon lights, anime and robots then this is for you. In 1908, the French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn launched one of the most ambitious projects in the history of photography. A pacifist, internationalist and utopian idealist, Kahn decided to use his private fortune to improve understanding between the nations of the world. To this end, he created what he called his Archive of the Planet.

Video: Kanji in 15 Minutes
April 19th, 2011

Okay so maybe you won’t learn them all but perhaps a few kanji will sink in subliminally watching this amazing video. It features every unicode character from 0 – 65536 but fast-forward to 5:30 for the kanji to start. Each kanji is grouped by radical, which somehow makes them all a little easier to view.

Video: Japan – The Strange Country
March 7th, 2011

This video has been around a while but it floors me every time I watch it – it is so beautifully done by Kenichi Tanaka. I wish I had a 100th of his design talent. ^_^

HD Video: A Walk Through Harajuku
November 24th, 2010

I shot this a little while ago and thought it might interest anyone wanting to see the area around Takeshita-dori, JR Harajuku Station as well as Jingu Bridge where you’ll find the cosplay girls (and boys) every weekend. Unfortunately it was an average day weather-wise so there wasn’t a lot to see on Jingu Bridge but you still get a sense of the area and there will be some surprises left for you if you ever get to Tokyo ^_^