Michigan Swan: Anime Convention 2009

Hey gang, so today I went to an anime convention known as 'JAFAX' which is held at Grand Valley State University. It was my second time going there, and I had a lot of fun. Anyways, this will probably be the only video of me dressed up as a character to from pokemon... so enjoy it haha!


Michigan Swan: Anime Convention 2009

About a month till I head back to Japan. Should be hearing about my exact placement in Iwate soon. I just sent in my contract agreement, and I was told once they receive that I'll be getting much more information. Exciting times!
rodger

J-Horror: Best and Worst

Here at last is the 50th installment of my 'Swan's Japanese Horror Reviews' video series with my 'Best and Worst of J-horror.' It's been a long time coming, and for a while there I wasn't sure if I would make it to 50 episodes of this! But, here it is for all of the world to see!


Best and Worst of J-horror

As for what the future holds in regards to these videos, that's hard to say. I can't see myself making any more of these before heading out to Japan in a month, and when I get to Japan I assume I'm going to be so swamped with my new job that I won't have time to make more review videos. I think that this is a good video to stop the series for now, but I'm not saying it will go away forever. There have been long patches of silence before, so one day the reviews may indeed return. Besides, I never did review the Tomie series...there's so much more to talk about!

Enjoy the video! As for me, I'm just living life and getting ready to go back to Japan. I do have to say, that I've been having some amazing times lately thanks to my terrific lady friend. Can't wait to see her again on Tuesday. God, I'm a lucky guy these days and I know it.... Anyways, that's all from me gang.. see you next time!
rodger

Michigan Swan: Slice of Fun

Hey gang, so I had some time this morning to upload the new Michigan Swan special. I visited a local pizza/arcade place with my friends rob and rupe (last seen in the tokyo gore police review) for some food and fun. Today, I was thinking about making a more serious special episode before I head out to Japan to sort of sum up what the last year has been like, and to look towards the future. That may take priority over the j-horror stuff, but I recognize I really need to make the 50th episode of that (which will probably also now be the last one for some time again). Again, everything is up in the air, but we'll see. More to come....


Michigan Swan: Slice of Fun

Life is Good.

Back with another update. I'll try and have the Michigan Swan special up tomorrow night I think. I still haven't filmed anything for future videos... and I'm not sure when I'll get the time to do so actually. We'll see. In other news, in the ever twisting and turning journey of life, I have to say that some recent adventures have led to great and happy times and that everything is in its right place and I'm very happy. Life is good.
rodger

Coming Up

Hey gang, been very busy lately so I haven't been able to make any videos or update this in the past week hah. Things are good, and life is taking priority over video making. However, having said that the special 'michigan swan' episode will be up I think tomorrow morning... or possibly tonight. Not sure. I haven't started work on the 50th j-horror special.... and I'll be out of town for the next few days. I have a meeting with JET for the japan teaching job this saturday... so I'm not quite sure when I'll have time to film or edit anything for a good while. Anyways, we'll see. More updates to come!
rodger

Tokyo Gore Police!

Tokyo Gore Police Review


The 49th installment of Swan's Japanese Horror Reviews is upon us with my review of Tokyo Gore Police. This over the top piece of cult cinemas required the help of two of my friends to act as guest co-hosts, as I was really curious how others would react to the intense and over the top blood and gore of the film. I'm quite pleased with how this review turned out, and next week's special episode of Michigan Swan will also feature these two guys. It was a lot of fun making these videos! I think I enjoy editing videos more than actually being in them. I much more enjoy that stage of production.

Enjoy the review, and see you next week!
Rodger

Lento's Movie Reviews

One of my good friends on Youtube, Lento, has been making a lot of great videos and I wanted to share his latest one here with you. Much like myself, he has been reviewing cult Japanese cinema with his latest review being the great Battle Royale.


