Japanese buddhist temples start ringing their bells called "Jyoya-no-Kane" 108times late on New Year's Eve and continue into the early hours of New Year'sDay. The day of New Year's Eve is called "Jyoya" in Japanese, so the bell iscalled "Jyoya-no-Kane".In Buddhism, the number of earthly desires, "bonnou" isbelieved "108". It is said that each bell sound erases one of our 108 earthlydesires.Also, on January 1st, many people get together at the buddhist temples and tossin the offering, give the bell a ring to make a wish for their New Year.In this episode, you can feel the real Japanese New Year's Eve in one hour. It'sbeen specially recorded in Shibamata Taishakuten Daikyoji Temple, a famoustemple in Tokyo.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Kusa-Yakyu (a sandlot team)” Many sandlot teams play baseball in parks andriverbed throughout Tokyo on holidays. There are many amateur baseball teamsthat have gathered from children to adults, generations and occupations. Thistime, we will show you the game of adult teams at the baseball stadium in UenoPark in Tokyo.“TOKYO 1HOUR” is “soundscape” program, field recorded the ordinary sounds ofTokyo just in 1 hour. Produced by Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc. in JAPAN.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Monja-Yaki” is popular food for good and old atmosphere of Tokyo. Putting somevegetable, seafoods, or meat into the potato starch with water, and then, grillit on the iron plate. It actually doesn’t LOOK mouthwatering, but it ISdelicious. While the recording, we ate 4 “Monja-Yaki”.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Japanese public bath is called “Sen-To”. The bathroom is separated by gender,and each has 3 or more bathtubs, and one shower booth for each visitor. “Sen-To”is also popular for its wall art, drawn Japanese traditional landscape likeMt.Fuji. “Sen-To” is on the decrease trend, and many of them are at the brink ofgoing under.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An indoor baseball training site and also an amusement complex located in anurban area in Japan. Anyone can enjoy baseball hitting like a professionalplayer. This episode is recorded at “TAKENOTSUKA batting-center” located inADACHI-ku, Tokyo. While the recording, we got to bat over 50 times, and we hitthe ball only 3 times...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.