Well, I’ve kept my promise. Here is a new episode. Recorded this month.

This time, we took notes during the recording session, which I will post them here. Let us know if you like this format for show notes going forward. I’m still too lazy to add time stamps to all of this, but it’s all in order:

This week’s hosts:

Laven – @LavenVoth
Kenny – @sakoku_otaku

Where the fuck have we been!?

(Hey, Shinzo Abe died)

What has changed in our lives in the last few months? Have we done anything exciting?

• Laven’s super Japanese summer
  
  
  
  • Fireworks display in Nagoya
  
  
  
  


• A tangent!
  
  
  
  • Co-op food delivery is starting to push Oden, a traditional Fall/Winter food.
  
  
  
  


• Universal Studio Japan!
  
  
  
  • So hot
  
  
  • Super Mario World — timed and queued entry like the Star Wars place at Disney/whatever
  
  
  
  


• Kessenuma, Miyagi, Japan
  
  
  
  • Kessenuma was devastated by the 3/11 triple disaster
  
  
  • Former coworkers started a brewery in Northeast Japan, and was connected to the city through a sister city relationship
  
  
  • Laven visited in Spring for a… Spring Fest! Food, beer, music, and fun.
  
  
  • This sparked a memory with Kenny — eating at a food festival in Katsuura, Chiba. If you ever go there, get the Katsuura Tantanmen.
  
  
  
  


• Adventures in Cooking!
  
  
  
  • Laven and Kaori are mastering Mexican cuisine.
  
  
  • Kenny pitched an idea for… Hello Fresh but for Japan! But he’s definitely too late.
  
  
  • CookingBros!
  
  
  • Baking Spouses!
  
  
  
  


• Kenny joined a Sister City organization for Salem-Kawagoe
  
  
  
  • Group arranges visits and exchanges between the cities
  
  
  • Using this as an avenue to engage with Japan that isn’t just anime/manga
  
  
  
  

From the detour

• Kenny went to Hawaii on his 10th wedding anniversary


• Kona, visited Hilo

What have we been watching? Reading? Doing?

• Laven
  
  
  
  • Tried watching (Spring and Summer)
    
    
    
    • Anime about a traditional confectionery shop in Kyoto. Conflict between the son who abandons his family business and the adoptive daughter the takes it over.
    
    
    • Yofukashi no uta
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Did watched
    
    
    
    • Birdy Wing
    
    
    • Thermae Romae
    
    
    • F
    
    
    • Spy x Family
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Am Watching
    
    
    
    • Isekai Oji-san
    
    
    • GeGeGe no Kitaro
    
    
    • (Detective) Conan — watching as new episodes they come out
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Kenny
  
  
  
  • Watching, technically a present tense verb
    
    
    
    • Birdy Wing
    
    
    • Spy x Family
    
    
    • Oishinbo
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Read and reading
    
    
    
    • Don’t toy with me, Miss Nagatoro by Nanashi
    
    
    • ‘Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World’ by Matt Alt
    
    
    • ‘First Person Singular’ by Haruki Murakami
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Doing
    
    
    
    • Gunpla!
    
    
    • 3D Printing
    
    
    • Kenny’s wife got a dog! Molly.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  


• Video games?

Other Recommendations:

• White Lotus (HBO), a fun mini-series about people on vacation


• The Big Hit Show, Season 4, a podcast on the Pokemon takeover of American pop culture — season 4 of some other podcast “The Big Hit Show”

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