What's happening in Osaka and Tokyo this weekend with the NFTOS crew? Alex and Rob chat about DJ events, the latest 関西?会 (Kansai no kai) in Ebisu*, art show parties, the Loop Line Cafe-Bar in Sendagaya, World Cup watching, the Italian football scandal and "Operación Puerto," which will keep many top professional cyclistis out of this year's Tour de France (starting tomorrow in Strasbourg, France). Attention all Tour de France teams: If you need a rider, I'm clean and I'll ride! Posted by Rob.

Hans discusses the differences between sand dragons and shadow dragons while watching Sweden vs Germany in the comfort of his Baltimore pad. 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.

Our current banner art and several more banners like it were created by Okha (a.k.a. Flying Koala, who used to live in Seoul, but who is most likely traveling somwhere in the US at the moment. Awhile back several of us were talking about having different language pages for NFTOS. Okha, ever energetic and creative, came up with this banner right away. While we decide how and when to use it, I thought we could just post it here now along with a link to the latest artwork on her blog. If you snoop around a bit you'll also find photos from past artshows in Seoul and Osaka, the 2002 World Cup in Seoul and Osaka, Okha's other visits to Osaka and all sort of travels and interesting stuff. If you can't read Korean, you'll probably still be able to recognize the MSN groups format. Posted by Rob.

I wasn't able to see the USA vs Ghana match last night (残念?), because they showed Italy vs Czech Repbublic here instead. I'd just woken up after a very short night of sleep--went to bed at 1:00 and woke up at 4:30, just in time to see a well-executed goal by Japan followed by a very creative goal by the canaries just before the half, at which point I decided to stay awake a little while longer, and ended up staying awake for the rest of the game. My grandfather e-mailed me for my take on the Americans' demise. He writes: "There's a lot of unhappiness here. I just heard a TV sports guy jump all over Donovan--who's home is just a couple of miles east of us. He said that Donovan was sleep-walking thru the whole game!!" Well, I'm sure we're not the only country with "armchair quarterbacks" trying to explain what went wrong at this world cup. What the hell do they know about football? Have they played in a World Cup? Same with Japan. I might not like Zico as a coach, but ultimately Brazil and Japan just don't compare do they? And Australia were much more physical and disciplined. They stayed in the game until the final whistle. I agree with the commentators on the Guardian's podcast who said the US were playing textbook football, and I think that it applies to Japan as well. They play it very well, but it's not very creative--so predictable to defend against. Kind of like running on first down and passing on third down in American football. But then what the hell do I know? Posted by Rob.

Today I downloaded a bunch of different shows on iTunes. Watched a cool video today from Des Grenouilles dans la Vallee about the World Cup as it is being experienced in San Francisco. You can see Mexican fans taking to the streets while celebrating their 3-1 victory vs (Iran?) and fans of a different green-white-red flag watching the U.S. vs Italy game (ouch!) which ended in a 1-1 draw. Another interesting World Cup related podcast is actually a a podcast which teaches you Argentine Slang podcast called Desde el Bano. Sofia's done 3 podcasts dealing specifically with the World Cup and football (soccer) vocabulary in general, and for the third episode she brings in her brother Julio who speaks like a typical Argentine male would about el futbol. Nathan Miller, who lives in Fukuoka, Japan, had another fun show on Bicycle Sidewalk. This was his 159th edition. This man is a prolific podcast producer! Sorry about all the missing accents. My computer only does English and Japanese. To do otherwise requires a bit of technical ingenuity which I don't have. And, finally, Alex and I recorded a bunch of coffee-fueled podcasts today which we weren't able to upload due to some upgrades that Libsyn are in the middle of doing. Posted by Rob.

Shout out to Otaku Generation who played our song. Yay for the OG crew! These guys must be an army. I've never heard so many people on the mic for a podcast. Sounds like they're all having a good time too. WARNING: These guys are serious Otaku. Don't listen to it unless you are already warped (if you are reading this, you probably already are). Discovered by Alex. Posted by Rob.

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?