Too late, my friend, too late. There are few things more satisfying than to listen to Peter Barakan calmly explaining some quaint Japanese phenomenon like the history of pens, or the importance of lunch boxes, etc. The world regains its balance, there is order in the universe after all ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begin_Japanology

I have not seen this but wanted to make people aware the NHK is available on streaming platforms and has no end to cool content, such as:

[1] Japanology Plus (a sequel to Begin Japanology?) https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/japanologyplus/

[2] Journeys in Japan: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/program/video/jo...

[3] 10 Years with Hayao Mizaki https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/program/video/10...

For those of you ready to fall down this rabbit hole, I've created this just for you:

http://Japanology.tv

Pull requests / data updates welcome :)

Gah, I've seen altogether dozens and dozens of hours of this show, to the point where I was hunting down "lost" or hard to find episodes.

Barakan is a treasure.

[Hello my name is Peter Barakan Intensifies]