Things that I'm excited about right now

Update [Mar. 25, 2010]

• The kichigai promotional site is up and running and can be found here.
  
• Another short film that I worked on last year, "Banki", is a nominee at the Tokyo Short Shorts Film Festival taking place later this spring!

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It's been a very enjoyable month thus far even if I haven't been lucky enough to win an Olympic medal. I've been busy meeting friends, both old and new, and working on a pretty large swath of projects that will hopefully make waves later in 2010.

Here are some of the big things that are making me smile:

Script. I'm currently working on the spec script for a film that we'll probably start filming in late March or April. I'm very stoked about this because we're exploring a new genre and looking to build on what we learned from the production of Little Tokyo (more info on that later).

Pre-production. Not exactly film-related, but in the prep-stages nonetheless, a couple of new web projects look like they may be getting off the ground soon. One is an information portal related to living in Japan and the other is a site about celebrity fashion. My role in both projects is mostly on the developer side which is probably hard for some of you to believe--especially regarding the fashion site.

Filming. Japan Booze Blind continues to grow within the Japan Eats network. The word 'network' is apt here as we've been experimenting with live tapings of the show, and the next one is scheduled for March 28th at 3pm (Tokyo time). Live tapings via Livestream are a blast because I can interact with the audience in (nearly) real-time. The show on the 28th will deal with my favorite spring pastime, hanami. This post over at Tokyo Terrace will give you a good idea of what we've been up to.

Post-production. A film that I worked on last fall, Kichigai (Japanese title: Wasted), is in post production now and will hopefully be screened at a film festival later in 2010. There's a website being developed to help promote the film, but I've been advised that it's not ready to go live, so I'll hold off on posting a link just yet.

Promotion.  We'll be hearing back next month about whether or not Little Tokyo will be screened at the 2010 Short Shorts Film Festival. Please keep your fingers crossed  for us. Another film that I had a leading role in, Banki, will also hopefully get screened. Fortunately (for me, anyway), Little Tokyo and Banki are not entered in the same category.

Of course, there's also the redesign of the Tokyo Swallows website to be excited about. That took quite a bit of hair-pulling and face-slapping (my own) to get under control, but I think that it was definitely worth it. There are still several things to get sorted out, but I think that we'll have a better feel for what we need to do once more content gets posted within the new framework of the site.


And as many of you know, I've jumped face-first into the world of social networking sites (SNS). Facebook, Mixi, Twitter, and Disqus to name a few. I've actually hooked this site up with Disqus, a service that aggregates the social aspects of several SNS platforms, so make sure to leave a comment at the end of this post and see how it all works. I'm very interested in seeing how it helps users keep track of the ongoing dialogue as it moves and changes across the web.

Anyway, one thing that I'm very grateful for is that I've been able to easily reconnect with a bunch of people that I didn't have any idea how to contact, and that includes both family and friends.

So those are some of the things that I've been thinking about, stressing over, and working on recently. Just need to stay motivated and keep working with the talented people around me. Hopefully I can keep up.

Things that I'm excited about right now

I'm just the translator, so I don't pull a commission on this

A couple of close friends will be headed out this way in a couple of months, and of couse that thrust my mind into tour guide mode.

What are we going to do for fun? Where are we going to eat? Who are we going to hang out with? Day trips?

And then I remembered that a little language ability can go a long way for travelers in these here parts. Then I remembered that I translated a Japanese phrasebook for novices last year called, Konnichiwa, Nihongo! (basically: Hello, Japanese!).

It's mostly aimed at anyone who has just arrived and is planning to stay for a bit (ie. they have a work visa), so it's only available on the Japanese version of Amazon at this point. However, I'd venture to say that it would be very helpful for anyone staying in Japan for more than a couple of days.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there for anyone planning a trip to Japan.

*Embarrassing note: they must have run out of space because they forgot the last 'i' on my surname (you can see for yourself if you flip through the pages (virtually) at the Amazon link above).

I'm just the translator, so I don't pull a commission on this

Tokyo First Snow

The snowflakes are so large you can nearly hear them hit the ground tonight.

It always makes me happy to this kind of thing--especially over here. I suppose I wouldn't be quite so pleased if I owned a car, but it'll all burn off in the morning anyway.

Makes me a little nostalgic for home, I must say. Time to throw the mock fireplace disc on the DVD player and crack open a couple Capri Suns.

