Tokyo snarkCast

Three days later and I am FINALLY recovering from my trip an onsen/hot spring resort in Nikko Japan, which is two and half hours north of Tokyo by car. The virtues of Japanese "naked communion" (hadaka no tsukiai) in the baths of "Ryokan Funamisou" onsen hotel was great but... ...Listening to this koto (Japanese harp) music on my iPod put me dead asleep and happy before 9PM. More... Read..

Check out this podcast of "This American Life" on National Public Radio of how Toyota showed GM how to make a quality car in the US, created a car plant named NUMMI and how GM's management (through interviews with former GM workers) systematically failed to learn the lesson Toyota was trying to teach them until it was too late.... ...and ironically, how Toyota learned from GM how to make defective cars...more...

The yakimo man with his roasted sweet potatoes came by this morning and I recorded his mournful song. I realized that the crows were harmonizing and calling back to him. Great call-and-response but it needed a funky beat that I added. Enjoy.

Oddly for Christmas Eve, BBC radio offered a well-researched programme, "THE SAMURAI" (Thursday 9.00-9.45am, 24 December 2009). This show was on BBC Radio 4 in their series called "In Our Time", which discusses major topics in history, science, religion, philosophy etc. Sadly BBC used DRM in the program to prevent listening to it as downloaded podcast. So, I "found" a analog recording of the programme in plain old MP3 format (43 minutes, 3MB). Enjoy!

Listen to John Lennon and a giggly Yoko Ono made this “audio Christmas card” in 1969 exclusively for the members of Beatles’ Fan Club in the UK and the U.S. Learn more about this Ono's Christmas yowling at today's news.3Yen.com.

Here's a funny MP3 rip (2.5MB) of a YouTube video from the " Lovely Complex" Japanese TV series. It's the Umibozu Song performed by Susumu TERAJIMA (he is really a actor who specializing in playing yakuza and is not a singer per se). In the video he poses as a wannabe gangsta rapper, "Umibozu," (bald sea monster ---for more information see my post: Umi-Bozu - Japanese sea monster. Anyway...With scantily clad girls gyrating against him as he sings inane lyrics, this TV segment is a funny parody of lame-o rappers. Japanese sea monster

A common conversation ploy to change the topic in Japanese is to say tonikaku "anyway", "whatever", "in any case" , which amuses my hinky mind into thinking of the bilingual punTony's cock's coos. I'm easily amused.

This J-pop group "Coba-U" calls themselves, "tastey nursery rhyme neology." Hey, what do you expect? They're Japanese.I am from dark space. A reggae size wienie enthusiast. A mystery living entity (bacteria). I transfer to a thing of Shimokita and a certain daughter and am observing the earth. But. Here's Coba-U lead singer "MUFFIN" featured in her "Red Shoes" video and with her infection girls. More info on the news.3yen.com

North Korean party boy, Kim Jon Il had this great music suggestion on his iTunes playlist: Song of the Military and Political University of Resistance Against Japan. That cheerful tune is also available here for free. Resistance Against Japan stamp from China 1995 March 17

Back in the mists of time (1973), the avant-popster group "Slapp Happy" sing their "HAIKU" song... More info on this HAIKU here...

Over on boing-boing they posted the video below of the remix classic Katamari tracks for upcoming PS3 'tribute' release Katamari Forever. I remixed that remix and put it into MP3 format for you to listen/download.

"Mad Daddy" Myers sayth: "Fisterises like pretty girls named Ingaborg with silver snoopers in their hair, sometimes moping about the snurds and limrocks they've loved and lost, sobbing big teedle-dools. Like everyone, they dislike artichokes for breakfast when the bumblebugger's gone." Read the "Mad Daddy" Pete Myers Biography at freewebs.com/maddaddy .

I'm making up a batch of my favorite "Salt peanuts, salt peanuts" ---originally the nonsensical wisdom of Dizzy's Gillespie bebop jazz standard. But in this case, I'm actually fry-roasting a pan of raw peanuts with Old Bay Spice® and listing to the extravagant 50s jazz band, The Nutty Squirrels, version of "Salt Peanuts on this lazy, rainy Tokyo afternoon. Enjoy.

