One Year until Provence!

In exactly one year we will leave for our 6 weeks in Aix-en-Provence.  I’m already ready, except for the French… but we have been studying diligently, listening to YouTube videos.  Even Fernando, who is getting tips from a polyglot on how best to become fluent in a language.  He also has some favorite French language instructors on Easy French.  They are both très charmante.

I have a couple of YouTube French instructors myself.  Both of them speak slowly and clearly so they are easier to understand than Julie Andrieu.  Français Authentique offers language learning but also talks about French politics, geography and culture.

Guillaume Posé - Professeur de français concentrates more on the language and speaks extremely clearly.  He is also très charmant.

I’m sure there are many more YouTube French instructors out there but these are some of my favorites.

Naturally I spend even more time checking out places to go and food to eat in Provence and the Côte d’Azure.  Recently I ran across this older Turkish/American couple who are living in Nice:  HappyGoLuckyTravel.

And, of course, they were suggested by YouTube after I started watching these videos on Nice by two German women: RivieraGo!  I especially liked their video on the hypermarché because I remember the Carrefour near our hotel in Toulon in 1999.  Such a selection of French cheeses!

My problem with YouTube, of course, is I subscribe to so many channels that it has become hard to find what I’m looking for and I have trouble remembering their names, which they always try to make unique and catchy and so even harder to remember!

Is there a British Japanology?

Before traveling to Japan, I must have watched more than a hundred Begin Japanology and Japanology Plus programs from Japan's NHK television station.  They aren't travelogues but cover the everyday culture of Japan and I wish all countries had similar programs produced by their public television stations.

So I'm trying to pull together videos on England that cover similar territory.

BBC: A People's History of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  Unfortunately this series is no longer available at the BBC site but only as a lower quality video uploaded on YouTube.  It is narrated by Clarissa Dickson Wright, one of the Two Fat Ladies, and concentrates more on historic meals of the nobility than those of the common man.  And Clarissa Dickson Wright doesn't quite have the reserved charm of Peter Barakan.

• Episode 1: Breakfast
• Episode 2: Lunch - Clarissa does mention Simpson's Tavern as a traditional London chop house and of course she talks about the "sandwich".  The second half is more about what the common man ate covering rationing and supermarkets (the packaged sandwich) and she ends with the Sunday Roast.
• Episode 3: Dinner  - Confusing here.  Is it "dinner" as the biggest meal of the day or "supper" in the evening.

History of English Language. Four hour-long episodes by LWT,  London Weekend Television.

1. Birth of a Language   Beginning with the invasion of the Germanic tribes from Friesland in 491 AD, after the Romans left, and the subjugation of the Celtic tribes. Then the addition of the Latin alphabet from the Catholic church in the 600s, the addition of Norse from the invading Vikings and Danes in the 800s, and the defeat of the English in 1066 by the Normans, speaking Old French and concentrating the wealth of the country in fewer hands.
2. English Goes Underground.  The 300 years when English is a subjugated language as were the English-speaking people, when the Normans occupied all positions of power.
3. The Battle for the Language of the Bible
4. This Earth, This Realm, This England

The Worst Jobs in History.  A British television series from 2006.

1. Series 1 Episode 1: Roman and Anglo-Saxon (up until 1066)
2. Series 1 Episode 2: The Middle Ages
3. Series 1 Episode 3: The Tudors
4. Series 1 Episode 4: Stuart Times

That London Life: Walking London

These are YouTube walking tours done by Eleana, who speaks very fast but offers some very interesting tidbits about architectural landmarks in London.

1. City of London
2. Lesser Known London Walking Tour from Chelsea to Fulham

Afternoon Tea and Tea Etiquette

1. Visit London: Afternoon Tea in London (Ritzy tea parlors are featured without much tea but with champagne, fancy cakes and sandwiches.)
2. English Cream Tea Etiquette (Learn how to place your napkin, hold a cup, stir your sugar, and open your scone -- no hamburgers, please.)
3. Chateau des Fleurs - Tea with Adam Gottesman (This is the same tea etiquette advice but from a guy.)
4. Victoria's Insider Guide to London - Episode 4: The Best Afternoon Teas in London (If you like exquisite afternoon teas, check these out.  From Expedia.)

1000 Londoners

Each week, a profile of a Londoner is posted on https://www.1000londoners.com/ with a 3 minute film that gives an insight into their life.

