In the first episode of Japan-Dokus 2018, Jörg is accommodated in an old Japanese house. In the opening credits he calls it a "multi-family house", but actually means a "multi-generation house" - because what looks so big and spacious is likely to become relative very quickly when occupied by at least parents, children and grandparents... The house is by no means a tourist hotspot, but a completely normal, older domicile in the middle of a somewhat sleepy residential area in the Adachi quarter, in the north of Tokyo. Jörg leads you through the rooms, trying out typical Japanese specialties like Futon (a thin sleeping mattress) or Kotatsu (a tabletop placed on a large warm blanket, which in turn hangs over a hot plate). But there are also those that have to do directly with the "old" in the old house - such as the virtually non-existent insulation or the not necessarily completely harmless (or quiet) kerosene heaters. In addition, Jörg draws the (video) comparison to a modern Japanese apartment.

Jörg takes you on a journey through Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka, on the trail of the famous cherry blossom: What is behind "Hanami", and where do you get these funny plastic tarpaulins from? The cherry blossom is almost revered in Japan: no deciduous tree is planted more often in Japanese cities - simply because it looks so beautiful. But only for a few days a year, depending on the region between mid-March and early May (on Okinawa already in January). This volatility is probably what makes it so special. Or is the time of the Sakura blossom including Hanami ("cherry blossom watching", vulgo drinking) simply a commercial seasonal event? Do the Japanese marvel at the aesthetics of the white-pink canopies - or are they simply happy to come out of the office before 8 p.m. and celebrate? Jörg Langer investigated these questions at the end of March 2018. Of course out of purely journalistic interest and by no means because he always wanted to be on the road in Japan during the cherry blossom season...

The oldest express train in the world is fast and punctual. The challenge of buying tickets: a good 150 Shinkansen travel from Tokyo to Osaka every day. Will Jörg be able to see Fujisan on two trips? There are about 150 trips from Osaka to Tokyo (and back again) with the Shinkansen - per day! On holidays there is less, on Saturdays more. And this is only the oldest express train line in Japan, the Tokaido Shinkansen, which went into operation in 1964. There are still seven more main lines in Japan, further ones or extensions are planned. The trains are also being refined further, the current fastest, Nozomi N700, has been in operation since 2007 and can accelerate faster and take corners faster with a technology similar to the ICE Sprinter. This means that the journey from Tokyo to Osaka takes between 2:25 and 2:35 hours - which, including several stops, corresponds to a real average speed of around 205 km/h. The ICE Sprinter has been equipped with a similar technology since 2007. Similar to the ICE, there is a first class car called the Green Car, and there are also tickets with and without reservations - the latter only valid for certain cars. On certain routes there is also the "Gran Class", which corresponds to the First Class in long-haul aircraft. But not on the Tokyo - Osaka route, which takes a maximum of four hours even with its "slower" Shinkansen trains (stopping everywhere). In the third episode of Japan Doc 2018, Jörg Langer makes the journey for you with the Tokaido Shinkansen, of course in the fastest possible Nozomi N700 variant. You think a trip from Tokyo to Osaka and back is boring? You're wrong, because Jörg has a lot to tell and of course a lot to show: Interactions with the staff, several Bento boxes, but above all the Shinkansen themselves and the passing Japan. He also draws a comparison to the ICE Sprinter - we apologize in advance for the mediocre quality of the Deutsche-Bahn advertising video used. But this way you can apprecia

The former Naniwa is a port city, a metropolis and an alternative to Tokyo: people talk differently, eat differently and stand on the other side of the escalator. Welcome to Osaka! Osaka used to be the "capital of Japan" (although Japan wasn't always a united country...) and is still Tokyo's big competitor today. With a population of 2.7 million, it is only the third largest metropolis in the country, after Yokohama. But the latter, together with Tokyo and other cities, forms the gigantic metropolitan region of Tokyo with about 34 million people. Tokyo is located in the eastern Kanto region, while Osaka is the economic centre of the Kansai region - including Kyoto and other nearby cities, the metropolitan region has a good 17 million inhabitants. Tokyo vs. Osaka, Kanto vs. Kansai, this is a little comparable to the (not necessarily always serious) competition between Hamburg and Munich or North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria - because there are cultural differences. Tokyoers are considered particularly ambitious, but also selfish, the people and Osaka as cheerful and louder and also willing to break the rules. In the fourth episode of Japan-Dokus 2018, Osaka am Tag, Jörg Langer explores the big city and tries to track down some of these cultural and culinary differences - as far as they are recognizable for Westerners without studying Japanology. Asuka, who comes from Osaka, helps him with this. In the complementary video Osaka at Night it is not least a question of proving that Osaka has nothing to fear from comparison with Tokyo when it comes to the "sea of lights".

