Podcaster Teppei Fujita distributes “Araone” to fulfill his dream.

I remembered how I started the podcast when I heard a song by globe

Celeina (MC): First up for the week is the show’s nominee, designer and podcaster Teppei Fujita. Please say hello.

Fujita: Hello, GRAND MARQUEE listeners, my name is Teppei Fujita. Takano-san, Celeina-san, please give my regards to you. I was so enthusiastic that I tripped over one’s words from the beginning.

Takano(MC):I’m sure everyone have already noticed your voice. You have a podcast program.

Fujita: Yes, I do. I have a program called “Araone.

Celeina: And “Araone” started the same time as GRAND MARQUEE, in October last year.

Fujita: Yes, it started on October 5, 2022.

Takano: That’s a crazy coincidence.

Celeina: We are the same age for the program, aren’t we?

Fujita: I have always loved radio, and October is the time of the season for reorganization. That’s why I started the program during the reorganization period.

Celeina: Details are important.

Fujita: I wanted to be well versed in the industry.

Takano: That’s a good point. If you haven’t listened to the podcast program “Araone,” I’m sure you’re wondering what kind of program it is, but since you’ve prepared the audio, let’s listen to it for a moment.

Fujita: Are you kidding me, it will be played on J-WAVE?

Takano: It will be played.

Fujita: Please give it a listen.

Fujita: I’m so happy!

Takano: Teppei’s voice is so good that I feel at ease when he speaks close to me. I have listened to some of your episodes, and you are sometimes invited as a guest or something.

Fujita: Yes, we have invited three guests in the past year. I introduce a friend of mine who is a sushi chef, a friend who makes aromatherapy, and a friend who makes something. I have always wanted to introduce interesting people to everyone.

Takano: I would love to be invited.

Fujita: Can you come?　The studio is home.

Celeina: It’s nice, it’s homey.

Takano:You do all the staffing aspects as well, don’t you?

Fujita: I do. We have a small mixer, so we can record jingles and other sounds. After recording, we basically don’t edit, but we have to take out lip noise and other things that occur, so it takes about a day and a half to make a single recording.

Celeina: Isn’t it amazing that you can still make one in a day and a half?

Fujita: Somehow, I have managed to do it for the past year without a break.

Celeina: Isn’t that professional?

Takano: To begin with, what made you start distributing podcasts?

Fujita: Many of the things I make as a designer are quite conceptual, so I wanted to communicate something about that through the podcast. But when I was listening to “Feel Like dance” by globe while walking along Roppongi Dori to come to the studio earlier, I started to cry. The lyrics are, “Feel like dance, the dream I almost gave up on when I was a teenager, the chances that circle around me pass by so quickly that I can’t even taste them.

I was a TV personality for a little while when I was a teenager, but I gave it up. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to make this dream come true one more time, but I had been working for 20 years without being able to say so. I was reminded of that when I listened to a globe song a while ago, and I realized that I started the podcast because I wanted to share my words with as many people as possible.

Takano: Celeina, you are about to cry.

Celeina: I thought it was a good story. Do you want to listen to it for a moment?　Globe.

Takano: Let’s listen to globe once.

Celeina: May I ask you to just introduce the song?

Fujita: I will. I love Tetsuya Komuro, “Feel Like dance” by globe.

A relationship of trust with listeners that has been established after a year of podcasting

Celeina: Mr. Fujita was dancing with his arms in the air while “Feel Like dance” by Globe was playing.

Fujita: Well, I was a bit moved. Thank you very much for playing “feel like dance” by globe.

Celeina：Thank you too. But once again, how do you feel after a year of the podcast program “Araone”?

Fujita: It’s a lot of fun. I call the listeners of my show “Araraaz,” and I am very happy when I receive letters or reactions from them. Isn’t it nice to hear that people can relate to your words?

Celeina：I understand.

Takano: It makes me very happy.

Celeina：It’s like playing catch with words.

Fujita: After a year of working together, a relationship of trust is born. I cried during a distribution the other day, and we naturally talked about things inside our hearts that we would only say to our friends, like how we are feeling weak or how we want to stop using social networking sites soon. I realized that before I knew it, I trusted Araraaz.

Takano: You actually meet the listeners and so on, don’t you?

Fujita: That’s right. The week before last, we held our first anniversary event, “Connect Fest,” at a coffee shop called “PADDLERS COFFEE” in Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Many araraaz came to the event.

Celeina: It’s a great environment to be able to meet them both in audio and at local events.

Fujita: The number of people who send me a lot of emails is increasing, and I’m like, “You’re the one.” There were also questions like,”I thought he was an old man, but was he actually a high school student?”

Creating a zine of photos taken when I went abroad for work

Celeina：That’s great. And now that we’ve talked about podcasts, I understand that you also produce zines.

Fujita: Yes, I do. I often go overseas as a backpacker for my job, and I take pictures. I have accumulated a lot of photos, so I decided to make a zine.

Celeina: You brought it here today.

Takano: It looks really stylish.

Fujita: When you unfold it, it becomes one big sheet of paper.

Takano:It folds up to form a booklet.

Fujita: A zine is a kind of free-style book that artists and photographers can make and sell without going through a publisher. It costs a lot of money to make a solid book, so this is a challenge to make something creative and interesting without spending a lot of money. This is just printing another sheet of paper and folding it. By the way, I do all the folding myself.

Celeina: I would love for listeners to see this zine.

Fujita: Yes, I am. This is an event held every fall at The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and this year is the fourth time I have participated. This year, I will be exhibiting two new books.

Takano: Starting on Thursday, November 23?

Fujita: That’s right. I’m preparing for it right now.

Celeina: You must be very busy.

Takano:Are you folding them or something?

Fujita: We are going to sell about 1,000 books during the four-day event. It takes about three weeks to fold them.

Takano:That means you are multi-talented.

Celeina: We have heard many stories, but “FISTBUMP” is a circle of friends connected by “Goo Touch,” and we are asking people to introduce their friends to us.

Fujita: This is a friend of mine from high school, Naho Okamoto, who grew up to be a jewelry designer and is now a fine jewelry designer.

Celeina: In a word, what kind of person is she?

Fujita: She looks like a very cool beauty, but inside she is a subculture cultural person who loves manga.

Takano: Tomorrow, I will connect you to jewelry brand designer Naho Okamoto.

Celeina: “FISTBUMP” today we have designer and podcaster Teppei Fujita. Thank you very much.