Lento's Movie Reviews: Battle Royale

He's a really cool guy, very much into the horror genre of films in Japan, and he's actually a quite talented horror writer himself. So, give him a look and subscribe, he's a super nice guy! I enjoy spreading the good word about other youtube members on here (variety is the spice of life, or so the old saying goes).

As for my own reviews, the review of Tokyo Gore Police I think will come out Wednesday. Till then.... see you next time!
rodger

J-Vlogger Wars

so the grand finale in TokyoBrando's J-vlogger wars is upon us. 8 very talented j-vloggers left, and all of them worthy of your vote for 'the number 1 vlogger in japan.' Personally, I vote for TkyoSam as of course he has always been a good friend since I met him in Japan. Go on and vote!

J-Vlogger Wars Finale

In other news, I had a very fun night with my friends last night and I look forward to more fun times in the summer before heading back to Japan!


In Japan with the great Tkyosam.

See you next time!
rodger

Swan's Japanese Horror Reviews 48: Isola

The latest review is now up. It's about the 2000 film 'isola.' Enjoy the review:


Isola Review

Going to spend time with some friends later tonight, so that should be fun. The next review will be out in the middle of next week. Until then, hope everyone is enjoying the summer... I know it's been good to me. See you next time!

Cleaning the Room

To prepare myself for my move back to Japan, I have started to clean out my room. I spent a good 4 hours or so just going through all of my shelves and drawers removing any old items that I dont' really want/need anymore. How did I have so much pokemon stuff???? I mean, I remember buying some pokemon toys years ago.... but not as much as I found. Then I realized that my younger brothers had placed all of their old pokemon toys in my closet so I had in my room the sum total of 3 pokemon collections. Yikes.

Today, I'll probably clean out a little bit more, then it's off to do some tutoring work. Right now I'm watching some various youtube videos. In particular I've been watching TokyoBrando (an up and coming guy on his way to Japan) and Betamax DC (a very cool guy already in Japan). Brando has been posting videos where people vote for their favorite j-vlogger on youtube, and although I sadly lost in the first round haha (though it was to tkyosam a very good friend of mine), I've enjoyed watching these little videos and voting. Betamax DC recently had a great observations about Tokyo video, so here are their videos below. Enjoy!


TokyoBrando: J-vlogger semi finals


Betamax DC: 10 Observations about Tokyo 5

Good stuff! see you next time!
rodger

Michigan Swan

So I was up till 3 editing together a special mighican swan episode of me and 2 of my buddies. Just added a few final touches to it now, and I'm really happy with how it turned out! Of course, I don't want to flood my youtube channel with a bunch of videos all at once, so I'll have to hold back on releasing this one. So that makes the following videos done and ready to post:
Horror Review 48
Horror Review 49
Michigan Swan Special


2 Videos were filmed on this day...


I've started a little work on the 51st review, and I've done a lot of mental work thinking about how to go aobut doing the 50th review. Anyways, I'm super pleased with how the videos are turning out, so I just wanted to let everyone know that some really great stuff is on the way. In other news, 2 months until Japan! I'd like the current review and the read real japanese videos to get more views and comments, just have to give it more time now I think. Anyways, back again soon with more updates and news!
rodger

Read Real Japanese!

Wow, I've been working on a ton of different youtube videos lately. Today, I filmed, edited, and released a new 'read real japanese' video.


Read Real Japanese!

Kind of out of character for me to release a 'how to' video, in fact, i've mostly been against these sorts of things to be honest. But I really wanted to talk about the read real japanese book as I honestly think it's a great buy and will really help people trying to study japanese. As long as the video doesn't come across as pompous then I'm ok with it. Perhaps more of these videos will follow.

Filmed the Tokyo Gore Police video today as well... and I edited that for a few hours. That's actually review 49 and 48 will come out later this week. I'm really getting ahead of myself, but I've been having so much fun editing stuff together. I also filmed a special michigan swan episode... but I haven't looked at all the footage yet. Should just be a fun silly video though.

Anyways, tons of great videos on the way!
rodger