Direct download links and full list coming soon, as well as an enhanced podcast version, probably an .m4a file with images where available.

...16. Bicicleteiros #57: Ocean City!.
17. Bicicleteiros #50: Bicicleteiros' 50th Episode!
18. Panic Living #70: Slash!.
19. By All Memes #2: What Do You Meme? (with Brian Ruckle).
20. Catching Up With Patrick #5.
21. NFTOS Top 20 of 2009.
22. Panic Living #65: I'm OFF!
23. Panic Living #64: ¡Viva La Tertulia!
24. Rowdy Ray's Report #1 (with Ray Dunlap).
25. Panic Living #71: Bicicleteiro.
26. Quest: Verano Sin Fin (music).
27. Panic Living #66: No! No! No! No!
28. Bicicleteiros #63: Tour de France Stage 13.
29. By All Memes #1 (with Brian Ruckle).
30. Bicicleteiros #58: Ain't Goin' Out (Giro d'Italia wrap-up).
31. Noticias desde el otro lado - parte 3 (con Andresito).
32. Bicicleteiros #59: TdF Preview.
33. Bicicleteiros #60: TdF Stage 5.
34. Panic Living #74: High Tension Please!
35. Quest: Cinema (music).
36. Bicicleteiros #56: Spring Classics Wrap-up.
37. Bicicleteiros #64: TdF Stage 18 (Time trial).
38. Bicicleteiros #62: TdF Stage 12.
39. Panic Living #73: Wear the Pants in Family.
40. Bicicleteiros #61: TdF Stage 4.

Image by Stone River.

Posted by Rob.

Tags:  NFTOS, Bicicleteiros on Twitter, Top 40, countdown, podcast, audio, video, music, .mp3, .m4a, .m4v

Here is our Top 20 so far this year. For most of the rest of the past countdowns (some of which are scattered among various podcast categories), please check in the folder labeled "what is NFTOS?"

1. Time to Shine in 2009! with Lizze.

2. Bicicleteiros #48: Tour Down Under preview with Hans.

3. Bicicleteiros #51: Boa Idéia! with Hans.

4. Momiji vs El Gringo: My Ex-Girlfriend Walks In (song).

5. Of Gadgets and Nanpa with Lizzie.

6. Bicicleteiros #49: Virtual Winner! with Hans.

7. Bicicleteiros #51.2: Ouija Board, Ouija Board with Hans.

8. Bicicleteiros #50: #50!

9. Rugby in Japan with Ben.

10. Bicicleteiros #54: Ticket to Ride! with Hans.

11. Catching up with Patrick.

12. Bicicleteiros #53: The Clap! with Hans.

13. Panic Living #65: I'm OFF!

14. Rob Interviews Haqq in Sancha.

15. Bicicleteiros #55: Stayin' Alive!

16. Panic Living #67: Snack Forever!

17. Panic Living #66: No! No! No! No!

18. Tokyo Panic Living #64: ¡Viva la Tertulia!.

19. Noticias desde el otro lado con Andrés.

20. Panic Living #68: Sugi to Sakura (��桜).

The podcast track was re-uploaded (something was wrong with the file the first time around) and it was uploaded without intro-outro music because of trouble with my 'GarageBand' editing application.  Sorry!

Photo:  Totally random.

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, Top 20, podcast, audio, video, .mp3, .m4a, .m4v

This video was made available as a podcast back in February 2006. Not sure the exact date it was filmed anymore, but we uploaded it on the 6th. Here's the original blog post.

Flo-Union, is a monthly event that takes place at The Pink Cow in Shibuya.

This event has seen several venues, organizers, and has taken on several incarnations over the years.

It is now organized by David Roy who, among other things, does an event called QuickFlickWorld, VJs for various events, does live paintings and digital animation work for Japanese anime.

Back when I still lived in Osaka, I asked Alex and Makiko to check out the Cow on the advice of Guido Saldana, for a NFTOS art show. Filmed and edited by Alex, it features Makiko David and artist Tomoko Ichimura.

Posted by Rob.