Jörg's Osaka trip in April 2018 was so productive that he split it into two documentary videos. In the night episode you will learn a lot about Dotonbori & Co. and experience the atmosphere in the city. In episode 04, Osaka by day, Jörg Langer took you to some sights of the Kansai metropolis and traced the cultural differences between Tokyo and Osaka. Where both cities give themselves little, is in the night: Both offer the viewer a neon- and LED-born sea of lights up to the horizon. In this video, Jörg visits Namba/Dotonbori several times, makes Osaka Station insecure (if he finds it, it's only called Osaka Station "above" and Umeda "below"), delivers an advertising look-away duel with a blonde-colored Japanese, tries out one of Osaka's body and stomach dishes, Takoyaki, introduces you to Dotonbori's landmark, the Glico Running Man, and visits Space Station, a play bar.

Welcome to Japan's second largest city, which together with other cities forms an almost continuous "sprawl" with Tokyo - and mostly lies in the shadow of the capital. Yokohama could be the "most important unknown city in Japan". Without a doubt it is the largest, beaten only by Tokyo, with which (and some other cities) together it forms a mega-metropolitan region with about 35 million people. At the end of March, our part-time Japan expert made his way to Yokohama for the first time, apart from passing through Kamakura, Enoshima or Osaka. Yokohama is a port city that did not even exist in the middle of the 19th century. But after Commodore Perry anchored nearby in 1853 with the order to force the Japanese government to open their country, which had been isolated for 220 years (he did not anchor there with a civilian ship, but with two steam cannonboats and two further warships...), a tremendous development began. Actually the Americans wanted to "open" a port closer to Edo - Tokyo -, but this was probably too dangerous for the Shogun, which is why he had Yokohama, located a little southwest, extended. In this documentary, Jörg traces this history - but is also simply interested in beautiful or unusual pictures. Jörg himself judges whether he succeeded.

After all the city shots, it was time for nature: In episode 7, Jörg visits the "Suicide Forest" near Mt. Fuji and becomes acquainted with a real danger lurking in the ground. And with rain. From Tokyo Jörg travels to Kawaguchiko, a popular tourist destination and onsen hotspot (we are very, very proud of this formulation...) in the north of Fujisan. It was supposed to be one of the two main topics of this episode, but there was a tiny problem called "weather". The same made the second focus challenging: the visit of the so-called "Suicide Forest", but actually called Aokigahara or -jukei, the Green (Tree) Sea. Fortunately Jörg's camera proved to be water-repellent, and luckily the hired guide dutifully kept to the agreement - instead of staying at home in the bad weather. In this episode of Japan-Dokus 2018 you will get to know the Japanese province a little, without skyscrapers and crowds. You will learn a lot about Mount Fuji and how its great eruption 1,200 years ago created the Aokigahara Forest. Jörg then visits two special places in this forest.

Everyone knows lying in a hot bathtub. But get into a tub with the famous black spring water of Tokyo, which is pumped up from a depth of 1500m? Jörg dares. Jörg has both local bathtub and sauna and wellness experience - and he has also been to one or other Onsen. The latter is simply a bathing establishment (often as part of a hotel or traditional Ryokan inn) that fetches water directly from the spring. This does not mean that it is not treated (e.g. heated or cooled or provided with additives), but Onsen can only be called if its spring water meets certain conditions. In this episode of the Japan documentary, Jörg visits four "hot water scenarios", three of which he was able to film, once under relatively clandestine conditions (see Fun Fact). This gives you a glimpse into an important part of Japanese everyday culture - and perhaps you'll feel like going to an Onsen yourself. As Jörg will prove to you in the first 90 seconds of the episode, this is really easy and done without much running around...

At the station you drive off or arrive, and what else? But the Tokyo Station (by the way only at number 5 of the most frequented train stations in Tokyo) is a world of its own. Jump into the crowd with Jörg! In German cities there is usually a central station, and that is then also the largest, most frequented, liveliest station of the city. Hamburg has the highest daily passenger volume of German "Hbfs", with over half a million travellers (arriving and departing) every day, followed by Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin. Tokyo Station is, according to this comparative figure, a good deal larger - but only number 5 among Tokyo's stations. But Tokyo Station is much more than a series of railway tracks with attached kiosks. It is Japan's most important Shinkansen railway station, a shopping centre for travellers and the surrounding banking and business district, a major hub for bus travel. The Tokyo Station does not contain one, but a dozen miles of food, which should make Neuschwanstein Castle cry in souvenir shops. From the Marunouchi Building it has a clear view of the imperial palace (or rather its outer walls) and is quite a maze - not only for first-time visitors. Jörg Langer introduces you to the Tokyo Station, opened in 1914, takes you into its labyrinth of (wide) corridors - and tries not to get lost in the process.

