I just stumbled across this Absolute Astronomy forum about Japan, and thought I'd mention that there's a podcast about life in Japan called "The Japanofiles" ( http://japanofiles.com/ ). The podcast features discussions of various topics that might be of interest to people on this Japan-related forum. Topics so far have included getting a job in Japan, buying a house in Japan, learning taiko drums and performing Japanese traditional music, becoming a professor at a Japanese university, teaching in the JET Programme, working as a private school English instructor, hot springs, Nagano prefecture, Matsumoto city, how to start a business in Japan, the Tour de Utsukushigahara hillclimb bicycle race, and so on.