Shugo Tokumaru is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Tokyo. Using more than 100 instruments, he creates his fun pop freakouts as though it was was a soundtrack for a demented cartoon just for your pleasure. Enjoy two samples of his music--"Future Umbrella" and "Green Rain"-- from his sleeper hit album, EXIT, that is just short of going Gold this week according to the NPR, World Cafe Podcast. Read more info on the 3Yen.com blog.

Listen to the wisdom of Japan... Papa Mama Lucky morning! My friend is unlucky! Sun is shining for me! Handsome guys want me!! Big money hit me!!! For more info go to 3Yen.com BIG LUCKY.

Check out the street fashion map of Tokyo by UNIQLO. Don't miss their oddball TV commercial.

Once again by popular demand, here's the real 'Zoom Zoom Zoom' called "Zum, Zum, Zum" by Serapis Bey.

Here's a BBC 7 radio drama broadcast on November 1st of Ian Fleming's "You Only Live Twice". Although you may be familiar with the film version staring Sean Connery of "You Only Live Twice" it was the first Bond movie to greatly deviate from Ian Fleming's novel (besides the Japanese setting and few characters, the two stories are totally different). This BBC radio drama is much closer to Ian Fleming's idea. Enjoy! Alternatively you can download here (1.2MB 90mins) if the Podmatic player/download does not work.

After a decade-long run on TV, Stargate's SG1 is going to movies (in this case direct to DVD). Here's the opening theme composed by Joel Goldsmith for the new movie, Stargate: The Ark of Truth (IMDB.com). If the podomatic link does not stream the music (and only downloads) try this link. Boomp3.com

Weather bureau makes heavy metal song to plug earthquake early warning system Mainichi News - April 16, 2008, SENDAI -- The Sendai District Meteorological Observatory has produced a heavy metal song to promote a recently developed earthquake early warning system...more... Listen to my extended-play remix (43sec) or the original WMV video below. For more information see my full report at: Japanese ‘Heavy Metal’ earthquake early warning

ON FIRST DAY OF SPRING... ɹoʇɐnbǝ ǝɥʇ ɹǝʌo ʎlʇɔǝɹıp sı uns ǝɥʇ ǝsnɐɔǝq 'uɯnʇnɐ ɟo ʎɐp ʇsɹıɟ ǝɥʇ sı ʎɐpoʇ

Japanese robo-cutie, "Hatsune Miku," sings national anthems of France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, UK and USA in a amazing Japanese accent. Since Miss Miku is a Yamaha-created synthesizer software product,VOCALOID2, she "sings" the lyrics as they transcribed into Japanese syllables and charmingly twisted. Read info about robo-cutie, Hatsune Miku here.

Schlockmeister filmmaker Quentin Tarantino says he wants to someday make a third "Kill Bill" epic, this time following the story of the "Bride's" daughter. Well, here's a perfect theme song an iPod-ready MP3 of MINI MINI LOVE by Kanai Katsuko, circa 1967. Japanese go-go girl miniskirt dance - 1967by gippo MINI MINI LOVE Go go go mini mini Go go go mini mini Go go go mini mini go go gi gi gi Go go go ya mini mini go go gi gi gi I love you mini mini

Here are two, super-simple, 3-second, Torchwood ringtones in case my previous audio files that I posted were too long (too large) to fit on your mobile device. Source: Torchwood, season 2, episode 02 "Sleeper" ripped from stereo HDTV.

If you want to use the Torchwood theme as your ringtone, the following might be some help. 1st. Each brand of cellphone requires a different type of format for a ringtone. To find out which ringtone format your cellphone uses, refer to your manual, webpage, or call your cellphone provider. 2nd. Note that my LONG the 53-second theme to Torchwood in the MP3 format is most likely too long for your cellphone. Above is a short 10-second version of the Torchwood theme in the MP3 format that my Japanese cellphones will accept. 3rd. Please note that you can convert my Torchwood 53-second MP3 or my 10-second MP3, and then format it to your cell phone's specific ringtone format using this free service from media-convert.com: http://media-convert.com