Tokyo First Snow

Japan Booze Blind: Third type beer

Japan Eats is steadily building up content, and the feedback that we're getting from friends and followers on Twitter and Facebook has been been fantastic!

There are now four JBB videos loaded on the site, and our food show, Tokyo Bites, should make its debut in February. We're definitely very excited about this--especially since the title of the site does not currently match up with the majority of the content that we've produced thus far.

If you have any suggestions for what we should do a future show on, whether it's Japan's interpretation of Korean soups such as sundubu or something as standard as sushi, please feel free to either comment on this site, over at Japan Eats, or on Twitter.

Or you can also e-mail me at pellegrini [at] japaneats [dot] tv.

And while you're at it, please drop by Japan Eats and watch the latest JBB episode which covers three beers produced by brewing-behemoth Kirin. My two guests on the show are Rachael White, food-blogger extraordinaire over at Tokyo Terrace, and Joe Nakamura, an actor that I met while filming last year's Hagetaka.

Japan Booze Blind: Third type beer

Mike Salinetti's tour

My cousin, Mike, left for Iraq (via Kuwait) a little bit before Christmas, and he's posted a set of photos here.

Sounds like he's planning to upload more photos in the future, so check back again soon.

Mike Salinetti's tour

Product flying off the shelves

Happy New Year!

Looks like someone is going to be getting a nice, belated Christmas gift.

Tenshodo, an upscale and storied jewelry shop in Ginza, was relieved of more than three million dollars worth of luxury watches during the New Year's break. Thieves drilled a hole in the concrete wall of the building, went down into the basement of the building, and absconded with some 200 timepieces.



Elsewhere, this time at the Shinjuku branch of Tiffany's, an English-speaking Asian man rushed out of the store with four engagement rings in his possession. He was not immediately apprehended.

It seems looks like some people have created their own version of "lucky bag" in the midst of the economic downturn. With nearly one-third of Japan's largest companies considering cutbacks in hiring, it is perhaps not very surprising that petty theft is on the rise.

Meanwhile, Joshua "Jake" Adelstein, a former crime beat reporter in Japan and author of the briskly selling Tokyo Vice, sat down for a very intriguing interview with the Japan Times in which he explained some of his views on what makes the underbelly of Japan (as well as the rest of the country, for that matter) tick. Japanese publishers reportedly won't go near the book at this point, so an English version is the only option for interested parties.

And concurrently, in Kobe, one of the subjects of Adelstein's book, the Yamaguchi-gumi of Japan's inimitable yakuza, went into overdrive in an attempt to appease the local population by handing out cash to children at the annual mochi-making (rice cake) event that takes place at the end of December.

Local police believe that more than 1,000 people attended the event last week during which some lucky children made off with as much as three hundred dollars.

'Tis the season!

Product flying off the shelves

Random Shop Welcome Sign

The picture quality isn't great on this one, and my apologies for that, but I think you can still read the sign pretty easily. It's the welcome sign for a small store in Karuizawa.

This shop is on the road that leads from Karuizawa shinkansen (bullet train) station out to the Ginza area of this quiet Nagano prefecture mountain town.

I have no idea what the shop sells (it was closed for the winter)...I'll let you take your own guess.

The apostrophe leads me to believe that it could be the owner's (nick)name, but regardless of whence it originated I'm sure that several tourists before me have noticed it while walking by.

Random Shop Welcome Sign

Robert Glasper at the Cotton Club

Eight of us went to go see The Robert Glasper Experiment at the Cotton Club on Saturday night.

I first saw him perform at the same place back in April of this year, and it was great to hear several of the songs that I knew from his third album, In My Element, which was released in 2007. But that outing was a night with The Robert Glasper Trio, and this Saturday was a very different experience indeed.

Glasper's most recent album, Double-Booked (2009), is a solid and balanced slate of songs recorded by both The Trio and The Experiment. Saturday's performance involved songs by the latter with some intriguing covers thrown in for good measure (Radiohead, no less!).

Again, seeing and hearing the songs performed live adds several new layers of meaning to what I have been listening to for the past several months. And the band's playfulness and chemistry made for a very entertaining night that had my head rocking from the very moment that drummer Chris Dave started hitting things.

Also quite memorable for me was the liberal use of vocoder and keytar by saxophonist Casey Benjamin, and the connection between bassist Derrick Hodge and Chris Dave is truly a sight to behold. The grooves and riffs underpinning the Experiment's music makes this act an experience of both discovery and deja vu for any fan of jazz and hip hop.

Robert Glasper at the Cotton Club