“Japanese Idobata Channel” – Podcast for Japanese Language Learning Review

“Japanese Idobata Channel” – Podcast for Japanese Language Learning Review

The “Japanese Idobata Channel” Podcast for Japanese language learning is for intermediate and advanced Japanese language learners. “Idobata” in Japanese is “井戸端”, and means “(the) side of the well” or “edge of the well” in English. It has the same meaning in English as the older reference to the “office watercooler”. A place where people gather to talk, and sometimes gossip, about things. Don’t worry though, this podcast is talking and conversation, not gossip. Related to “Idobata” is the Japanese “井戸端会議” (idobatakaigi), or ‘content-free meeting/chat’. Anyway, this podcast is hosted by Yuko and Noriko, two native Japanese speakers. Yuko is an online English teacher.

Yuko and Noriko began uploading the “Japanese Idobata Channel” in January of 2021. They now have about 120 episodes of the podcast released. That is about 2 episodes for each week since they started. However, they have been releasing one episode a week for the past few months. The Episodes average from 25 to 35 minutes in length. Yuko and Noriko talk at a normal speed during the podcast, and are easily understandable. They speak entirely in Japanese, even though they do speak English.

There are a variety of topics on the  “Japanese Idobata Channel” podcast. Yuko and Noriko talk about everything from their jobs, to moving houses, to superstitions and all sorts of things in between. They use normal conversation to talk about everyday topics and occurrences. I think they try to avoid difficult or complex words. Like most other Japanese language podcasts, I find this one more interesting because of two people having a conversation. It is much more interesting than one person talking by themselves. Yes, every once in a while the conversation is more about things that women are interested in like makeup, cosmetics, and hair color.

They also have a YouTube channel where they are posting the podcast. Although, they took a break from posting the podcast on YouTube for a while, for some reason. The two most recent podcasts are on the channel, but there wasn’t one posted for nine months prior to that. You can find the “Japanese Idobata Channel” podcast at the following links:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us