Episode 5 of Japan Podshow is the most musical to date, as George and Joseph invite you in to their Karaoke booth in central Tokyo.

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Karaoke does of course play a vital part in keeping Japanese society moving, providing an opportunity for stressed out salarymen and swine-flu infected school children to relax and express themselves.

Entrepreneur interview: Heather Russell of Rinkya.com

Episode 5 also features an interview with Heather Russell, founder and president of http://www.rinkya.com – the fantastic Japan Auction & Online Shopping Service! Heather is a truly inspirational entrepreneur, and over the past 8 years has built www.rinkya.com up to be one of the most popular sites for people wanting to buy things from Japanese sites.

Competition time!

We’re GIVING AWAY $100 of Rinkya commision! Listen in to find out how you can win – entering is easy! Just listen to the show for the question – and you’ll find the answer on Rinkya.com – you might want to check out their blog too! (See the Rinkya Page in our Guests section)

Next on the show we introduce the kansai-based Nandeyonen podcast, available from http://nandeyanenyo.podbean.com/.

Meet Dr. Foster and Professor Wild!

The doctor and the professor are new contributors to Japan Podshow, and will be appearing on a regular basis. In addition to Japan Podshow, you’ll also be able to catch them on Tokyo’s Metropolis Magazine podcast, the Metpod http://www.metpod.com. The professor gives his reaction to some of the stories featured in Metropolis Magazine‘s Small Print section.

We then announce the winners of the episode 4 competition to win vouchers on Edufire – the online video learning platform. Congratulations to the winners who correctly identified the secret voice as saying ‘Zenmaisamurai’ and then a few days after release just ‘Samurai’: Perminder Suman, Sylvain vedrenne, Alexandre Coutu, Jeff Smith and Miako Kuran!

Check out Edufire today – there’s lessons available 24 hours a day, it’s easy to use, and there’s hundreds of subjects to choose from.

If you want to learn Japanese, we recommend Rainbowhill (aka Brett Fyfield), the incredibly popular instructor who featured on Japan Podshow episode 4.

Listener’s feedback

This week, that includes

@TokyoDan
@ShaneSakata
@Tokyotopia
@socialpreneur
@kelly62
@deizu
@papadimitriou
@michaelqtodd

Thanks also to messages from
BusanKevin and Vinai Norasakkunkit.

…and a very special thank you to Craig and Linda Martin of the Indie Travel Podcast, a fantastic resource for travellers and armchair travellers alike. Check them out!

Music: Daniel Edwards

We finish off with an interview and song from Tokyo-based musician Daniel Edwards, a very talented guy whose new single ‘Smile’ (and his entire back catalogue) is now available in iTunes. You can also check Daniel out on MySpace, and become a fan on Facebook. In the US, his single Smile is available from Amazon.com.

After the interview we hear “Heaven”, taken from his album “Curtain Call”.

There may even be a little bit of bonus material at the end of the show – The show ain’t over till the fat lady sings!

We LOVE getting your feedback! Join our Facebook group, skype us, email us, Twitter us (@japanpodshow) – we love hearing from our listeners, please do give us your feedback!

Background music in the Small Print section is “Calling from Japan” by Comfortable.