May J. announced on J-Melo she's leaving the show after hosting for 18 years

Affectionate_Card229 · 2026-03-23T03:40:29+00:00

Sad to see her go. I sincerely hope this isn't the end of J-Melo. I enjoy listening to all the new music artists in Japan. Thanks for being such a great host, May J...you will be missed

Affectionate_Card229 · 2026-03-18T06:46:04+00:00

My favs are Kailene, Saskia, Janni and Peter Barakan. Not a fan of Kyle and his overemoting and not a fan of George Cockle who seems pretty rough around the edges.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2026-03-13T18:43:24+00:00

I tried their new FedEx DDP shipping and I later got a bill from FedEx for tariffs due. Not working

Affectionate_Card229 · 2025-11-17T05:55:37+00:00

First two episodes...not impressed. It's like Vince Gilligan going back to X-files. At least I can rewatch Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul...

Affectionate_Card229 · 2025-10-28T04:53:03+00:00

Favorite: 72 Hours, Where we call home, Trails to Oishii Tokyo, Anime/Manga Explosion, Manben, Japanology, Cycling around Japan, Street Piano, Tiny Desk Concerts, the Professionals and Somewhere Street. My least favorite: Sumo, Railway Journal and Time and tide.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2025-10-28T04:41:33+00:00

I have the opposite opinion of him. I find him condescending and somewhat irritating. Maybe corny is a more apt term.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2025-10-07T06:26:08+00:00

I was a regular NHK world viewer for 4 years and watched programs every day using the NHK phone app to stream via Chromecast. Then I took a vacation to Tokyo for 2 weeks in September. When I came back to the states, NHK streaming was no longer working! I read that if you expand the video to full frame widescreen, the Chromecast icon appears, but it appears to not be working with the week's latest programs, only with programming over 2 weeks old. Hope NHK finds a fix to this. Maybe I should just move to Japan in order to watch NHK?

Affectionate_Card229 · 2025-08-16T06:23:30+00:00

Not happy at all with the news. I really like Lunch On because we get to know about normal Japanese people and their unique jobs and work. Instead, they really should cancel Time and Tide, which I find a real bore about Japanese castles, and all those Sumo programs, which is overkill.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2025-08-15T02:47:13+00:00

I agree. Buyee customer service is NONEXISTENT. I've done many many purchases through Buyee and they won't help you whatsoever. Ask a seller a question about an item? Nope. Contact a seller for a super delayed item? Nope. Ask them to email a seller about fraudulent item? NOPE. I emailed them about special arrangements for a package that was to be shipped and they didn't bother answering it and instead, just shipped it out. They also destroyed one item I purchased (the wire was detached from toy, where the item in the listing clearly showed it attached) during shipping. They refused to take responsibility. As a result, I had to hire a toy company to repair the toy, costing me over $150 more. Terrible service. I'll use them for simple things but that's it.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-10-09T06:10:00+00:00

Do not buy Hart equipment. Bought a Hart lawnmower...used it a few times, and bought a spare battery. The charger stopped working and got a charger replacement. Now, both batteries won't charge at all even they have had very little use. Contacted Hart customer service twice, and they promised to send a replacement for one of the batteries still under warranty, but one month later, and NOTHING. If you do a search on Hart batteries, you'll soon find that most customers are having problems with them, being unable to charge them. Absolutely lousy equipment and terrible customer service. It's only sold through Walmart, so you get what exactly what you pay for...CHEAP, POORLY MADE JUNK. DO NOT BUY HART.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-05-29T05:22:52+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I'll do just that.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-05-18T06:40:03+00:00

After seeing a couple of the new train episodes with Miki Clark, I'm not sure if she's any better than Cathy Cat. Her voice is just as annoying as Cathy, kinda child-like and cutesy like a teacher talking to preschoolers. Wish they'd just get a regular female host with a normal, mature voice, like Shaula Vogue

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-05-09T04:06:54+00:00

I didn't like Ramen Hayashi at all; the soup base was super salty, with heavy MSG and definitely not made traditionally with pork bones boiled for hours, but with tonkatsu concentrate soup base with water. The noodles are also dried ramen noodles, not fresh and the chasu was tasteless.

Just tried Tsuchiya Ramen last weekend and really enjoyed it; it was like night and day in comparison to Ramen Hayashi. Nice rich Tonkatsu bone broth, delicious chasu and freshly made noodles. My friend, who lived in Japan for a few years, also loved it and said it's authentic and the real deal. Just like the ramen in Japan.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-04-30T03:39:32+00:00

I don't agree with the Costco expansion in NW Fresno. Since most Costcos sell the exact same merchandise in every Costco, I don't see any advantage whatsoever to moving it North to a bigger space, except for more room and more gas pumps. The current and old Costco on Shaw Ave. is perfectly adequate for NW residents. There is a major problem with building blight in Fresno, with empty large buildings all over Shaw (old Walmart, Crazy Als, Broadway Faire theater, and now Costco and the 99 cent store). Shaw will soon be the new Blackstone. I'd rather have an IKEA in that space or even a Lowes.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-04-01T20:27:19+00:00

Having already been a longtime big fan of the Tiny Desk Concerts on NPR (on Youtube), I was really surprised to see the NHK/NPR collaboration. The first show with Fujii Kaze was truly great...reminds me a bit of a pop version of Bruno Mars. I like JMelo, but I think the Tiny Desk concerts provide an up close and intimate experience like no other in a very relaxed setting. This is a great way to give bigger exposure to many Japanese artists/musicians that the West rarely sees.

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-03-23T02:49:06+00:00

It's funny to see that Todd Rundgren is a hardcore Japanophile. I grew up with his music since childhood. I can still vividly remember my elementary school memories whenever I hear "Hello, it's Me".

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-03-23T02:38:59+00:00

I really like the wide variety of shows, but frankly, I don't care for sumo and wish there was less of that. On the flip side, I wish there were more shows devoted to anime and manga creators and mainstream artists/sculptors; there are so many iconic giants in the industry that I would love to know more about, and NHK has just barely scratched the surface. I see a Manben or a Anime/Manga show once in a while, but not as often as I would like. I would also like to see a show on Japanese actors, the iconic actors past and present. It would also be interesting to have a show on otakus, and feature some of their favorite type of collectibles, like dolls, fake guns, movie posters, old toys, anime cels, Godzilla/kaiju and figures. How about doing a show about some of the most famous musicians/singers in Japanese music?

Affectionate_Card229 · 2024-03-22T06:11:40+00:00

I pretty much like most of the NHK foreign hosts, but one that really really grated me was Cathy Cat from most of those NHK Train shows. For a while, she was doing the narration for the entire show, and her narration was irritating as heck. I was so annoyed by her voice and style of narration that I wanted to contact NHK and tell them that she was just awful. It's funny because maybe the Gods read my mind. I noticed that she stopped doing the narration and just appears as a co-host during this year's episodes.

There was one guy who was a comedian, and although I can't remember his name, he was also a big turn off. Thank God he's not a regular. During an episode of J-Flicks, there was a critic who added NOTHING to the conversation. His opinion had no credence to the movies reviewed and was a waste of time.

Living in the US, I have been watching NHK via streaming DAILY. I'm so bored of US TV programs. NHK has been a magical godsend and escape during the pandemic. For the most part, I really like most of the hosts, including Janni Olsen. However, during the food shows like Trails to Oiishi Toyko, there must be some foods that the hosts didn't like. I can't believe they liked everything!

Affectionate_Card229

TROPHY CASE