We are happy to present the last in our series of timelapses in Tokyo– ironically the first we shot and produced. This shot began as an experiment to capture both the bustling frenzy of life in Tokyo, as well as our experience as solitary observers– outsiders with only enough resources to let the foot traffic of the city wash over us. What emerged were a set of three profound and visually stunning shorts that do more than any other single shots we captured during Season 2 to communicate our experiences in Japan.

Onwards, to Korea!  Upwards, out of the gutter!

And that’s the end of Season 2: Tokyo.  After much, much, much delay we’ll now finally be moving into Season 3: Seoul.  I could go on and on about my battle with burnout and how it has led to our mangled schedule, but one of the effects of burning out is that you’re tired all the time.  So instead of ranting, I think I’ll go to bed.

Enjoy the episode and check out the Vivian Girls, whose track “Where Do You Run?” nicely wraps up our final moments in Tokyo.

With finances reaching the critical disaster zone Matt must forgo his spot in the guesthouse and find a home on the streets of Tokyo to save money.

Okay.  So, it has been a while.  More than three weeks, to be precise, which is exactly two weeks longer than it should have been since this episode was released.  A lot happened this month, from obvious hardware failures, to marauding ex-girlfriends, to rheumatoid arthritis, to hilariously weak immune systems, but the simple fact of the matter is that once upon a time none of this ever would have phased me.

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Poverty seems antithetical to Japanese culture, but after more than two months in country the crew is beginning to find their niche just in time to leave it…

Making this episode sucked.  As you’ll notice, Episode 205 is airing almost a week late.  I think there are 4 separate and almost complete versions of this episode featuring radically different content sitting on my storage array.  The draft I had planned out with the crew a month ago disappeared somewhere around the second revision never to be seen again.  Almost none of the original footage made the episode.

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Fish and nerds both have their own district in Tokyo, but Jed must once again make his home elsewhere…

So, there have been a lot of changes with JS0 recently, but one of them isn’t our release schedule: we should be back to every Monday with regularity now that our new site, trailer, and merch (hint hint, it’s awesome!) is underway.

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Finding fun in Tokyo without any cash is a constantly evolving creative challenge.

Finally, an episode out on time!  Ever since I made it back to the States I’ve had trouble keeping things on schedule.  Before I went to Japan I was always at a two week lag from real time, and when I was with the crew on the road I was experiencing things as they happened, but at all times I had to be thinking a few weeks ahead to do my job as producer.  About 60% of my time is spent as editor thinking about what did happen, and about 40% of my time is spent as executive producer/director thinking about what will happen, and the result is that I spend a clean 100% of my time confused.  I was too inexperienced when starting this project to know why production and planning staff are almost always separate, but I think I’ve got the gist of it after living for a few months in this scheduled haze.

This week also marks the debut of our newest musical contributor: Tettix!  I’ve been listening to Judson Cowan’s music for years, both in his current incarnation and under his previous handle of Cicada.  His work has been featured in a number of creative spots, including this Boing Boing short.  It gives me no shortage of pleasure to be editing to his music, in this episode The Graves of Good Humans from the startling Technology Crisis II.  I hope to use a few more of Tettix’s tracks before Season 2 is up, but in the meantime check out all his albums at www.tettix.net or purchase his songs on iTunes!

Rob returns to the field, but even more adventure is afoot: Jed arrives in Tokyo to begin the New Year.

So here I am, on screen.  It’s very weird, actually, to see myself in an episode.  It’s weirder still to hear myself in an episode.  For those of you who’ve never had the pleasure of being on camera, it does terrible things to your self perception.  In particular, the sound of your own voice will bring most people to tears for the first several days of hearing it.  I’m getting over it slowly, but it’s an uphill battle.