Tags: NFTOS, Flo-Union, The Pink Cow, Cream Latte, QuickFlickWorld, David Roy, Tomoko Ichimura, Alex Brooke, Makikomo, art, music, poetry, live painting, DJ, VJ, event, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, 渋谷, �京, 日本

Alex and I just made a promo video featuring music by DJ Wes!!



Posted by Rob.

Tags: DJ Wes, Alex Brooke, LearnJapanesePod.com, makikomo soap, Tokyo, Kagurazaka, Japan

Here's an update of our most downloaded files and a snapshot of the next 40 files on NFTOS, #s 120 to 160.

120. Charles Billard: ALT Rap Answers the Questions. 121. Panic Living #6: Earthquake!. 122. Panic Living #2: Business as Usual. 123. Picnic video. 124. Talk Show #15: Deepresso. 125. Bicicleteiros #3: 23 Minutes in Brussels with Hans & Rob. 126. Panic Living #7: National Rain Appreciation Day. 127. Panic Living #9: Our first TOP 100! (from #100-57). 128. Talk Show #13: Alex, Makiko, Patrick Widdess and Rob in Kagurazaka. 129. Rule No. 1: Don't Talk About Bike Club (that's BikeClubOsaka.com ) with Erik. 130. Talk Show #14: Summer [was] Almost Over with Alex & Rob. 131. Priceless Talk #1: Appalachian Adventure with Hans & Rob. 132. Anonymous: Indian Technician remix. 133. DJ Bobo (a.k.a. Renew Audio): Shark Attack! 134. Rob creates the Groove Harvest poster. 135. Panic Living #4: Ray Dunlap calls. 136. Alex & Rob: Talk Show #20. 137. David Roy as Pastor Ted. 138. Makiko's Nature video. 139. Jerry Gordon: Playing with the Arrow 3. 140. Alex, Jonny Heartbreaker and Patrick Widdess: 3 Men and a Couch. 141. The QuickFlickWorld Tokyo Crew: Nakameguro to the World Pt 1 recorded at Cafe Combine. 142. Makiko & Rob: What are you making? 143. Panic Living #21: Allergies. 144. Priceless Talk #11: ...and then there were four. 145. Charles Billard: Triple Decker. 146. Beb's Trash Talk (in Japanese). 147. Priceless Talk #9: Solo en el Suelo (until joined by Hans and Waka). 148. Bicicleteiros #1: Let's Roll!. 149. Prapatang Kitchen #4. 150. Panic Living #22: Breath of Life. 151. Me and TripleB #1. 152. News From The Tub with Rob (not available). 153. What is Nama? 154. Panic Living #18: "Nama." 155. Nama Artshow Info for 4/1. 156. Leftover Turkey (Thanksgiving in Shibuya) video. 157. Alex Brooke: Crap Hotel in Nagoya. 158. Scrambled Eggnog video. 159. Panic Living #17: Peace from the Other Side. 160. Panic Living #14: Latebreaking News! (...at that time). 161. Alex's DJ Sayonara @ Cafe Absinthe.

(more links coming soon!)

And here are links the previous 1-121 countdowns: 94-121, 81-93, 41-80, the TOP 40).

Photo: Found Alex online, lookin' all buff and tan. Posted by Rob.

While I was on vacation, Libsyn updated their service, so I couldn't edit any previous blogs with their links intact. Now it's working fine again. It was probably just a PC/mac thing, but it did get me to start backing up whatever I post on the blog on a clipboard as well. So that's why I ended up with some of the links on this post and the rest of the links, 94-121, elsewhere. What a pain in the ass! Thanks for fixing it, Libsyn.com!

