A native-content-on-YouTube thread

Japanese Language Listening
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I searched and saw some threads about this, but nothing current/unlocked, so I thought I’d make another one.

I’ve mentioned this many a time before, but one of my favorite ways to get listening practice is to see what’s trending on YouTube. I’ve found some pretty cool stuff, but I’m interested in what you might’ve found if you’ve done the same.

Here’s a tutorial on how to make a vibraslap. Fun fact: Brian Jones played one of these in the opening of Jimi Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower! (Unrelated, but if any of you know how to make a CG avatar like the author does, that’s a skill I’m interested to acquire!)

Here’s a tutorial video for making chocolate mochi by hand.

Here’s a special report about tree branches overhanging into a neighbor’s property.

Here’s part 1 of a 4-part series on how to make a 印籠箱,

Here’s a report on a restaurant I really want to visit if/when I go to Japan: 挽肉と米. Their whole thing is serving an insanely high-quality ground beef patty on a bed of rice. I’m actually a vegetarian but it looks so damn good, especially the condiments. Not that expensive either.

Yet another video about food. This time, it’s making fried tofu for ¥50.

As you can see, most of mine are food/news/instructional, but I’m always looking for a wider breadth of content to practice on. I scoured my YouTube history for quite a while to find these! If you have any that you enjoy, lay 'em on me!

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The vast majority of native content that I watch on youtube is pro-wrestling-related, which may or may not be interesting to other folks, haha.

There’s one match I can recommend, though, which I think even people who don’t normally care for wrestling can appreciate! This is one of my all-time favorite matches! It’s also a great place to start since the violence isn’t too intense (it’s more about neat athletic stunts and trying to trick your opponent into making a mistake). DDT uploaded this match to youtube after it placed 11th in the Net Pro Wrestling Awards’ 2019 list of best matches.

There is Japanese commentary, and the video package at the start of the match has some Japanese subtitles. I’ll post an explanation for the setup for the match and the single light tube stipulation after the video if you aren’t able to catch enough of it from the Japanese alone.

2019.7.15 Asuka vs Akito

DDT EXTREME Championship—IPPON Light Tube Death Match

Leading up to this match, Asuka accused DDT Extreme Champion Akito of being boring, and she wanted a deathmatch involving hundreds of light tubes to prove that she was a better fit for the Extreme title. But Akito thought that the fear of breaking one light tube was greater than the excitement of smashing hundreds of them, so he devised this stipulation instead.

The match starts with a demonstration of the rules: regular wrestling rules apply, but if you break the single light tube in the match, you lose. If both people are touching it and it breaks, the person on the offense loses. If the tube is on the mat and someone is thrown onto it, the person who was thrown loses.

It’s an incredible stipulation, and the result is an immensely creative match!

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A lot of the content I seek out in japanese just ends up being me looking for japanese versions of the kinds of things I watch in english, usually :laughing:

Science Dream is a science communication channel and they talk a lot about dinosaurs and all that good jazz. If you like stuff like PBS eons, then these are super fun. Lots of big domain specific words and fast talking, but jp subs.

Professional shogi player who streams a lot of shogi wars and chats.

Bouldering Gym share is an indoor rock climbing channel that does an after-work podcast. They have some videos of setting/hosting competitions too, but they’re fun to listen to! Japan has a pretty big rock climbing scene, which is not something I expected going into learning japanese :laughing:

if you aren’t averse to vtubers, I really enjoy watching mio stream too. She plays a lot of more relaxing and older indie games, which I really enjoy. A lot of vtubers voices kinda grate on my ears after a while, even if I enjoy watching their content otherwise, but mio has a pretty level tone (most of the time). Especially enjoy her weekly 月曜日の朝ミオ streams, where she puts out a prompt (usually food or season or culture related) and has people write in on twitter.

I do love watching food/cooking videos too, but I’m subbed to so many channels i have a hard time finding specific ones :laughing:

I know a bit about the basics! I think the easiest way to go about doing this is to setup vtube studio(a phone app) and find a free/buy a live2d model that someone has rigged to work with that program. I’ve set this up and gotten it to work with my phone and stream setup before, and it didn’t take tooooo long, but I was just messing around with preset stuff.

Rigging models itself is a pretty intensive process, especially for full body stuff, so most people (even smaller streamers) tend to commission actual 3d artists to do this work if they want custom stuff.

Here’s an (english) video that kinda goes over the big picture of how and why this technology works, and might give you some leads on any specifics you might have more questions about.

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The content doesn’t matter all that much, prefer longer videos, 15-30+min since I do quite a bit of immersion, don’t like switching too much. But here are some of what I’m watching now.

Exploring old villages. Apart from getting jp immersion I get quite a bit of history. Really interesting.

Exploring old buildings and villages. On the longer side, which I like, 25min long on average and with jp sub.

Some ghost videos. Also on the longer side. Probably watched all of his content, good stuff, but gets monotonous at times so I mix in others.

And ofcourse all of Ega-chans videos (but everyone has probably seen it already):

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I’ve added this thread to the Listening practice wiki. There are several youtube suggestions on there, though the thread itself has a broader scope for discussing what to use for listening practice. : )

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Here you go:

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Thank you! I liked all these indications. I’m definitely checking them out, my listening is definitely far form this but I’ll use it as resource.

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Happy that it’s useful to someone. :slightly_smiling_face:

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If anyone happens to really like coffee like me, there’s this guy:

Kaho’s mountain climbing adventures are fun and make me a bit jealous:

A Buddhist monk gives people advice:

And honestly, most of my time spent on Youtube is just watching Japanese people play videogames (and mostly Splatoon heh). Similar to what @javerend shared, if Vtubers don’t immediately turn you off, here’s one of my current favorites. She does indeed play a lot of Splatoon, but there are other games mixed in heh:

Seconding that, I subbed to those channels and already watched a Mame video last night, pretty entertaining and easy to follow.

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I tend to use podcasts and music for listening practice but sometimes I’ll watch some streams on Youtube or Twitch. Some streamers on Twitch have add-ons for subs (either Japanese, English, or both). Also, shout out to Hoshino Gen’s All Night Nippon podcast which has a transcript to follow along with and has 1+ hour long episodes which are good for walks. I’ll list some streams if anyone’s interested in some gaming content. I find them good for background noise because there are natural pauses and lulls and they go on for hours.

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i go down random rabbit holes of interest to myself but two mainstays are Ryoko Nakajima (https://www.youtube.com/@RyokoNakajimaLifeOnWheels) as it relates to my own disability and what it’s like in Japan. Another interest of mine is outdoors stuff, particularly fishing so this channel hits that interest for me (https://www.youtube.com/@fishingjv3676)

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Found another ghost channel with japanese subs. Don’t believe in ghosts, but the content is entertaining anyway, some history, architecture and stories. Also tends to be long, which helps with long immersion sessions without having to switch too often.

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It really is. Now that I’ve seen it, I’d even rank it up there with Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat. Asuka/Veny has made a fan out of me!

Thank you for doing that! I was thinking I’d make this thread to really laser-focus on that immersion practice. I like Japanese learning channels but I’m trying to make simulated immersion the substance of my daily practice!

Thank you both! I’ve been thinking about making a channel about the entrance exam problems that I’ve been translating/doing, but I’m quite shy in real life. I don’t exactly have the emotional exhibitionism of the typical YouTuber!

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