I did a podcast last year called Saitama Freeway.

There were 30 episodes. 25 were about specific videogames, and the other 5 were about other things. For the videogame specific episodes, I spoke about a videogame for roughly 15 to 30 minutes in Japanese. The majority of the games were old games, but some were new. Likewise, the majority of the games were RPGs, but some were not. It was a very fun and interesting experience, and I would like to write about it below.

First, as anyone who listens to the podcast can tell, my Japanese isn’t perfect by any stretch. When I relistened to episodes, there are times I couldn’t hear what I was mumbling, and other times I spoke way too fast. Furthermore, sometimes the grammar I am using was incorrect, and other times I couldn’t think of the proper word to say, and used a weird roundabout way of speaking. Still, despite all this, I am proud and happy with the fact that I could speak about a topic with only a few notes for 15 to 30 minutes in Japanese. I feel I would’ve done better with more preparation. Preparation here meaning first listening and watching to other podcasts in Japanese, and seeing how people speak. Second, I should generally just improve my Japanese. Lastly, I should have researched the words I was using and ensuring that I was using them correctly.

I posted the podcast on Twitter, and in my head Twitter is a place where non-Japanese people go to be experts on Japan and Japanese, and so I was apprehensive that I would get called out for something. There are times where in hindsight I thought things I said something that someone somewhere may find problematic (I think I said I like nice cute things in the Mother 3 episode, which maybe sounds fascist or something). However, the non-Japanese people who are experts on Japan and Japanese luckily never noticed my tweets and I had no problems here.

I got quite a few DMs from non-Japanese people I know who listened to it and liked it. They praised me, and that’s nice. I may have the cool exterior of a pickle, but I still enjoy praise for something that I have worked on. I am happy they liked it enough to listen every week.

The comments I got from most Japanese people were more diplomatic. They were impressed with the feat of trying to do a podcast in Japanese, but there was less praise. I’m not complaining about this, and don’t want fake praise. It was bad in certain ways, and that’s fine. I think I speak Japanese like an English speaker, and therefore the podcast was probably easier to understand for a native English speaker, and a little painful for a Japanese person. Fair enough. Something to work on. I still received some positive comments and really appreciated them.

I averaged about 10-15 listens per episode, and one episode had 51 listens. That is amazing to me. That one episode wasn’t specifically amazing I don’t think. I am guessing some algorithm made it happen. Thank you algorithm. They’re not just for sexy people anymore.

Why did I do the podcast is a question. I wanted to do something creative, and I didn’t want to stop because it is shit. I always stop doing things because I think they’re shit, and therefore I was determined to not stop just because of a silly voice in my head. I am happy I didn’t stop. I am happy there are 30 episodes out there that anyone can listen to at any time.

I still want to podcast more, but if I do continue podcasting in Japanese, I want to put some fucking oomf into it. Have a goal more than just getting it done. I successfully didn’t give up, so now I want to successfully try hard. I’m not interested in the outcome as much (again), and I’m more interested in being able to say that I have tried my absolute best.

Also, I want to podcast in English with a buddy if he’s down. We would talk about video games. In English. Need to think of another freeway.