Today my husband and I went out. While driving, we were listening to a radio station. We both love soul music and every time our favorite music was played, we got excited. We were so focusing on the music, but all of a sudden, we started paying attention to the DJ. He sounded like a real expert on soul music and he was talking about really tiny, obscure details. We were so impressed by his knowledge.

Then, I wanted to know who he was and asked my husband what his name was. My husband couldn't remember his name but he said this DJ sounded having a foreign name. I looked up his name on my phone and found him. He is Peter Barakan, a British DJ working for NHK. I've heard his name before, but I didn't know that he was such an expert on soul music. We were impressed by his deep knowledge, but we were even more surprised by his Japanese. We completely thought the DJ was Japanese until I found who he was.

He came to Japan in 1974 and married a Japanese woman. He's been living in Japan for over forty years. Even so, he doesn't have any foreign accent. Usually, when English native speaking people pronounce Japanese names written in katakana, they pronounce them with English sounds, but Barakan pronounces them just like Japanese people do. I'm so jealous of him. Of course he's been speaking Japanese for much longer than I've been speaking English, but I don't think I'll reach his level. I'm very curious how he mastered Japanese.

While listening to his radio show, we discovered a new band to us named The Staple Singers. This band has become one of our favorites.

If you're curious, you can listen to his radio show here. You can also listen to The Staple Singers here.

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