1. The woman keeping traditional London alive through a Pie & Mash shop: Jacqueline, Londoner #161  (This is a very interesting profile with lovely shots of a historic pie & mash shop.  We'll have to go.)
   

Peter Ackroyd's London

Ackroyd is a prolific writer and biographer.  He has an 800 page biography of London which was also turned into a TV Series, uploaded to YouTube by various people.

1. Episode 1: Fire & Destiny
2. Episode 2: Crowd
3. Episode : Newgate to Tyburn (A colourful journey from the site of London' old Newgate prison to the site of the Tyburn Tree)
4. Episode :  East versus West

BBC: The London Markets
Hour-long programs on the wholesale food markets in London.  I can see why they are dying institutions and I hardly think women will miss them. Even the Fruit and Veg market doesn't have a woman in sight, except for a Romanian woman serving tea.  The market men are responsible for their own demise, I'm afraid.

1. The Fish Market Inside Billingsgate
   
2. The Meat Market Inside Smithfield
   
3. The Fruit and Veg Market Inside New Spitalfields
   

Life Where I'm From

I shouldn't watch YouTube.  I keep finding more and more stuff on Japan.  Here's one for Louise and Isabel featuring Aiko, a girl about 10, showing her audience what life is like in Japan.  She'll even show you how to eat natto in What Japanese Breakfast is Like.  Her father is a Canadian so she speaks perfect English and her mother is Japanese so she speaks that perfectly too!  There are videos on lunch and dinner as well.

You can learn about the Golden Poop (also known as the Asahi Golden Flame) when they walk the streets of Asakusa, or see all the fun they have at a family sushi restaurant (aka conveyor belt sushi) where they get a chance to win a gacha gacha prize (gotcha gotcha?) for every 5 dishes they eat.

They didn't win any prizes but they ate 35 plates for 4700 yen which sounds pretty reasonable to me.

As you can see, Aiko has a younger brother called Shin and he narrates the episode on What a Japanese Family Restaurant is Like.  The restaurant, Yumean, has kids' menus and Sebastian would love what he orders: edamame, chicken nuggets, french fries, and tempura udon.  It all looked pretty good to me and they got to sit on the floor on tatami mats.  Maybe Juan and Mandy would like to take Louise!

Japan on YouTube

Naturally when I watch Japanology episodes on YouTube, other videos are recommended for me.  Some are better than others but I was happy to find that there are some really unique videos on Japanese street food.  Fortunately they are in English.  Here are a couple of channels:

TabiEats
This is a couple of guys (the main commentator seems to be a Japanese-American from Hawaii) who also have a blog with recipes featuring healthy dishes like Kit Kat pancakes, Mac and Cheese Pies, Okonomiyaki, Omurice and many Yoshoku dishes (Japanese-style Western dishes).  If you thought the Japanese only ate delicate perfectly arranged small dishes of fish and vegetables, this will disabuse you of that notion.  The advantage to them having eclectic undiscriminating tastes, is that they appreciate almost everything they eat, they even feature breakfasts at Lawson and 7-Eleven convenience stores!  I'd rather have breakfast at a French pastry shop like Gontran Cherrier but I might be up to a dinner at a 7-Eleven when we arrive in Tokyo and it's late and every restaurant has long lines.  Perhaps more interesting are their episodes on street food in the Tokyo neighborhoods of Asakusa and Oeno.  He tries to film an episode on supermarkets but they don't like people filming in them.  Sort of like libraries...

Only in Japan
The first episode I watched was Street Food in Shibamata which is a suburb of Japan and is famous for being the setting of a Japanese film series called Otoko wa Tsurai yo (It's tough being a man) featuring an unlucky-in-love character called Tora-san.  Maybe it would be a change to check out the suburbs if we find Tokyo too hectic.  There are also episodes on Vending Machines, Super Escalators and Ice Cream Flavors.
If you like trains, there is an episode on the overnight sleeper car JR Sunrise Izumo Express from Tokyo Station to Izumo on the Sea of Japan and another episode on the Kitaro Family (Pokemon) Train" train in Yonago.

Tokyo Cheapo
Tokyo Cheapo has a channel on YouTube but also its own website offering a downloadable ebook guide to Tokyo.  What does their Shinjuku guide say about the neighborhood?  We'll let you know what we think!