Hi, I’m Peter. I’ve been studying Japanese language and culture since I fell in love with the country on a high school trip in the late 1990s. I loved it so much that, as soon as I finished school at eighteen, I went travelling around the country for a year.
This allowed me to tour around the country six times from Sapporo to Okinawa playing music for several weeks at a time between 2014 to present. I’ve been to all the major cities, gotten deep into the countryside, and met a lot of the people you wouldn’t meet as a tourist. You can see some pictures on Pinterest here, and I do a lot about music on the Japanoscope youtube.
Since 2019, I’ve done a monthly segment on Melbourne’s RRR radio, Vital Bits Program, where I translate a Japanese song into English and perform it with my friend Caitlin Sullivan. The Japanese Songs In Translation page is here.
Languages are parallel universes. My mission with Japanoscope is to build a wormhole between worlds.
I post translations, look at products and talk about interesting nooks and crannies. I try and write about things or places that I have first-hand experience of. When this is not possible, I research other people’s first-hand experiences online, in English and Japanese, and synthesize this information into something that is useful for others. Hopefully, the result is helpful and of interest to people travelling to the country, or living in the country, or are part of the international Japanese diaspora, or, like me, find themselves having some kind of a fascination with the place.
Collaborations, Profiles etc.
I love collaborating with people on creating different projects. Sometimes people are kind enough to profile my work in different areas.
You can find an interview I did with Tom Czaban about my experiences of living in Japan here. I’ve given comments on sites including Hayk, Soda & Telepaths, and Welp Magazine.
My music has been featured in various media including Pop Matters here.
I appear regularly on Melbournes RRR radio broadcaster performing translations of Japanese songs on the Vital Bits program.
Triple JJJ radio called my music “captivating in all its nervous-awkward-fast-talking-stumbly glory”. Doorstamps blog called it “folk pop music that nails the art of making simplicity sound busy”.
There is more information about the musical side of what I do here
If you’ve got an idea about how can collaborate on anything, drop me a line here
Oshi Meaning 推しとは
Definition of Japanese oshi meaning, and a discussion of Japanese “oshi” culture with Sayuri Saying.
Magic Party Believe In Paradise
https://youtu.be/9judaFLVS_4 If you haven’t skipped the ending credits after watching “Midnight Diner Tokyo Stories” (深夜食堂 Shinya Shokudo in Japanese) season 1 you will remember the bold, female vocal
Is There Anyone In Japan That Actually Wants The Olympics?
I spent some time trawling and translating Tweets from Japan to see if I could find anyone who was pro the Tokyo Olympics. I didn’t
Why is Japan Upset About The Very Hungry Caterpillar?
There has been plenty of angry tweeting about The Very Hungry Caterpillar this week on Japanese Twitter. And about the Tokyo Olympics. I dissect some
Naomi Osaka Japanese Tweets
Translating Japanese Tweets About Naomi Osaka 大坂なおみ選手についての日本語ツイートを英語に訳す Today I’m going to read through and translate some of the Japanese Twitter commentary about Naomi Osaka
What’s Trending in Japanese Social Media #3
Japanese social media roundup #3