Jake on a Japanese TV show?

Hello

Just come across this video clip. I think it's a aJapanese TV show, and they sang a medley of Okinawa and Hawaiian folk songs. Okinawa is a group of islands in the suthern tip of Japan. They used to be an independent country and have own history and culture. The music is very different, too (it's based on a pentatonic scale of C E F G B C).

The singer is Rimi Natuskawa (from Okinawa). The male is Konishiki, a feamed Sumo wrestler who made it to the rank of Ozeki. Jake is playing ukulele and he takes a short solo. I think this is the first time I heard him play a traditional Hawaiian song.

Note added later: Embedding does not seem to work. Please use the link below to go to YouTube (thanks, RedBee)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBFCP3QoyyY

Enjoy
Chief

Hey chiefnoda,

I just commented to ukestah that Jake appears on Japanese TV shows now and then.
He has a regular corner on an English learning show on NHK, where he visits farmers and craftsmen in Japan and talk to them in English.
Interestingly, he doesn't go near an ukulele on that program!

I found out about it by chance. I input the word "ukulele" in my TV recorder and it recorded automatically, though no ukes were shown....

* Why don't you simply paste the link on the page? (unless my work firewall is preventing me to see it, I can't find any clickable links in your post)

I just watched it now at home. Man, Konishiki was still pretty big at that time. He lost a lot of weight now.
By the way, he will be playing at two big events coming soon : Aloha Yokohama and Ukulele Picnic, both in Yokohama.

Does anyone enjoy their music more than Jake, we all know hes a great player but watch the joy on his face in this video it says it all.

I loved being in Japan because it was easy to meet other ukers! I get so tempted to go back to where my love of the ukulele first began.