In this special short (relaxed) episode of Japan Podshow (which is not episode 8!) we find George and Joseph sitting in a park in Ikebukuro talking about the Total Solar Eclipse on the 22nd July 2009.

Listen to the show here

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George will be heading to China to witness the eclipse in its full glory, whilst Joseph will be scaling the heights of Mount Fuji to attempt to set several world records including:

- The first live broadcast from the top of Japan’s 3,776 metre Mount Fuji utilising the just-launched DoCoMo 3G network

- The first podcast to have been recorded on top of a live volcano under a solar eclipse

- The first time that The Sound of Music has been performed in the crater of a volcano causing it to errupt

IMPORTANT TIMES TO NOTE for Live Streaming:

• Tuesday 21st July 22:00 JST (14:00 BST / 13:00 UTC) - Start of hike
• Wednesday 22nd July 04:39 JST (Tuesday 21st 20:39 BST / 17:39 UTC) - Sunrise from the peak of Mt. Fuji
• Wednesday 22nd July 10:00 JST (02:00 BST / 01:00 UTC) - Start of the solar eclipse
• Wednesday 22nd July 15:00 JST (07:00 BST / 06:00 UTC) - Leave Mount Fuji

Japan podshow has created a special page where you can follow all the action as it happens:

Special live feed page for the FujEclipse hike: http://japanpodshow.storytlr.com/

We’ll be using Twitter (@japanpodshow @tamegoeswild) Flickr YouTube AudioBoo and possibly (network allowing) uStream.

An alternative feed can be found here

In the event that we are able to use uStream to stream live video (it all depends on the speed of the network on the summit) that will be available here:

Online video chat by Ustream

The weather looks set to be terrible, so it should be a lot of fun!

You can participate by sending twitter tweets containing the tag #fujeclipse

George and Joseph also talked about their new mini-podcasts, Japan Podshorts – read about that and subscribe here.

Look forward to seeing you there! (in a figurative sense).

Normal Japan Podshow service will resume when George is back from China at the end of July.