A Hopeless Romantic's Adventures in Japan: me on youtube

Showing posts with label me on youtube. Show all posts

November 13, 2010

About Being an Extra in Japan

The teeming masses of readership of this blog (my aunt) have been bugging me for a while to share my extraing experience. I've done only one gig so far. I didn't even get paid for (not) appearing in Zebraman II.
But here is the video:

And now some pics cause I just talk in my entertainingly quaint way in the vid:

A view of the track field and camerateers

A view of your protagonist getting ready for his big scene in the bleachers

In the train on the way home I spotted a Takashi Miike spot on a tabloid advertisement. As his film was the first thing I ever extra-ed on, I thought it a nice nod by the universe. Sup, Universe! I see what you did there.

Japanese Study Links

October 9, 2010

All the Japanese You Need for a Visit

And don't worry, none of the tips I give in this video will make J peeps think you know Japanese and can be talked to in such a confusing tongue, due to the effect of the Foreigner Reality Displacement Field.

BTW, if you too want to own Cthulhuian tomes written in Japanese, I found one of them on Amazon.jp for 1 yen used:
YIG〈1〉—美凶神 (カッパ・ノベルス)

Japanese Study Links

September 19, 2010

マジで Exploring One Japanese Word

Embedded below is my struggle to take Japanese study seriously one word at a time.

Japanese Study Links

August 6, 2010

Lately I have been doing the Vlog Every Day in August thing. Youtuber TheHill88 inspired me to do it. I've respected her opinion ever since she listed me in The Hot Guys of YouTube video she made. That vid was taken down, but it totally happened.

Anyways, there is some minor Japan content in these, so I feel comfortable posting them on this, my was once a brooding artist blog turned Japan blog. Enjoy tales of interviews and orange drinks with orange cheese flavor. Leave questions like everyone else has been spontaneously doing. Wonder about the meaning of life. In Japan.

Orange cheese drink:

Job in Japan, let's getting:

Bad Japanese, Let's Saying:

Japanese Study Links

July 22, 2010

Jazzy Yokohama Bar

Here's some scenes from a live Jazz event I stumbled across in a small bar near the Yokohama city library.

This pic shows the artworks of Sogi that adorn the walls. He's back!

Mr. Grillman on giant sax:

And video. Less shaking than usual cause I actually used my gorilla pod! You may enjoy the HD if that kicks in...

[vid]
The story of how this jazzy bar revealed my spoiled self is here.

Japanese Study Links

July 6, 2010

Nth Video from a Washed Up J-Vahblogger

See that. 200 videos from the guy that runs The Hopeless Romantic. 200 testaments to how shoddy a vlog can be.

I wanted to wait until I had 4,000 subbers to do the vid, but the last 50 have been stubborn etc. etc. Oh yeah, still not a YouTube partner. My body of work, my choice!

So I'd appreciate it if youtube would stop bugging me to be one.

Japanese Study Links

March 20, 2010

Spinning Hammer Mouse Shrine

What's going on with the mouse in the video? I read a description at the shrine, but it didn't seem too clear as I have a loose grasp of ancient Japanese mythology. Luckily this site has some info about why the gods Susano-O and O-Kuni-Nushi were being mentioned so much and what was up with the arrow the mouse found. Read on:

Traditions have O-Kuni-Nushi being sent straight to the underworld after his brothers tried to kill him in order to avoid their revenge. In the underworld O-Kuni-Nushi met Suseri-Hime, the daughter of the god of the underworld. They were married, but first Susano-O made O-Kuni-Nushi pass three tests. The first test was to put him to sleep in a room of snakes. O-Kuni-Nushi saves himself with the scarf that Suseri-Hime gave him. The next night he had to sleep in a room full of centipedes and wasps, but he again used another scarf that Suseri-Hime had given him to protect himself. The final test that Susano-O gives him is to find an arrow, which Susano-O had sent into the middle of a huge meadow. When O-Kuni-Nushi is in the middle of the field, Susano-O set fire to the grass, luckily however; a mouse saves him by showing him an underground room. The mouse then brings the arrow to O-Kuni-Nushi. O-Kuni-Nushi's success helps Susano-O to feel more at ease with him, so he has O-Kuni-Nushi wash his hair and finally goes to sleep. O-Kuni-Nushi then ties Susano-O's hair to the rafters of the house and with his wife on his back fled. He also took with him Susano-O's sword, bow, arrows, and his Koto (harp). Susano-O is awakened when the Koto brushes against a tree. In the time it took for Susano-O to free his hair, the two were far away. From the slopes of the underworld, Susano-O advises O-Kuni-Nushi, whom he sees in the distance, to use the weapons to fight his brothers, foretelling that O-Kuni-Nushi would conquer them and reign over the world. He also asked O-Kuni-Nushi to make Suseri-Hime his main wife and to build a palace at the foot of Mount Uka.

But heck if I know why those mice are holding hammers at the shrine. I also don't know if mention of a main wife alludes to Heian polygamy practices (it's good to be the kizoku !), when I imagine these stories may have been collected. Any ideas, Dear Reader?