"Fair babes" are viewed with pleasure by many, while others throw themselves in front of them to protect them. Jörg Langer talked to 30 hostesses at the TGS2018 and interviewed two of them longer. At the beginning of the noughties at the gamesconvention in Leipzig you could admire some bare-breasted "fair babes", today modern games fairs get by with less naked skin. Sure, no car show without bikini models, and even at Gamescom or E3 student assistants with breasts still find enough part-time work - but the acceptance of the equation "Beautiful woman makes product more attractive" seems to be diminishing. In Japan, the clocks tick a little differently: Women have much greater systemic disadvantages in professional life than in Germany and are best left at home after marriage (please at 25!). When going out together with colleagues, the office ladies have to pour the sararymen, that's just the way it should be. As a reward, they are rarely promoted, since they will eventually get married at 25 and then stay at home. The gender roles are often still clearly distributed, and the fact that many young Japanese women speak with high voices is not due to their larynxes, but to the expectations of their environment. Even at Japanese trade fairs, dozens of companions (hostesses) usually appear, per large stand, mind you. This also applies to the Tokyo Game Show. A visitor armed with a camera or at least a smartphone steps in front of the lady who smiles at him and holds up her flyer. The visitor thanks him and walks away, the next one comes, and so on. Is the meat inspection or simply the healthy fascination with beauty? Another special feature of the TGS is that there are far more cosplayers than in the West, embodying figures from the respective manufacturer. Do you take a picture of the woman or the character? At the TGS 2018 Jörg Langer took the chance and shot a complete documentary video with and about the Companions. Expect no revelations (no, nobody forc

They are everywhere in Akihabara: young ladies dressed as servants who want to lure tourists (or locals) into their often shabby café. Jörg has visited three high quality theme cafes. Longtime connoisseurs of Jörg's Japan documentary have already visited a Maid Café with him in the 2016 video "Jörg Langer in Tokyo". At that time it had been a very blurred and, well, undercover recording. But this time your Japan reporter went through Akihabara with his chest swollen and his camera stretched up - and was already expected... What are theme cafes? In principle, a clever added value: Instead of specializing in particularly exquisite food quality, for example, the surrounding area is celebrated. These can be dishes and drinks matching computer games, stroking cats or owls, or, in the majority of cases, young women in costumes. The offer reaches thereby from schmuddeliger Kaschemme in the 5. floor of a backyard building up to the best situation directly at the station exit. For this documentary we have tried to pre-select three high-quality theme cafes: the Square-Enix Cafe at Yodobashi Akiba, the Sinobazu Ninja Café and the rather unknown but very interesting Miko Café near the Kanda shrine. Of course we also talked to the Maids to get the real "customer experience". And as so often in Jörg's documentary videos there is also an unplanned intermezzo in between. Was sind Theme Cafes? Im Prinzip eine geschickte Wertschöpfung: Statt sich etwa auf besonders exquisite Speisenqualität zu spezialisieren, wird das Drumherum zelebriert. Das können zu Computerspielen passende Gerichte und Getränke sein, das Streicheln von Katzen oder Eulen, oder, in der Mehrzahl der Fälle, junge Frauen in Kostümen. Das Angebot reicht dabei von „schmuddeliger Kaschemme im 5. Stock eines Hinterhofgebäudes“ bis zur Bestlage direkt am Bahnhofsausgang. Für diese Dokufolge haben wir versucht, drei hochwertige Theme Cafes vorauszuwählen: das Square-Enix Cafe am Yodobashi

One Sunday at the end of September, Jörg Langer and her interpreter went to a sub-district of Shinjukus to attend a cooking course. But we started with a rice grain inspection & misopaste feeding. Pretty much every country has its own cuisine and tasty dishes, but Japan already occupies a special position: The Japanese love good food and at the same time are always willing to include tasty foreign dishes in their own culinary offer (and to "Japanize" them in the process). Neither tempura nor curry nor sushi nor numerous other dishes originally come from Japan - but are especially recommended there. Who would rather trust quasiofficial places than our assertions: As of November 2017, Japan has 28 three-star restaurants with more top addresses than any other country according to the Michelin guide, with France being beaten by a narrow margin with 27. 3rd place: USA (14), 4th place: Germany (11), 5th place: China (10). Tokyo alone has twelve three-star, 56 two-star and 166 one-star restaurants. But even more than at the sinful end of the gourmet scale, the inclined visitor will notice that the general standard of food in catering establishments is somewhat higher than one is accustomed to from the station pub at home. Also in Japan you can eat too oily, too fat, too lukewarm and so on - but it will happen less often than in many other places of the world. In this respect it was obvious to focus one of the Japan Docs 2018 not only on food (this occurs in several episodes), but on the preparation of it. In this documentary you will experience the preparations for several typical dishes and side dishes, and how they are cooked and eaten. There are insights into the Japanese kitchen culture, which you won't find without further ado. The recipes for the dishes will be provided shortly and linked here, as well as the website of our cooking teacher, without whom this video would not have been possible: foodandfriendstokyo.com.