81. Alex Brooke: Prapatang Grooves. 82. Charles Billard & Kurochi Sound System: The Voist. 83. Talk Show #4: The Summit. 84. Smouldering Door: Dancing Charcoal Pixies. 85. Anonymous: Indian Technician voice sample. 86. Linguistic massacre: Excusez-moi. 87. Alex and Greg Diss Grunge. 88. Panic Living #11 Tippy Top of 100. 89. Alex recites Orange Princess. 90. DJs Wes & Akio @ Cafe Barbes. 91. Prapatang Kitchen #1 with Alex. 92. Temakizushi Party at David Roy's. 93. Voice of Flying Koala. 94. Sayonara from Alex and Waka(yama). 95. Priceless Talk #8 with Andrew in Auckland. 96. Panic Living #13: Unlucky?. 97. Tsuchifumazu art show. 98. Limelight Circus LIVE @ L'Institut Franco-Japonais. 99. Hans with Horns on Cinco de Mayo. 100. Talk Show #17: Channeling The Departed Spirit of Alex. 101. ALT Rap (DJ Kung-fu Grip remix). 102. Neil & Brazil. 103. Panic Living #5: Don't Cry Over Spilt Coffee. 104. Birthday Greeting from Hans. 105. Charles Billard & Co.: G.I. Joe. 106. Talk Show #9: World Peace Squared. 107. Meet the I. 108. Jerry Gordon: La Stish. 109. Rob: Ichijiku Chant. 110. Bashiri do Cavaco: Smoke on the Water. 111. Cycling in Osaka. 112. Patrick in Tokyo 25-Nov-2006. 113. Alex: Prapatang Kitchen 2 video. 114. Jerry Gordon: ALT (Anarchy Larynx Tatoo). 115. Panic Living #12: Indian Summer. 116. Panic Living #6: Earthquake!. 117. Charles Billard: Pajammin' Party. 118. Hans Discusses Sweden vs Germany and Dragonflies. 119. Quest: That Ass Is Your Meal Ticket. 120. Panic Living #8: National Couch Appreciation Day. 121. Hans Birdwatching in Colorado.

(see the rest of the links: 94-121, 41-80, the TOP 40). Posted by Rob. .

After the interest spawned by our recent TOP 40 countdown, I've decided to list the next 40 or so, although I don't have the space on our account for an audio recap right now.

The biggest surges were DJ Wes talking about Osaka events way back in February 2006 (up 20 places!), Will Spin's JR Song (19 places) and Alex's and my Talk Show #6 - Baka Gaijin (16 places). I had to listen to #6 again to see what all the fuss was about--was it just the catchy title, or was it Alex's song "Tales from Prapatang" which we slipped in at the end?

Three new files have snuck into the TOP 40 since our 25 May countdown, my Panic Living #3, Alex, B-chan and I at Cafe Amanto and Alex's prophetic Mexican Fiesta.

So here go the next 40 files as of 6 June. 41. Alex's One Man Ramble from Nakatsu. 42. Alex: Prapatang Grooves. 43. Alex's room cleaning video: 24 Hours in Nakatsu. 44. Learn English. 45. Talk Show #8: The Governor of California. 46. Talk Show #2: World Cup. 47. Tin's Hall video. 48. Jonny Heartbreaker: Baby. 49. What's Your Favorite Word in Japanese?. 50. MFTOS #4. 51. Sayonara from Osaka. 52. J-League soccer: Kawasaki Frontale vs Cerezo Osaka. 53. Postcard from China #1. 54. Panic Living #9, or a countdown within the countdown: #56-#17 of 100 as of 26-Sept-2006. 55. Loop Line #3. 56. Deus Ex Machina: Domination. 57. About another podcast: Broken English. 58. "I've got the sea..." - Alex. 59. Postcard from Fiji. 60. Excuse me, Sir. 61. What Are You Making? #2 - with Makiko. 62. World Cup Reality Check. 63. Cafe Barbes. 64. Panorama. 65. Talk Show #5. 66. Haqq in Tokyo - Interview. 67. Prologue - Intro to NFTOS. 68. I Like Meat - Kansai-no-kai video. 69. Jikoshoukai - Makiko introduces herself in Nihongo. 70. Talk Show #9: World Peace Squared. 71. Alex Fakes It. 72. Dancing Charcoal Pixies - Smouldering Door. 73. Kurochi Sound System (feat. Charles Billard). 74. Talk Show #16 - Couch Therapy. 75. Postcard from Tokyo (by request only). 76. Mundo Popular 2 @ L'Institut - video. 77. DJ Wes & DJ Paccage chatting at Cafe Barbes. 78. Alex & Greg (a.k.a. Jonny Heartbreaker) take cheap shots at the Days of Grunge. 79. Panic Living #11 - Top 20 of our first 100 files as of 26-Sept-2006. 80. Indian Technician sample - anonymous. What's coming up next time? Stuff like #81. News From The Tub #2 with Alex...

