A YouTube Experiment

Most of the videos I’ve posted on YouTube (same as the ones I post here) have been viewed hundreds or thousands of times, except for the “Koga Lantern Festival” video, which to date has been watched by a paltry 78 people.

I don’t get YouTube. The shaky, nausea-inducing video I made by sprinting through a supermarket has been watched over 3,000 times, while the video I spent hours and hours trying to get “just right” is passed over.

So I decided to conduct an experiment by renaming the Koga Lantern Festival video to something that might appeal more to the YouTube demographic. I have a feeling it’ll work.

Rich Pav

Richard has been living in Japan since 1990 with his wife and two teenage sons, Tony and Andy.

8 thoughts to “A YouTube Experiment”

  1. The lantern festival was one of my favorites. Guess I’m one of those paltry 78. Love the rename!

  2. I really enjoyed the Lantern Festival a lot! I watched on my iPod a few times actually.

  3. I don’t get youtube, either. Don’t get me wrong, I find YT an invaluable resource for all the tv and movie snippets I need to see again to either relive my childhood (Tex Avery toons) or win bets with (Tex Avery toons). Otherwise, the community over there seems to mostly be young men running into fences and YT comments are the cruelest and unproductive I’ve seen.

    Rupert Howe of twittervlog.tv is running a YT experiment this month out of curiosity as well. Many non-YT videobloggers followed suit for kicks.

    I just don’t have the time or desire to cross post to youtube and I’m 100% sure I’d get no views there anyway. Strangely, I feel warmly toward Vimeo, where there seems to be some sort of a*shole filter as far as posters and commenting goes.

  4. I’ve been following your blog for quite some time, but haven’t ever taken the time to comment on anything…

    I think part of the problem with the title is “lantern festival” just sounds … dull. Whereas, “A walk through a Supermarket in Japan” could definitely spark some interest in someone who’s never been to Japan. What are Japanese supermarkets like? Are they different from the ones here, and if so, how?

    Japan’s like a buzz-word these days here in the States – at least in the region where I live. But as much as people talk about how Japan is “AMAZING!! OMG I M TOTALLY GOING THERE!!”, nobody really has any idea what it’s like.

    Which reminds me of awhile back when I was watching your bug video podcast at work. One of my coworkers was walking by my desk, and he stopped watched over my shoulder, and when it was over, he said, “That’s so amazing.”. Turns out he’d always imagined Japan as some alien world totally unlike America, and was amazed upon seeing a normal looking neighborhood and normal looking kids having normal looking kid fun. Not that I’m pegging you as “boring” or “just normal”, but you’re certainly not living in some alien world totally unlike here in the States. And that, to people, is interesting.

    Also, since I’ve never commented, I’ll say what I’ve meant to for a long time but haven’t: videos featuring your boys are a blast to watch – always entertaining! Plus it’s fun occasionally hearing some Japanese that I can almost make out 🙂

  5. @Ethan, thanks for the long comment. It has been my intention from the beginning to show what daily life is like in Japan in order to counterbalance the clips and bites of extraordinary, bizarre and exotic stuff you’re normally exposed to, so I’m glad to hear I’m accomplishing that goal. I realize some people might find some of my audio and video boring or disappointing, but I’d rather disappoint a few than embellish for entertainment’s sake or focus on stuff that’s rare but wacky or perpetuates common myths and stereotypes. (However, after seeing the big bucks some people are making off their videos on Metacafe, I’m seriously thinking about selling out.) My biggest problem is that I’ve been here so long and I’m so used to the daily routine that I honestly can’t imagine anyone being interested in what I’m thinking about and doing lately.

  6. Sigh… Sorry that I’m in such a crappy mood, but right off the bat, your blog title perpetuates the myth of Japanese pronunciation, and the embarrassingly stereotypical Japan newbie will all walk across the street from to avoid. It makes me cringe so much that I hunted you down just to post this. Ahar.

    I’ll feel better after Friday the 13th passes, and maybe the typhoon, too.

  7. I watched it on here.. (as its a bit bigger and that way I have it) Anyway youtube is “apparently” not cool any more, as the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard put on some thing about environmental stuff… (I heard this on the radio, and thats what they think… (about YT not being cool any more))I watched it… (johnhoward2007 is the user name I think, I can’t go on YT on the school computers(but isn’t something that is cool should be baned by school computers?).All I can say is that I nearly fell asleep during it… It isn’t going to make me vote for him… All it did was make me realise how OLD he is…

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