. . . Which WITCH DOCTOR do you like the best of the following four versions? No. 1: Here's an original 45 playing "WITCH DOCTOR" which was written and performed by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. (a.k.a. David Seville) and was released in 1958. David Seville is better remembered as the creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks for which he used the singing effect he first made famous in Witch Doctor. No. 3: However, this podcast's MP3 is the better but less famous cover version recorded in late 1958? by the mysterious "John Morris" who has no information about this cover on the Internet that I can find (Can anyone help?). No. 3: The Alvin Show originally aired on CBS in 1961 and had this is a remake of Dave Seville's famous Witch Doctor. No. 4: Witch Doctor by Alvin & The Chipmunks/Chris Classic from the Christmas 2007 movie, "Alvin and The Chipmunks".

Thanks to the time-traveling wonder of the International Dateline, it's already New Years Eve here in Tokyo. Yes, welcome to 2008, the year of the Rodent/ Rat/Mickey Mouse! In the 12-year cycle of the Orient [Wikikipedia], the Year of the Rat is thought as a year for go-getters with charm. In other words, it's gonna be a real Mickey Mouse Year. See a mousey photo of me enjoying the new year at my 3Yen website. And enjoy starting off this funky Mickey Mouse kind of a year with my MP3 of the "The Mouse" by Señor Soul from his 1969 album of gumbo-funk, It's Your Thing.

Japan's inmates dislike unstylish pajamas Thu Dec 27, 5:39 AM ET, Yahoo! News (Reuters) TOKYO ---- Japanese prisoners dislike their unstylish pajamas, feel their cells are too small and want better meals, a government survey has found...inmates...found their vertically striped grayish pajamas to be unfashionable. Close to half said the colors were bad, and 44 percent said the design was ugly...more.... Gee, I don't know about this but I always thought that being "Bananas-In-Pajamas" was the cheery and stylish...See the YouTube below.

Well, the attack of the Konzak's Christmas Clarence Gooey Duck in English and Japanese all started for me with today's post on the WFMU's "Beware of the Blog." Jim Gaerhart - Clarence The Geoduck (MP3, 5:53): This is a holiday promotional 45, both in English and Japanese for the Russell Company - home of the Russell 2000 Index [of stocks], and obviously made long before the company had billions of bucks... The Geoduck clam, pronounced "Gooey Duck," is the giant clam of American Northwest coast, with a profoundly phallic shape of the siphon, has led to the belief in Japan and China that the shellfish has aphrodisiac properties. This lead to recording a Japanese version of the Gooey Duck Song by harpmaker-storyteller Ron Konzak of Washington State. The group "Pierymplezak" (Ron Konzak, Bob Dalrymple, Judy and Jerry Elfendah, et al) released the song in 1972 as a 45 single by "Acme Music" (GNP Crescendo, #468). The novelty song was popular hit in the Seattle area and it's still a standard tune found in Cub Scout song books. I trimmed down the nearly six minute long Christmas promotional single to just the English and Japanese versions of the song, which I've posted here on Aodomatic an iPod-ready, MP3 format (3:08 minutes) of the tune. You can also watch and listen to the Goggle video of Konzak's Gooey Duck Song (Geoduck) Seattle Songs (2 min 29 sec) And be sure to check out Ron Konzak's konzak.com website.

Taro's flickr While reading my satellite TV guide today, I discovered a kids' show on the Animax station called "Happy Crappy," that teaches English, hee, hee. For more about the show a proof of the engrish spelling, refer to my other website ‘HAPPY CRAPPY!’ — Japanese TV You can visit the official Happy Crappy! website. Better yet, you can listen and download to the star of the show, JunJun-chan, singing the Happy Crappy! theme song here (MP3, 2.9MB, 1:23 minutes).

Here's the group Athlete busking the song "Tokyo" in front of the Design Museum on the Thames river to support "Crisis", 15 Nov, 2006. Watch the Youtube video below and enjoy listening to a transcoded MP3 of their live act (1:41 min and 800 KB).