Posted by Rob.

We haven't done that many videos yet this year, but we've come up with a new formula which seems to be quite popular, and that is the music program, "Music From the Other Side," which features mostly tunes by our friends.

What do I do when I wake up in the middle of the night and I can't get back to sleep? I get curious about our libsyn stats and try to figure out what people are downloading and why?! A complete nerdquest, I know, but I've also noticed that dragging stuff up every once in awhile helps regenerate interest in older files that, for whatever reason (usually timing in relation to other files), have been overlooked.

Here are our top 2007 files as of April 14th, which I will rank in ascending order as I get around to it, with the exception of the top 3 podcasts, which are all unsurprisingly music programs (this also helps out the files that are lagging behind). We don't really have any big numbers yet this year. With this year's files only, we are averaging 67 downloads per podcast (26 podcatchers, 41 web downloads). Yesterday we had 107 total impressions, last week we had 307 and last month we had 3,624. We're at a total of 30,369 since starting NFTOS, which is nothing compared with what our senpai site Learn Japanese has been getting.

1. MFTOS #2 with 228 unique impressions. 2. MFTOS #3 with 194. 3. MFTOS #4 with 152. 4. Kicking the Dane's Head. 5. Crap Hotel in Nagoya - Alex Brooke. 6. I Saw the Moon Again from my Hospital Room. 7. Me & TripleB #2. 8. Panic Living #18. 9. Prapatang Kitchen #4. 10. Panic Living #19. 11. On The Couch with Alex, Johnny Heartbreaker & Patrick in Nakatsu. 12. Triple Decker - Charles Billard. 13. Bicicleteiros #1. 14. Panic #17. 15. Crap! with Alex. 16. Talk Show #20. 17. Talk Show #21. 18. Panic Living #16. 19. Jonny Heartbreaker on the Couch in Kagurazaka (12-Feb-07). 20. Panic Living #21 - enhanced podcast. 21. Bicicleteiros #3. 22. Nama Art Show Info (31-Jan-07). 23. Panic Living #20. 24. What is Nama? (7-Mar-07). 25. Nama Art Show Info (22-Mar-07). 26. Gonbe & Sláinte! with the Flying Koala, Hyun-Ju & Jonny Heartbreaker. 27. Humble Pie - Alex in Nagoya. 28. Rattlesnake Baby - Hans stuck in traffic. 29. Panic Living #22 enhanced podcast. 30. Priceless Talk #12 with Hans, Brian & Rob. 31. Bicicleteiros #4 with Hans & Rob. 32. Panic Living #23: To Have and Have Not. 33. Priceless Talk #13 with Hans & Rob. 34. Wine Red no Kokoro a.k.a. "Jerry's Funk" - Jerry, Sae & Alex. (re-uploaded)

Posted by Rob.

