25/05/2024
From PB: So...we have a new video up about my recent excursion to the Far East. Give it a look on the Youtube if you haven't seen it then come back here. (don't worry, we'll wait!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jweI3b2gazI&t=44s
All watched up? Nice. Since our little production doesn't have an IMDB entry, consider this the "Trivia" section if we were to have one.
So, initial thoughts.
To try and capture the essence of Japan in a twenty minute video is a pretty high task. Also, my initial vision with the equipment that I had did not come out as well as I had hoped. Those of you that know me and what phone I have, will, I'm sure, flood the comment section (or send me group texts that appear as messages I have to manually download) that an upgrade is in order. I had this in mind before I left but budget and expenses made it impractical. There is a consensus though with my family that a better camera is needed and when I get the next chance to go, better equipment will be acquired. There is more footage, but I figured that taking the select cuts is good...for now
Why it's called the Kanto Interval? In my cooky fanciness, I always like to refer vacations or breaks as intervals when I journal them. For example, my off the grid escape to Great Barrington, MA, was called the Berkshire Interval on account of the mountains there. I figured this would be a simpler and unique title than "PB's Romp Through Japan." On a side note, one of the other intervals, will eventually find its way on the channel, where it is, you'll have to keep watching to find out!
Why Kanto? No, it's not because of Pokémon, but rather the region of western Japan where this little tour took place. Rather than me describe it , Wikipedia does a decent job here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant%C5%8D_region
Production challenges came in the form of jet-lag and, as you'll read, copyright issues. My body hadn't and is still having its momentary hiccups in adjusting back to the Eastern Time. Thankfully waking up at odd hours gave me the opportunity to edit, but trying to splice music and film artistically at 2am will show its shakiness.
Apologies for the following:
1. No introduction.
2. Not enough shots of Tokyo at night.
3. Shaky walking footage.
4. Not enough shots of food.
Now, scene specific stuff.
* Ikebukuro is a great place for anime fans, it is not as packed as Shibuya. The little snippet with Jojo from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is from the Namco Bandai store in Sunshine City, Some of the video of it got lost for some reason, and this little bit was one of the clips that survived. The original musical track was Tak Matsumoto, who I describe as the Carlos Santana of Japan, but this would start off the string of copyright issues.
* Hitachinaka, the garden in part II, had a full bloom of the Baby Blue Eyes a few days before we got there. It gives the same effect as the Shibazakura Gardens (the gardens at Part VI Fuji). The place made me think of Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli and when I first cut the video, I had intended to use Joe Hisaishi's score, but copyright wont allow it.
*The Ashikaga Gardens had the best shots of flowers, but my favorite part were the turtles. This was another copyright issue, I had tried using Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which should have been royalty free, but was blocked also. There is a shot also of a tree in these gardens, it's hundreds of years old!
*The Japanese house belongs to the Tokugawa family. Tokugawa Ieyasu, unified Japan after its warring states period, and is also the basis for Lord Torunaga in James Clavell's Sh**un.
*The Hotel in the mountains is located in Nagano, where the 1998 Winter Olympics were held. It has a very nice buffet as well as an onsen or Japanese hot spring.
*The castle in Matsumoto has very narrow and steep stairs to ascend its various floors. I was hoping to get video of ascending up and down them, but pictures and video aren't allowed.
*The village by Mount Fuji reminded me so much of Kakariko Village from Breath of the Wild. There is also a quaint restaurant in it which serves Hoto. In my retelling to folks, I've incorrectly identified it as Ramen. It's completely different where the noodles are much thicker.
*The same reaction I had when seeing Mount Fuji was the same reaction I had to seeing the Grand Canyon: no words can describe it.
Just going to throw this out there but if anyone is willing to pay our jobs handsomely just to let Cashew and I go to Japan and do a full documentary on it with better equipment, we're all ears. (Just kidding...kinda).
Final thoughts on Japan? You can't have final thoughts on it, just memories that last forever.
PB out.
The Kantō region (関東地方, Kantō-chihō, IPA: [ka(ꜜ)ntoː tɕiꜜhoː]) is a geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan.[2] In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, a...
