This flash embed is awesome!

And in other news, my life has stabilized and I’ve become able settled into a routine.  As the routine becomes more firmly established, my discontent and feeling of boredom is also increasing.  I’ve been putting a bit of effort into promoting and expanding a little web project I’ve been doing for the past few months with a friend of mine.  We’ve been doing a weekly show and are hoping to expand our reach and start pulling talent from some of the other content creators around Japan.  We’ve decided to host a meet up in Kobe on the evening of December 12 with as many content creators and fans as we can convince to show up.  It’s beginning to take shape and it’s looking like it’ll be a good time!

This is the last chance for me to get my monthly post out before October comes around. Making the blog updates infinitely easier than before is the newly installed Internet connection that was hooked up last weekend. I’ve got a new apartment, new Internet connection and even a nice new microwave so life is pretty good.

My project for the past few weeks has been promoting the weekly video podcast (Bad Communication) that a friend and I do out of Japan. Although we’ve seen large increases in viewership, after talking to some of the other guys out there doing similar things, I’ve come to the realization that we have a long way to go.

Along those lines, I’ve been kicking around the idea of hosting a “meet up” in Kobe at some point in early December. In addition to inviting any of the local podcasters, I’d like to open it up to viewers and friends as well. There’s nothing wrong with opening this kind of event to complete strangers.  What could possibly go wrong…?

I’ve been settling into my new apartment and spending most of my free time scouring the city for furniture. I’m happy to report that my refrigerator arrived just last weekend and I’ve been quite enjoying cooking at home for the first time in quite a few months. It’s really nice to have a decent kitchen to go along with the newly acquired cooking utensils.

While the cooking front has been progressing smoothly, I’m still without an internet connection and have been reduced to sporadic hours of internet bliss provided by a local internet cafe called “Funky Time.”  The place is extremely funky.  I feel like I need to take a shower every time I return home because of the funk.  I feel like I’m coated with it when I leave.

I am grateful to be able to check email every now and again though.

The new episode of Bad Communication went live a few days ago.  The quality as well as the numbers are getting gradually better.  My next goal is to get to 1,000 viewers per show.  It’s a lofty dream though…

Although these past few weeks have been quite hectic, I feel like I’ve been settling nicely back into life in Tokushima.  I’ve been making a countless number of trips to the furniture shops around Tokushima and trying to get things together for the August 22nd show that will film in less than a week.  That being said, I’m really happy to be back and am quite enjoying my time here.

I took a trip to the Awa-Odori festival again this year and shot a short video.  Take a look and let me know what you think!

Composing this post from an internet cafe in Tokushima, this is my first day back in the prefecture after being transferred from Imabari City in the Ehime Prefecture. Although I’m quite happy to be back, there are quite a few things that were left unresolved in Imabari. It would have been nice to have left with at least a partial sense of resolution, but it’s out of my control at this point.

On a happier note: I have a fantastic new apartment in addition to a fantastic new web show that I do with a friend of min also living in Japan. After filming three shows together, we both went through some turbulent life-changes and were forced to produce a series of independent “minisodes” rather than weekly, joint episodes. We will be back in force however, on August 22nd and the show is shaping up to be among the best we’ve done. (which perhaps doesn’t say much given the limited amount of content we’re produced)

http://11reviews.com/badcommunication

In addition to focusing on my work, I’ve made it a project of mine to either become a part of or create a community of podcasters in Japan.  There seem to be only a few of us out there and us like-minded people should certainly try to stick together.

Take a look and let me know if you have any advice!

I’ve also put up a few pictures from my most recent trip to Tokyo. It was my first time and I must admit that I wasn’t expecting much from the city. I thought it would be similar to New York, except in Japan. I was pleasantly surprised however. Instead of the endless concrete jungle that I imagined, there are parts of the city that feel quit rural. The area around our hotel (Ebisu 恵比寿) was really a nice place to just relax. I had a great time!

Here are some photos from the trip:

http://matsuuchi.com/hiroki/photo-gallery-2/trip-to-tokyo

In addition to quite a bit of turbulence at the company I work for, it seems as though there might be some more big changes coming within the next few months. I can’t really say what they are on such a public forum, but I’ll definitely write a post when the plans have been finalized.

In addition to all the strife, I’ve been sinking a lot of time into my latest project. (http://11reviews.com) It’s been a blast trying to put this type of website together and learn about how all this stuff works. Although my coding level sill relegates me to just altering other programmer’s code, I’ve really been enjoying doing reading on the topic and playing around with what’s out there. Web design is a field that really runs deep and there is an impressive community built up around coding for the web.

If any of you are interested in writing a review, please feel free! I’m hoping to launch a new monthly or bi-monthly video review component to the page. I’m looking for the best services at which I can host my content. I’m also looking for a camera, microphone and host/cohost. Any suggestions…?

I was able to take a trip last weekend back to Tokushima to meet up with a few friends and coworkers.  Around this time, people in Japan seem to busy with welcome parties and cherry blossom viewing.  For many companies and institutes, April is the beginning of the new year and is a time at which positions shift, new workers begin, transfers occur and there are quite a few changes.

Following this nationwide trend, I’ve been looking for something new to take up for fiscal year 2010.  I’d love to learn a bit of PHP and MySQL but most of the literature I’ve found in bookstores is entirely in Japanese.  Unfortunately, my reading level isn’t quite up to the point where I can read technical manuals.  I suppose that means I need to do a bit more studying.  For those of you who are more technically oriented, do you have any suggestions regarding good introductory manuals to PHP?  I was thinking about having the “PHP & MySQL for Dummies” book imported.  Here’s a link to the Amazon listing: http://bit.ly/amJtL6