40 contributions to NFTOS from people other than Alex or myself. 1. Quest: Shinbashi Station. 2. Quest: ALT Re-Rap. 3. Charles Billard & Alex Brooke: Nakatsu Music Project* (okay, so Alex is on this one). 4. Danyk, Ivan: Tin's Hall video (yes, the first half was by Alex). 5. Charles: Icitte les Oeufs video. 6. Quest: Nebra-ska. 7. Charles: Postcard from China #1. 8. Quest: All The Little Things. 9. The Trenchparrots: Irrepressible Urges of Spring ("Who are these guys really?" It has been asked). 10. The Smouldering Door (Charles Billard and Jerry Gordon): Wroclaw Panache. 11. Will Spin: JR (Japan Rail) Song. 12. DJ Kung-fu Grip: ALT Rap (DJ Kung-fu Grip Mix). 13. Charles: Postcard from China #2. 14. Okha: Message from the Flying Koala. 15. Bashiri do Cavaco: Cavaquinho debut!. 16. The Trenchparrots: My Ex-Girlfriend Walks In. 17. Anonymous Indian technician voice sample (Why does the original sample have more downloads than the remix?). 18. The Trenchparrots: Nuthin' to Say. 19. Jonny Heartbreaker: Baby* (this one contains a bit of Alex, just as the first recording had Rob on backing vocals) . 20. Hans: Birthday Greeting. 21. The Trenchparrots: Footprints. 22. Jerry Gordon: Playing with the Arrow 2. 23. Jet Jaguar: News. 24. Deus Ex Machina: Domination (remix). 25. Noisivelvet: Sharkattack!. 26. Hans: Germany vs Sweden and Dragonflies!. 27. Hans with horns: Cinco de Mayo. 28. Hans: In Search of Ptarmigan. 29. Charles: ALT Rap Answers the Questions. 30. Anonymous: Indian Tech Remix. 31. Smouldering Door/Takezo Tabo Aoki: G.I. Joe. 32. Jerry Gordon: Playing with the Arrow 3. 33. Smouldering Door / Plink Plonk Congress: Dancing Charcoal Pixies. 34. Jerry Gordon: ALT Anarchy Larynx Tatoo mix. 35. BEB: Trash Talk (in Japanese). 36. Kurochi Sound Art: The Voist (with Charles). 37. Charles Billard: Pajammin' Party* (this was posted in "events" along with upcoming info for Charles' next event "Inter-play"). 38. David Roy as Pastor Ted* (filmed & edited by Rob). 39. Jerry Gordon: La Stish. 40. Makikomo: Nature. Lots of new stuff we'll be releasing soon including new recordings by Charles, Quest & Jonny Heartbreaker! Photo by Alex. Posted by Rob.

I'm not sure why this video has gotten the most hits on Revver, but I have a couple ideas. First, I put it up during the World Cup and I think the title "La Terrazza" might also be the name of a group of Italian football supporters. Second, the DJ tag probably drew some attention. Anyway, at the moment it has over 400 views, which is not that many, but not that bad either. Although it's not my favorite video, I had fun filming it and editing it. To find the other NFTOS videos on Revver, just do a search for the NFTOS tag. Next I'll post our top video on YouTube which has quite a few more hits than this one. Hey Alex, what's the top Learn Japanese video on Revver? Posted by Rob.

If you want to discuss NFTOS related stuff, promote a new project, or just show how OTAKU (nerdy) you are, I've created a NFTOS group on MySpace. Of course, we still have the forums on mixi (in Japanese and English) and MSN Groups. Check them out!

Posted by Rob.

p.s. The lastest NFTOS forum created is on facebook.com

(In progress) Here are our pride and joy, our claims to fame, as of 10 August 2006. Not all great, but then again, some of these have helped pay for the gadgets that make them possible and have gotten us quite a bit of free food and drinks to boot. 1. The undisputed ALT Rap video. 2. Alex & Rob's excellent bicycle adventure: Loop Line #1. 3. ALT Rap Improv with live drums! 4. Nabe Party at David M's. 5. Loop Line #2. 6. Loop Line #4. 7. J-League soccer: Frontale vs Cerezo. 8. How to Pick Up Girls. 9. 24 Hours in Nakatsu. 10. Don't Panic Danyk & crew @ Tin's Hall. 11. Postcard from Tokyo. 12. Who is Rob?. 13. What's Your Favorite Word in Japanese? 14. Watching the World Cup at Bar Grain. 15. Loop Line #3. 16. Panorama. 17. Postcard from China. 18. News From The Tub #1. 19. Discobeans. 20. Icitte les Oeufs... 21. Postcard from Fiji. 22. Cafe Barbes. 23. Prologue. 24. Alex & Rob's Talk Show #1. 25. Quest's ALT Re-Rap mp3. 26. Makiko's Jikoshoukai. 27. New From The Tub #2 feat. Alex. 28. El Gringo's Bossa Lounge @ Cafe Absinthe. 29. La Terrazza @ Cafe Pangea. 30. I Like Meat. 31. Flo-Union @ The Pink Cow. 32. Alex's Soapmonster Song. 33. Quest's Shinbashi Station. 34. Charles's artwork Collective Memory as filmed by Rob. 35. Trenchparrots' Irrepressible Urges of Spring. 36. Talk Show #4: The Summit. 37. Nakatsu Music Project. 38. Talk Show #3. 39. Postcard from China by Charles. 40. Trash Talk with Beb about the environment (in Japanese) from her podcast BEB! GOODY! GOODY!. Posted by Rob.

