Day One: Task One, choose a title! Of course! Well, you don’t have to set anything in stone, they ask for a few options for working titles, with a short description on what the show will be about. Luckily we can change this anytime throughout the course 🙂

We have to imagine who the target audience will be. Do I have an audience in mind? Do I want people to listen? Yes, of course. According to Seth, the default audience is, well, me. But I’ve done that with my blog before (although this blog is not only for me), and am doing this podcast to branch out a lot more. Need to think more on this, I want the podcast to appeal to a broad range of people, although that’s not always the best way to approach things. It’s better to have more specific people in mind, the so-called viable audience, so you can guarantee you are appealing to someone, not ‘everyone’.

I was thinking of doing something about learning Japanese as a second language, but would like to go much deeper such as different views of thinking, cultural differences, or communication techniques. I could probably group this under living in the Japanese countryside. Do I want to incorporate my life as a Yamabushi? I probably should, it’s a key point of difference.

Some ideas off the top of my head:

Life in rural Japan, How to live in rural Japan, Kiwi Yamabushi: Rural life in Japan, Yamabushi life, Kiwi Yamabushi life, The Kiwi Yamabushi Podcast, or maybe something like Becoming a local in rural Japan

I went with:

Hi all, I want to incorporate my identity as a Yamabushi (short description below), but not many people know what Yamabushi are, hence my second option. But then the second option I feel is too broad. Given the choice though, I’d like to go for the first option. I feel I can have the first option while still incorporating ideas from the second.

Topics to cover include:

• The philosophy(s) of Yamabushi, how to incorporate it into your life and similarities to other philosophies (Stoic/ Zen etc.)
• The history and culture of Yamabushi and the Dewa Sanzan (mountains where Yamabushi train)
• How/ why to become a Yamabushi

Then more general things like:

• How to settle into life in rural Japan

And I’d also like to include interviews with people on these topics

What are Yamabushi?

For those who are unaware (is there anyone that knows this already?), Yamabushi are mountain monks in Japan that undertake ascetic training in the mountains themselves. Through this training, Yamabushi originally aimed for enlightenment (they are a combination of Buddhism, Shintoism, Shugendo, itself a combination of those two religions, Taoism, and animism or nature worship), but these days we train more for self-improvement. Another important point is Hansei Hanzoku whereby Yamabushi live normal lives like you and I, but just happen to train in the mountains a few times each year