The audio introductions to our new sections (culture and crafts/shops) are now on-line. Go to the top page and browse the sliding menu to find them. The introductions serve as headers to the programs following to their right. We hope they'll give you a good idea of what to expect from the content in each section.

A number of changes are being made to the site, several of them are already completed:

1. The site contains two different kinds of programs: culturally oriented and shop reports


2. The programs are therefor being re-organised into two channels or sections:




• Culture


• Shops and Crafts




3. You'll find the new structure under the "Show Info" tab on the top page, and in the sliding menu


4. Each section in the sliding menu will have an audio introduction


5. The new program "Glass Chime Factory, Part 01", is now available from the top page


6. The program has a Show Notes page, available from the "Show Info" tab


7. Pictures will be added to the Show Notes page when available, as well as more information


8. We will continue to build the two sections inside the site


9. We will also split the podcast into two channels, along the same lines

Our podcast hosting provider has now fixed the problem with our feed to iTunes. If you go here:

http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=370880377

you will see a preview of our iTunes programs, including the latest show about shops in the Old Town: The Glass Wind Chime Factory, Part 01: Sound of the Edo Furin by Yukari Ohbuchi. You can listen to our shows on the preview page.

In order to subscribe and get our latest programs automatically on your Mac or Windows computer, iPod, iPad or iPhone, click "View in iTunes".

Note for Windows users: Windows does not come with iTunes installed. In order to install the software, go here:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/what-is/

There you will learn more about the software. You will also find a link to download it if you wish to do so. iTunes includes the world's most popular store for podcasts, video and music on the Internet, as well as software applications. It will also store and play audio and video on your computer. It is free, and much of the shop content is free, including our shows. iTunes also syncs to your iPod, iPad and iPhone.

Macintosh computers come with iTunes pre-installed, clicking the "View in iTunes"-button will open our section iTunes for you.

We are happy to report that the transcript and show notes for the first part of the interview with the geisha Norie is now available on this site.

We have now tracked down the problem with our podcast on iTunes. It is likely due to that the address of our present feed was not migrated to the new system. You should be able to switch to the new feed by doing this:

Start iTunes
From the Advanced menu, choose Subscribe to Podcast, and type
http://tokyoedo.libsyn.com/rss
into the box that appears
Then subscribe (OK button)

This should subscribe you to the new feed, and the latest program will download.

You will now have two feeds in your iTunes software. Click on the "i" button (information) next to the show in your list to check the address. One is

a)
http://tokyoedo.libsyn.com/rss and one is
b)
http://tokyoedo.libsyn.org/rss

b (org) doesn't update, so you can delete it.

We have had some difficulties in publishing our latest program to iTunes, probably due to a big upgrade of the publishing system provided by our podcast host, Libsyn. It's still not listed on iTunes, but it does download now if you are a subscriber.

If you still have not subscribed, start the iTunes software and search in Podcasts for tokyo-edo. Our show will appear, and you can subscribe from there. Alternatively, you can listen on the Web at our Libsyn blog at

http://tokyoedo.libsyn.com/webpage

We are getting the final supporting material ready for uploading the show to this site.

Here is the introductory text for the program:

The Sound of Edo Furin
Produced in the summer of 2010 by Yukari Ohbuchi. Sound engineering: Ken Aihara.

The Japanese furin ("wind bell"), is a bell shaped wind chime, typically suspended from the overhang of a roof, that produce a cooling, serene sound when swayed by the wind. To the Japanese, the sound of the furin is a welcomed savior in the sweltering hot and humid summer season. Mr. Yoshiharu Shinohara, 85, is a glass furin craftsman in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo. In this dreamlike, beautiful program we visit Shinohara, learn about ancient origins of the furin, and try our hand at making one in his workshop, Shinohara Furin Honpo. The program is the first part of two.

Show information and images will soon be available on this site, along with the program. Happy listening!

We just uploaded the new program to the site as well. The show notes page is under preparation.

The program has been uploaded to iTunes (search for "tokyo-edo" in iTunes to find us there). It will be available for listening on this site shortly.

Program introduction:

Norie is a geisha in the famous Asakusa District in the Old Town of Tokyo. The first show we did on her brought you into her workplace - the Kenban, or call-in office. There she was rehearsing the New Year's performance with the other geisha. We now follow up with a series of short interviews, that will bring you closer to Norie, the person. These programs are probably unique on the Internet in that they connect a geisha to an English speaking audience via the most intimate of media - her voice. The first in a series of three interviews explores her background and her choice of the traditional, rigid world of the geisha in Japan, over a seemingly liberal one in the US.

As part of our upcoming programme on the geisha Norie - the second in the series - we have started a reference page which will list links, books, plays etc. that will give you a more in-depth understanding of the subject. The page lives here. While the list is still short, it will grow continuously over time.

Shikitei Sanba (1776 - 1822), author of "The Bathhouse of the Floating World" made a unique contribution to all of us aspiring time travelers. By taking fictional snapshots of conversations in the popular public bathhouses of Edo (now Tokyo) he let's us enter the everyday world of the past in a truly fascinating way.

While this series of books are not novels in the modern sense (there is no plot, for instance, or characters following a story line), the location is constant through the works. We are invisible and can spy on the people that come to visit the bathhouse, listening in on their conversation.

Sanba is unique in that he was one of the first Japanese authors to master the art of writing dialog. Therefor, although his scenes are fictional, there is a strong sense of reality to them. This is very well presented to the English speaking audience in a book by Robert W. Leutner on Sanba: "Shikitei Sanba and the Comic Tradition in Edo Fiction". As the cover says, "the informal conversations [of an array of Edo types] convey the quality of humor, the sociological characteristics, and much of the flavor of life in Sanba's Edo."

Sanba belonged to a new generation of Japanese writers who endeavored to entertain a wide audience, and to do it as a profession. In order to entertain, a writer needs to modify reality, which is rarely as good as the world of our imagination. But this distortion will be larger in a true novel, which needs a plot. The perfect plot rarely happens in reality. Sanba's snapshots and realism in dialog takes us much closer to his world than a normal novel would have done. I think therefor that in a sense  his work is a lot more interesting to the aspiring time traveler than normal fiction. We get some idea of what it really must have been like to be human in Edo. It strikes me how different it seems, although it was merely a couple of centuries ago.