Week two of Director’s Commentary Month at How to Japonese.

How to Japanese: Underrated Japan Vol. 2 – Mikan from Daniel Morales on Vimeo.

00:32 Harry Nillson’s “Coconut.” Not sure about other readers, but I became familiar with this song after they used it in the Lime Coke ad. This is the demo version, which I prefer to the original. A lot simpler. Just Nillson and his guitar.

00:35 I bought all of these mikan at the off-brand konbini called “Tom Cat” near my apartment. The mikan are cheap, but they’re all kind of unhealthy-looking and relatively tasteless. During peak season I eat about eight mikan a day, though, so this is the only way I can afford my citrus addiction.

You can see my roommate Ayako and her yellow jumper in the background.

01:00 I had a pile of about 40-50 mikan, and everyone started playing with them. I think my roommate Teppei was the one who started drawing faces on the mikan. It was either him or my Korean roommate Son-san.

01:07 This is Son-san’s self-portrait.

01:28 Embarrassingly terrible screen capture of Google Earth. If anyone knows how to do HD video screen capture, please share.

01:49 There are also lots of mikan in Nagasaki and parts of Kyushu. I travelled in Kyushu for New Year’s a couple years in a row and was always stunned at how cheap they are down there.

01:59 Son-san gave me the idea for this section of the video. He kept trying to balance them in all these weird positions after I finished filming the pyramids. I thought it was funny to think of them as “inherently unstable.” Unlike apples, which are clearly an inert fruit.

02:22 Kotatsu + mikan = Japan.

02:28 “From the top” was briefly a hilarious meme in my apartment. I guess it was simple enough for everyone to understand and pronounce, sort of like “Yes we can.” I think it’s still the part of this video they remember the most.

02:48 This was an element of contention when I initially posted the video. I’d be curious to see a pie chart style breakdown of peeling styles. I prefer this method because it keeps things tidy.

Original post here.