Mao Inoue gets Panky, Panky, Panky with her creepy toy monkey. "Panky" is a chocolate snack from Meiji Corporation. See the official Japanese website.

the new video by US band Spoon with the Japanese Keepon robot prototype which the featured on the 3Yen last March in japanese-beat-bot. The video features Keepon's dancing and bopping in geek groundzero, Akiba in Tokyo to the new tune of Spoon, Don't You Evah. And, thanks to Creative Commons Attribution, here's Don't You Evah as a low-fi MP3 (7 MB) of the audio of that YouTube.

THE WORLD'S DORKIEST MUSIC Radio Taiso - the morning exercise music of Japan - I've enjoyed this music twice a day at work for years so I think you think all of you need to "enjoy" it too. Read a full explanation via Joi.Ito.com Listen and download the MP3 here! Watch these YouTube videos too.

Yerrow Submarien Ondo - by Akiko Kanazawa, (イエローサブマリン音頭 by 金沢明子 ) This is a killer Japanese enka/minyo version of the Beatles "Yellow Submarine" in MP3 (750KB) format. Enjoy.

Japanese octopus-dumpling soda may sound ba-a-a-ad enough..... However, I dare you to listen to the soundtrack that goes with drinking that soda. Ok, I double dare you to check out it out: here's the full 5-minute MP3, “Gagged Gizzard Goo” by Otto Von Schirach. Read the rest-of-the-story about Japanese octopus-dumpling soda in the comments of my 3Yen.com website.

As a companion piece to my previous post "Blast-from-the-past: Jeanette", here's 1:13 minute clip the original soundtrack of the movie, which has a bit of Spanish at the end. Also check out the Japanese connection and anime-mashup here.

On YouTube I found a film clip containing this remarkable song, "Porque te vas" by somebody called "Jeanette." After a bunch of poking around, I that Jeanette Dimech was sort of a one-hit-wonder from the 1960s and this song was her claim to fame. The film clip is a scene from Carlos Saura's 1976 film Cria Cuervos (Raise Crows, a Cannes Film Festival winner) where Jeanette's "Porque Te Vas" plays. "Porque Te Vas" has been covered many times without the lo-fi charm of the original. Below is a Japanese anime mashup of the original song recorded in 1974. The anime below is called Midori ho Hibi, which a pun on the Japanese "Golden week" holiday happening now in Japan (Read full details here). Enjoy the iPod ready MP3 (5MB) of the original recording of 1974 song although with the hamster noises of the 1976 film.

Happy Friday the Thirteenth at Seven Springs! Happy Birthday, Jimmy Here's a space-themed flexi disc for a your birthday...circa 1975. ENJOY!

Sometimes I'm left dumbfounded by Japanese TV commercials such as this one for Shigekix's "Ah!Brain" candy. Yes, that's what I said... BRAIN CANDY. "Mmmm, brains." Ah!Brain is a brain-stimulant sour candy that's is supposed to make your brain GENKI/peppy with BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids) that stimulate your brain cells to give you more moments of "Aha!" You can order super-duper Ah!Brain from J-List.com. Listen to a short, 15-second version of the Aha!Brain "song here. Watch the lower quality YouTube below, or view higher quality video on Shigekix's official webpage for their TV commercials. READ MORE HERE ABOUTBRAIN CANDY.

Since I'm such a cadillacing kind of guy ...I got real exited when I found the new cadillacing music music video by Joan Jett on mycadillacstory.com. As watched the Joan Jett music promo started to think, "Why all the Cadillacs in her video?" I'm sure the extra money from GM helped, but the rest-of-the-story was that for years, her producer's Cadillac served as touring vehicle and record label HQ: "....it was a big ol' 1976 Coupe de Ville and we always had records in the trunk..." So, what the hell.... I remixed the sound of Joan Jett's new music video, "Change the World" with the rest of her Cadillac story interview into one MP3 podcast here that you listen to or right-click to download (MP3, 7.6MB, 5min 34sec) -- Joan Jett interview. Alternatively, just listen to the song without the interview here (MP3, 4.4MB, 3min 13sec) "Change the World" --Joan Jett. View the the original interview video Joan Jett's Cadillac Story here on mycadillacstory.com.