Japanese Study Links

March 17, 2010

How Much Clay can One Fit into a Tiny Yokohama Apartment?

This much. I'm quite settled into my new place now, and my neighborhood is awesome!

Japanese Study Links

February 23, 2010

My Review of Chocolate Sparkling, with Mouth-breathing

So my boss was like, how often do you talk to your mom? I and my daughter in America talk three times a week.
And I was like... Uh, yeah, all the time. But it was a lie. I have the blog to communicate what is happening to me here, but I have fallen short of that duty of late and just posted funny commercials. Well no more waiting, parental units and other people that I guilt into reading. Here is a video staring me at long last. I talk about the awkwardness of trains and the amazingness of carbonated clear chocolate drinks. Watch. Gnash those teeth. Enjoy.

Japanese Study Links

January 8, 2010

New Claytonian Vids: Akihabara and Okonomiyaki

I have such a backlog of footage; Japan just won't stop being interesting long enough for me to catch up. These two HD videos are what I've had time to edit together recently.

In the first, I visit my favorite place in Akihabara. It's probably not that hard to guess for propa otakus.

And next up, we have a fast one of a guy making okonomiyaki en mass. The song matches quite well, I feel.

December 25, 2009

It's Christmas... in Japan

After I saw the last CiJ collab I tracked down Fatblueman and made him swear to include me this time.

And now to set this post to automatically appear on Christmas day...

December 21, 2009

That's Some Funny Sh-- uh, Poop.

Hey, I'm in this video, as the guy with the funny hat... uh after the first guy with a funny hat, and not to be confused by the other guy from Saga with a funny hat (Hi, Bobbyjudo!) that appears on youtube occasionally as well. Anyways, watch and learn why cat poop is a cool word to know.

December 3, 2009

I am awesome at Chinese

You probably often think to yourself, Does Clay speak any other languages? Speak them? Lady, I have babies with them. It's consensual.

I was going to black-bar out the eyes of my unwitting teacher here, but meh, that effect takes too much time!

November 27, 2009

A Furry Surprise in the Computer Lab

An exclusive peek into where the action happens, and it's furry inhabitant. Also, a cat is there.

November 26, 2009

A Sky Full of Bats in Japan

I'm coming at you in HD, with flying friends! This experience happened during the trip that inspired me to write the Get Lost! article at Jibtv.

Not much to say, except I'm not sure where these bats go during winter. They left poo on my balcony to remember them by though.

November 5, 2009

Oronamin C

First off, a video of mine. You don't have to watch the whole thing (it's about me being an extra in Takashi Miike's Zebraman 2, so you may like it after all), but know that the audio from a scene from a movie, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, plays over the end. You'll have to rent the movie to see the actual scene, but it really peaked my interest back in 2004 or so. What is that? I had to find out.

So this post (as threatened) is about the Oronamin C poster the characters talk about . Here it be:

And there are many more C posters here. As to the goofy man, he is Ōmura Kon. So to finish you off, here are some of his TV spots for the drink (note that it is marketed as some kind of health or sports drink). It's not as cool without the hat though.

October 22, 2009

Two New Perverted Clay Videos

False advertising! Only one of these is a perverted video.

Link to the next poster contest here.

Next up, Azuki Pepsi tasting!

October 15, 2009

Gods and Devils in the Japanese Language

As a living contradiction, I love linguistic ones.

Here's a breakdown of all the words I use in the vid (besides 一期一会), in WWWJDIC order. Remember, I said in the vid what 鬼 and 神 mean.

Gods and Devils Breakdown:
鬼子母神【きしもじん; きしぼじん kishimojin/kishibojin】 (n) Hariti (goddess of childbirth and children)
子 shi: child
母 bo/mo: mother

鬼神【きしん(P); きじん(P); おにがみ kishin/kijin/onigami】 (n,adj-no) fierce god

牛鬼蛇神【ぎゅうきだしん gyukidashin】 (n,adj-no) wicked and perverse; weird and incoherent
牛 gyu: cow
蛇 da: snake

神算鬼謀【しんさんきぼう shinsankibou】 (n) inscrutable stratagem; ingenious scheme
算 san: calculate
謀 bou: strategy

神出鬼没【しんしゅつきぼつ shinshutsukibotsu】 (n,adj-no) appearing in unexpected places and at unexpected moments; elusive; phantom
出 shutsu: come out (appear)
没 botsu: without (disappear)

Bonus sentence I found after the video (figure it out on your own :p):
断じて行えば鬼神も之を避く【だんじておこなえばきしんもこれをさく】 (exp) (id) Where there's a will, there's a way

September 30, 2009

Spida Ova Hea

There are spiders everywhere in Japan. I guess they are orb-spiders, which narrows the species down to a few out of, uh... *checks Wikipedia* 27000 species I could be seeing. The thing that annoys me about them is people don't clean webs up too often over here. For me, a well trimmed Japanese garden is ruined by webs, especially since I am so tall I always run into them.

September 17, 2009

Dude, Where's My Mikoshi? Part 2: Dashi

The floats in this vid are called 山車 (dashi). Not to be confused with soup flavoring. Watch it in HD (or just press the fullscreen button next to the HD button) for the full experience.