Category: Video Archives

Videos from 2005-2007

Conveyor Belt Sushi

Rich Pav 2 Comments

I wasn’t going to put this one out because the battery died before I could finish it, but what the heck. It’s not like this is Neilson ratings week or anything.

Tony provides the Japanese Phrase of the Day:

早くしてくれない？
はやくしてくれない？
Hayaku-shite kure nai?
“Would you please hurry the #$%! up?”

The “#$%!” part isn’t actually expressed in a specific word. It’s in the tone. He certainly didn’t learn that attitude from me.

Were you hoping for a podcast instead of a video? Actually, I’ve been practicing, but I haven’t recorded anything I feel like releasing. But if you really want to hear something and you don’t care if it’s not that great, you can download the file “EXMIC057.MP3” from this directory:

https://herroflomjapan.com/podcasts/

I haven’t listened to it. If you don’t like it, trash it and listen to something else. On the plus side, it has lots of subway noises because I didn’t hit the stop button while I was on the subway.

And about the contest: I’m not about to ask anyone to vote for me every day for two weeks. That’s plain absurd. I’m just happy I was nomiated.

VIDEO

A Video Tour of Roppongi

Rich Pav 17 Comments

I can’t believe there are nearly 300 subscribers to this…thing. What’s wrong with you people? I mean, I can understand why my friends and family like this stuff, but the other 295 of you? TV and radio programming must be pretty awful if you’re coming here for entertainment. Whatever. I’m glad ya’ll enjoy it. It’s fun for me too. This is like being famous, but without the burden of having to keep track of my millions.

Tonight I started off at the Hobgoblin pub in Akasaka because I was thirsty for Blackthorn cider. Afterwards I turned the camera on myself while I took a little stroll through the neighborhood but…well, you’ll see. It didn’t go so well, so I walked to Roppongi where I had a bit more fun. Then I went home. The end.

I have to apologize to the blind guy who left a comment here a week or two ago. I’ve been meaning to put a podcast together for you. I hope you don’t feel left out. How about if I just e-mail you the 50 or so hours of unedited audio I have saved?

Thanks to everyone who filled out the questionnaire. The results are interesting. I like feedback way more than votes. But votes are kind of nice too. If you happen to be at Podcast Alley voting for other shows you like, heck, you might as well vote for me too while you’re there, right?

VIDEO

Meal Ticket

Rich Pav 7 Comments

I know I promised that my next work of art would be a podcast. Hey, I lied. I can’t help it — videos are just so frikkin’ easy to make! Post-production is simply connecting the Clie to my PC via USB and doing a cut & past job in QuickTime Pro. I save it as a self-contained hinted movie with MP4 video and audio encoding.

Well, I was in Shibuya a few nights ago after work to buy a wide angle lens so I can shoot panoramas. I didn’t have my mics, but I did have my Sony Clie PEG-NX70V, which as you can see I’m really starting to enjoy using as a video camera. Even with plenty of other data on the 128MB Memory Stick (text articles off the web, e-books, WAV files from the voice recorder, Atok for handwriting recognition in Japanese, etc.) I still have enough room for about 40 minutes of video. Granted, it’s only 160 X 112 pixels big, but it doesn’t look bad at all when viewed at double size, does it?

So I decided to do a wee little videocast of a Japanese style fast food restaurant. This is really mundane stuff to me, but I know there will be lots of people diggin’ it because it’s different and it’s a glimpse into the daily life here. I like that I can whip out my mics or camera practically anywhere and just start talking. It took a while to build up the guts, but I’m completely over the self-consciousness now!

OK, the next one will be a podcast, I promise.

VIDEO (10.3 MB)

Tokyo Disney Sea Videoblog

Rich Pav 6 Comments

It’s funny, lately I’ve been posting more frequently and promoting my podcast/videocast all over the place, but the number of subscribers is going down while at the same time I’m getting lots of positive feedback. Go figger.

I videoblogged my family’s weekend trip to Tokyo Disney Sea. From the point of view of the video’s host, I should have done more narration, but I was there as a husband and father, so I wanted to focus my attention on my family. As much as I love to share my life with all of yuns (that’s plural for you), frankly, it’s not a something that appeals to my wife and I respect that. I did have her listen to some of the audio I captured with the binaural mics and she was impressed, so at least she can understand the appeal. She is who she is, I am who I am, and that’s that. There’s no need evaluate the situation any deeper than that. That’s where couples get in trouble.

Half way through the day it hit me that 90% of what you hear in Disneyland is, well…fake. It’s a really, really well-done fake, but listening to a podcast recorded there, heck, you might as well be plugged directly into the PA system that’s pumping out all the sound effects. I’m not a Disney hater; they’re absolutely the best at what they do. I’ll save the details for the next podcast.

In the meantime, I posted the video I shot to commonbits.org. To retrieve it, you’ll need to learn how to use BitTorrent. There’s a tutorial here. If you can’t figure it out, don’t worry about it; we’re not talking Oscar award-winning cinematography here. It’s not that great of a loss.

The guy running commonflix.org let me get away with it this time, but the content doesn’t seem to be the kind of stuff that’s normally hosted there. If anyone knows a more appropriate site to use, please let me know.

So the file linked to below is a torrent file that contains data used by programs like iPodderX (Mac), DopplerRadio (Win) or Azeurus (Java) to download the actual video.

disneysea.mp4.torrent

Goin’ to Work

Rich Pav 13 Comments

I have to make this quick because I’m meeting the family at Tokyo Disneyland today. I filmed my commute to work yesterday. The file isn’t any bigger than any of the MP3’s I’ve posted.

Would you like to see more of these? Yes? No?

Also, I’d really like to be able to call Herro Flom Japan an “Award-Winning Podcast.” Could you please nominate me for a People’s Choice award in the soundseeing category? I’ll mention it on my next podcast too.

VIDEO!