For 40 year old Germans "Spielhalle" stands for holiday memories of Italy or England. Or one understands by it gambling machines. The 40-year-old Japanese... stands at his favourite machine. You can turn it around as you like, but a new version of the law for the protection of minors in the 80s killed the arcade culture in Germany before it could really unfold. Previously, vending machines such as Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Co. were regarded as new and harmless pleasures that could be set up in swimming pools or at folk festivals. Afterwards they belonged to the gambling machines, admission for young people forbidden. In other countries things went better for the arcades, but first the home consoles and game computers and later the smartphones gradually made dedicated arcades less and less attractive. These effects can also be clearly felt in Japan, yet it is probably the last country where Arcades can be described as an everyday phenomenon and part of mainstream culture, with still thousands of large arcades all over the country. In this episode of Japan documentaries, Jörg looks at various amusement arcades, unusual (the Anata no Warehouse in Kawasaki and the Super Potato Arcade in Akihabara) as well as ordinary ones, and gives five reasons why this form of entertainment - in his opinion - can hold its own so well in 2018 in the Land of the Rising Sun, and against the worldwide trend. Of course, he also puts himself to the test! Please note that we only had permission to shoot in an arcade, so most of the video had to be recorded "undercover".

At the TGS there are the paid cosplayers at the booths of many game companies - but at the Public Days also hundreds of (mostly) amateur cosplayers in symbiosis with (mostly) amateur photographers. Cosplaying has a long tradition in Japan, even though the term is only about 35 years old. The hobby of dressing up like the fictitious character of a cinema film or another template was never born in Japan - fan conventions for SF and fantasy films have been around for a long time in the USA, for example. But like many cultural (or food) imports, the Japanese not only copy the original, but change it and make it their own until it has become something special, in this case a whole pop culture trend. Cosplay including Crossplay (girl mimes man, boy mimes woman) goes hand in hand with Maid Cafes, the Moe- and Kawaii culture, the omnipresence of mascots (practically every prefecture, big city, institution has one), the mainstream popularity of manga comics and animated cartoons. Cosplay even affects everyday fashion: Most men still walk the streets in business attire and most women in pastel or office costumes. But you can also see men in extremely eye-catching clothes or ladies dressed as Lolita or schoolgirls doing their shopping. At the TGS 2018, Jörg had arranged to meet a streamer and cosplayer to simply hear from her and experience how this cosplaying works from her perspective. Why do you do something like that, and how does such a day at the fair work? The amateur cosplayers don't get a stand or a stage, they have to show themselves and their costumes on their own. And that's what they do, even if it's windy and rainy...

For a full 45 minutes you can look behind the scenes of the Japan documentary series, experience planning and execution. Accordingly, this Making Of also plays in Munich and Leipzig. Several actors of the first 15 episodes will meet you again in the Making Of, but in new scenes. We also use almost exclusively recordings that you haven't seen yet, e.g. from the planned but then not realized government quarter video. In addition there are several "Behind the scenes" recordings from Munich, Leipzig, Tokyo, Osaka and Kawaguchiko, which will give you an insight into the process of creating the documentary series. You'll learn about failed plans and what can (and has) go wrong in general with a not uncomplex undertaking. Episode 16 traces the Japan documentaries chronologically, from the first idea and the first trip in March 2018 to the planning and execution of trip 2 and the almost three-month follow-up phase starting in October. We decided not to desperately waste minutes, so the last episode is the longest of the whole series. Nevertheless we have limited ourselves to the most important scenes and outtakes from our point of view. The various English language fragments and dialogues are not subtitled for the time being, otherwise episode 16 could not have been published this year. But there will be another update of the video in the course of January, which will also iron out minor mistakes (which we don't know yet, but certainly exist).

The night comes early in Japan, and Jörg's night began in the afternoon in a restaurant. After that there are many more destinations in Kabukicho & Co. - you can be part of it in dreamlike pictures. With 3.6 million passengers, Shinjuku Station is probably the busiest station in the world, and with its kilometres of underground walkways and over 200 exits it is probably the most confusing. But episode 10 of our Japan documentary 2018 begins after Jörg has already passed the adventure "How do I find the right exit and my guide / interpreter", although not with flying colours (see photo report...), at least at all. From afternoon until early morning you roam with Jörg through Shinjuku, especially its red light and nightlife district Kabukicho, make a detour to Shibuya, get to know the simplest dives and expensive Nobelbars. But above all, you'll dive into the colorful sea of lights that Shinjuku transforms into at night - and can marvel at the crowds of people pushing their way through the streets and alleys. You'll also learn about Japanese food, several drinks and what the Japanese do at night, screaming loudly. This extraordinarily long episode could not be shortened despite days of shortening orgy, rather it increased in size every day. Our sincere apologies for that!