Here are the lowest of the low, as of 10 August 2006. NOT all bad, but then again, some of these are NOT what we want to be remembered for when we're dead: 41. Mundo Popular 2 @ L'Institut. 42. Prapatang Kitchen #1. 43. Walking Home from Murphy's Pub (discontinued to protect the guilty). 44. ALT Rap mp3. 45. A Chat with DJ Wes. 46. Talk Show #2: World Cup. 47. Panic Living #1. 48. Alex's Orange Princess (an ode to DJ Sachiko). 49. Trenchparrots' Nuthin' to Say. 50. Meeting at Ebisu Stn. to Eat Meat. 51. Will Spin's JR Loop Line Song. 52. Quest's All The Little Things. 53. Trenchparrot's My Ex-Girlfriend Walks In. 54. Greetings from Wakayama. 55. Tsuchifumazu Art Show. 56. Happy Birthday to Rob from Hans. 57. Trenchparrots' Footprints. 58. "Cafe Velo" visits Cafe Amanto. 59. Smoldering Door's Wroclaw Panache. 60. Fiesta Mexicana at Umeda Sky Bldg. 61. ALT Rap Vocals Only - Please sample & mix! 62. Panic Living #2: Business as Usual. 63. Prapatang Kitchen #2. 64. Talk Show #6: 馬鹿外人! 65. Hans discusses dragonflies while watching Sweden vs Germany in World Cup 2006. 66. Hans with horns on Cinco de Mayo. 67. Sushi Party at David R's. 68. Hans looks for Ptarmigan in Colorado. 69. Anonymous Indian Techie Remix. 70. Limelight Circus Live @ L'Institut. 71. Quest's song Nebra-ska. 72. Alex's song I Wanna Tell You. 73. Alex Wins 2006 Tour de France. 74. Panic Living #3. 75. Alex's One Man Ramble from Nakatsu. 76. Talk Show #5. 77. Anonymous Indian Techie Sample. 78. Alex & Neil Talk Brazil. 79. Talk Show #7: Straight from the Heart. 80. Talk Show #8: The Governor. Posted by Rob.

MIDDLE 20: 21. Prologue - video, 22. Discobeans - video, 23. Tubcast #2 (Alex) - video, 24. La Terrazza @ Cafe Pangea - video, 25. Flow Union @ The Pink Cow - video, 26. Shinbashi Station (Quest) - song, 27. Makiko's Soap Monster (Alex) - spoken word, 28. Talk Show #1 (Alex & Rob), 29. Introduction: Makiko (日本語) - video, 30. Cafe Absinthe - video, 31. ALT Re-Rap (Quest) - song, 32. I Like Meat- video, 33. Nakatsu Music Project (Alex & Charles) - song, 34. Postcard from China #2 - video, 35. Collective Memory - cell phone video, 36. Irrepressible Urges of Spring (Trenchparrots) - song, 37. On The Way Home From Murphy's Pub - video, 38. Trash Talk with Beb (日本語) - audio podcast, 39. DJ Wes Interview - audio podcast, 40. Prapatang Kitchen #1: "Today We Making Egg" with Umbeke Seleko.

Rob asked me how our collaborative video efforts were doing on the Learn Japanese website and the answer is very well. In fact, the NFTOS videos we posted there overtook the Kanji videos by Stan Fairbank (big props) which were intended to be the main focus. That might be due to the limited Kanji learner demographic vs the everything else demographic including Japan nerds, artists, musicians and penguin lovers. Anyway,  the no.1 video is of course ALT rap which got 6521 hits. That got played on all kinds of podcasts the latest being Otaku Generation. (Show Direct download.) Favorite word got 4487 hits, I like meat got a whopping 4224 hits, Makiko's self introduction was 3,134 and the Maruchika video with Beb totaled 3685. 