DO YOU FOLKS LIKE COFFEE? YOU'RE GONNA GET SOME, NOW. Check out the TV commercial for "duncan hills coffee" by Dethklok on the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse ... Watch the YouTube video below, and listen/download my iPod-ready re-mix of Dethklok -- MP3 (848KB, 34 sec). aaaaahhhahahahaah scream for cream

Wookiee Impersonator Arrested for Battery iWon News - Feb 3, 7:57 AM (ET), LOS ANGELES (AP) - A man dressed as Chewbacca was arrested after police said the street performer head-butted a tour guide operator in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood...The tour guide, Brian Sapir, told the Los Angeles Times that he asked the Chewbacca impersonator to stop harassing two young Japanese tourists when the actor exploded in anger.........more on the Wookiee story here... Listen to my remix of the Chewbacca song by Supernova from the 1994 movie "CLERKS " here in iPod-ready, MP3 format (2.1MB, 1:30min). Watch the YouTube video of the Chewbacca song.

'Hitachi tree' bringing owner $4 million Honolulu Advertiser: Friday, January 26, 2007 ...Hitachi Ltd., the Japanese electronics giant, has agreed to pay the new owner of the Moanalua Gardens $400,000 a year for 10 years to use the garden's famous monkeypod tree in its advertising...more... I made an MP3 remix of the old 1970s and the present day Happy Tree song of Hitachi Japan. Enjoy the dorkiness. Watch the latest version here on YouTube performed by the Japanese group, INSPi, has performed "image-advertising" song called "Hitachi No Ki" - Hitachi's Tree. For more details and information about Hitachi's Happy Tree, see my 3Yen website.

Microsoft sent this wacked tape to their retailers to explain the benefits of Windows 386. Boring until the 7 minute mark when the production is taken over by crack-smoking monkeys. Listen to my iPod-ready, MP3 remix (3.8MB). And of course, watch the Goggle video, 12 min 5 sec. As always, check out the real Japanese crack smoking monkeys at 3Yen.com as well as all my bilingual friends from all over the planet Earth and Japan at globee.com

CORNHOLIO is God! And here is my special new MP3 remix of just the audio of Cornholio's song ready for your iPod (1.2MB, 80 seconds). And here's a YouTube video of one of great moments in TV history, hee, hee. For silly Japanese fun...

The Japanese neo-psychedelic-noise rock group, "YURA YURA TEIKOKU" performing "Soft Death (I am gifted in math). " Their Japanese website --"Yura Yura Teikoku (ゆらゆら帝国)-- is not half as fun as their English site where you can download free MP3s in their hi-fi versions or their myspace site with full of songs. You might think you know somethin' about Japanese underground, however YURA YURA TEIKOKU butt reams The 5678's, Miminokoto, et al. This recording is live radio so there's an Emergency Alert System in the middle of the song, which is perfectly fitting because 2007 is the Year of the Wild Boar in Japan (more info here).

This song was discovered in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit in the 1950s but have only be decrypted into music in the past few years. The tablets containing the song notation were about 3400 years old. The song is written in cuneiform markings of the Hurrian language. The music is a complete religious/cult hymn and it's the oldest preserved song with notation in the world. AND, that makes my podcast the WORLD'S OLDEST MP3, hee, hee. More info at: sheet music for the oldest song in the world And other wanking at robo-handjob

Visit and watch the anime dorks do Toryanse. Actually just refer to my previous post below about "Japan...where the the traffic lights sing" because this is only a post to record my Technorati Profile.

Listen to my podcast remix of the ubiquitous sound of Japan----musical pedestrian crossings--in this case near Kyoto station. (streaming or MP3 format, 2.2MB, 1 minute 34 seconds) Most larger crossings in Japan play this electronic tune, called Toryanse (通りゃんせ ) when it's safe to cross. Ahh, Japan...where the traffic lights sing. The children's song Toryanse literally means "Please Let Me Pass" in Japanese. However, it's really just plainkimoi/creepy in its melancholic minor key--- especially so when you think about the words: Going is easy / Coming back is fearful / Although I feel fearful, please let me pass / Please let me pass For the full lyrics and more info, go to: "Toryanse" in Wikipedia. For good laugh, watch the video of language-study dorks in the States doing the Japanese kindergarten song and dance of Toryanse. (In the Quicktime .mov format, 40 seconds approx.) Technorati Profile