Skip to main content

10th Anniversary

 March 4th was the 10th anniversary of Japan Jukebox. Ten years ago, we debuted our first episode on KRVS.

Time flies, huh? I guess a lot has changed since then.

Back then, I was creating playlists in my bedroom in Lafayette on my iPod Classic (the battery died somewhat recently and I intend to do surgery and replace it. I love that thing).

Living in Japan and experiencing the music I love firsthand seemed like an unattainable, but... here I am. I've even become friends with some of my favorite bands. If I stop to think about it, it all seems a little surreal.

Keeping Japan Jukebox going for as long as possible has always been our hope. Japanese music has never been "just a hobby" for us. And while I've taken more of a backseat the past several years leaving most the show's work to Cody and Zack, my passion is still there, if not stronger than ever.

So if you have listened to and enjoyed Japan Jukebox over the past ten years, thank you. I hope that we have introduced a lot of cool music to you.

The wheels haven't fallen off yet, so all aboard the Japan Jukebox Line. We still have a few more stops to make. 🚉

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The end of Japan Jukebox

 I've neglected this blog for a while, but have been wanting to revive it. I guess the first thing I should address is the ending of our radio show Japan Jukebox, though it is long-overdue. We ran Japan Jukebox from about (over?) 10 years with a new episode every week. It was a labor of love for us, because Japanese music has never been just a "hobby". It has been part of our lives for as long as we can remember. I enjoyed sharing my favorite music and finding a lot of new bands to share on the radio, but the weekly process was pretty overwhelming. It was rare that we would have episodes queued up for broadcast. It was almost always week by week, with the episodes finished and uploaded in the 11th hour. And of course life happens. I have gotten married, had children, become busy with work, etc. With less time to focus on Japan Jukebox, I couldn't guarantee the quality of the show. So, a while back, I limited my role. Without Zach and my brother Cody, the show would ha...

Live report! "Scrappy Travelling for Miles Tour 2023" NINE MILES & Kaminarigumo + Yoshiaki Manabe

 On July 14th, Cody and I attended Kaminarigumo's & Yoshiaki Manabe's "Scrappy Travelling for Miles Tour 2023" at Koenji HIGH. This was a particularly special show, because it featured the very first live performance of Yoshiaki Manabe's (from the pillows) "NINE MILES" solo project. For this new incarnation of NINE MILES, Keiji Ueno from Kaminarigumo takes charge of the vocals. Ghoma (also Kaminarigumo) provides keyboard. To start off, I'll write about how the return of NINE MILES and the album "Into the light again" came to be. The revival of NINE MILES started in early 2023 when Yoshiaki Manabe was asked to join Kaminarigumo's summer tour as the support guitarist. Manabe thought it would be an interesting idea to play as NINE MILES as an opening act, and asked the other members if they'd like to do it. He thought it would be nice to have a tour t-shirt for the occasion, so he asked his bandmate from the pillows Sawao Yamanaka ...

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of Losing Lawson's Campaign

From May 9th, the Lawson convenience stores in Japan started their promotion for the upcoming, anticipated sequel to 2017's Breath of the Wild, "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom". The campaign included various Zelda themed food items, as well as snacks. Arguably though, the most attractive feature of the campaign is(was?) the lottery. I tried nearly all of it, so I'll write about it here. First up, the food items.  The biggest charm about the Lawson Zelda collaboration food is that they are named as if they had been crafted in the game. I was most excited to try the "spicy pepper" version of the popular "Karaagekun" series. It has a nice level of spiciness; more so than any other versions of Karaagekun that I have tried. "Beast meat curry bread". Tasted basically like standard Japanese curry pan, but a very good one! I popped it in the toaster for a couple minutes and it was delicious. "Goron Spice dry-curry onigiri". Y...