In our struggle to define what NFTOS is all about, it might help to clean out the cellar. These are the bottom 20 mp3 tracks and videos--all with well under 100 downloads. Who knows what else you might find, if you snoop around? Help bring your favorite videos and songs out of the cellar! JUST CLICK and enjoy! Dead last: ALT Rap Vocal Track (Rob), 2. Sushi Party - video, 3. Wroclaw Panache (Smoldering Door) - ecclectic music, 4. Birdwatching in Colorado (Hans) - video, 5. Mexican Fiesta - mobile phone video, 6. Hans With Horns - video, 7. All The Little Things (Quest) - dubby instrumental, 8. ALT Rap (Alex Brooke version) - song, 9. Cafe Amanto - talk, 10. Japan Rail Song feat. samples from Tennoji Station (Will Spin), 11. Prapatang Kitchen #2 - video, 12. I Like Meat(report from Ebisu Station) - mp3, 13. Footprints (Trenchparrots) - song, 14. Wakayama Sayonara - video, 15. Tsuchifumazu Art Show - video, 16. World Cup Predictions (Alex & Rob Talk Show #2), 17. Birthday Greeting from Hans - video, 18. Prapatang Kitchen #1 - video, 19. Tom's Diner (Trenchparrots) - bad cover song, 20. Nuthin' to Say (Trenchparrots) - song. Honorable mention: Orange Princess (Alex) - spoken word. Posted by Rob. p.s. Please let me know if any of the links are wrong!

Since Alex and I started this vlog back in January, we've deleted the counter and deleted the cluster map a few times, but our Libsyn stats show that we have over 5,000 unique downloads to date (with 1,283 podcatchers and 3,719 web downloads). Some of our videos and mp3s have also been posted on Learn Japanese, such as the ALT Rap, which debuted there and has gotten over 5,000 downloads on Learn Japanese alone. On this homepage we have 17 podcasts with over 100 downloads each, and one perched at 99 downloads, and all except one are video. Here's our TOP 20: 1. ALT Rap - 286, 2. Loop Line #1 - 257, 3. Nabe Party - 243, 4. Loop Line #2 - 159, 5. Cerezo vs Frontale - 142, 6. Loop Line #4 - 134, 7. Postcard from Tokyo - 130, 8. Tin's Hall - 126, 9. Tubcast #1 - 124, 9. Alex's Room Cleaning - 124, 11. Who is Rob? - 118, 11. How To Pick Up Girls- 118, 13. What's Your Favorite Word? - 115, 14. Postcard from China #1 - 114, 15. Panorama Art Show Party - 113, 16. Loop Line #3 - 110, 17. World Cup: Reality Check - 105, 18. Cafe Barbes - 99, 19. Icitte Les Oeufs... - 93, 20. Postcard from Fiji - 93. Alex, how are our collaborations looking over on Learn Japanese?

Introduction: This podcast is a collaboration which started out as an MSN Community by the same name sometime back in 2001. Roberto El Gringo (also known by numerous other aliases) had just returned from a trip to New Zealand, where he'd visited his JET Programme buddy Andrew in Auckland, and where he'd met several others who would later end up in the NFTOS mix.

New Year's Eve 2000 Rob met Okha on a bus from Greymouth bound for Queenstown, South Island. Okha was keeping a journal full of vivid colors mysterious hangul writing. They both promised to keep in touch, and also agreed to start painting when they got home to Japan and Korea. They encouraged each other by posting new artwork on NFTOS, and this exchange eventually led to joint art shows in Osaka, Seoul and Tokyo. It also took Rob to Korea 4 times and Okha to Osaka and Tokyo countless times!

FFWD to 2009, and another art show is in the works for this May at The Pink Cow in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Image by Okha (a.k.a. flying koala), video by Alex Brooke.

Posted by Rob.

Tags:  NFTOS, Osaka, Japan, Seoul, Korea, art, events, blog, podcast, video