Please join me in thanking our good friend and devoted listener Athena-San (aka Athara) for taking the time out to register Japanesepod101 on Frappr. For those of you who are not familiar with it, Frapper, which stands for Friend Mapper, is an online tool that lets you map out the city where you live or work, share photos, and leave messages. So put yourself on the map by clicking here.

Dear Listeners, We would like to apologize in advance for any trouble experienced as a result of the major overhaul of our naming system. After the stark realization that our hybrid naming system based on the Dewey decimal system and the direction of the wind blowing on that particular day was not adequate to bring you the best possible product, we undertook the MAJOR task of renaming and standardizing our naming system. Thank you for your understanding. We hope that our new naming system will reduce confusion and aid in the organization of our files. The change in file names should not impact your ability to download our daily podcasts. Please note that podcasts that you have already downloaded may appear as new files in iTunes,... Show more

皆さん、(Mina-san) Apparently armadillos hold grudges!!!! The one that caused all the problems last week was not happy about the way he was roughly escorted off the premises, and he showed up again! And, this time with friends!! Due to the loss of natural predators, their population is uncharacteristically high! This fact combined with our light security crew led to us being overun quickly! The small pack of them did quite a number on us, until we apologized profusely! The end result is that things should be much better now. If anyone is experiencing extremely slow download times with itunes please go to iTunes� --> podcasts, RIGHT click JapanesePod101.com and choose "Podcast Update". This should return download speeds to normal. We have... Show more

Learn about ice hockey in Japan and some of the best ice hockey fans in the world! Yes, there is ice hockey in Japan! In fact, Japan's nation team is quite strong team when compared with teams outside the perennial powerhouses of North America and Europe (Russia and Ukraine, included). More than that, ice hockey fans in Japan are absolutely AMAZING!! Today we introduce you to Asia League Ice Hockey, one of ice hockey's the best kept secrets with teams from Japan, Korea, and China, Kokudo Ice Hockey Team, and some of the best ice hockey fans in the world! You don't want to miss this edition. Asia League Ice Hockey Kokudo Ice Team�

From everyone at Japanesepod101.com, Happy Lunar New Year!

Learn Japanese with podcasts and Videocasts! Yes, Japanesepod101.com videocasts are back and better than ever. Today we introduce you to the Japanese taxi, which we covered in Survival Phrases #5. This is some rare footage that you don't want to miss! To view the video please subscribe to Itunes Audio and Videocasts. Please keep the feedback coming! Currently available for itunes users only. Version for all users coming next week.

The newest edition to our team, Kazushi Takada, a graphic genius came up with our new logo! Please let us know what you think of it!

We have amassed some really good video footage that is scheduled to be editted very soon, so Mou chotto matte kudasai. I actually got footage of a Japanese cab and of how the door opens. You don't want to miss this one. So just a little longer.