I thought this was interesting:
The winter dinner table in Japan | 世論 What Japan Thinks
(I don't know about the video that he's talking about... I can't see it from my computer).
Dirtyrobo, sorry for the late reply!
About your synths-- Japan actually has some good synths for the money I think. You can find some for a good price every now and then. I'm not sure about the state of synths in Japan now-a-days, but I know that in America (and probably Europe too) hardware synths are seeing a huge comback, which has caused the cost of the things to go up a lot. I think it's hard to find space for all those things in Japan though! I'm thinking of getting a Korg M3M though-- that seems small enough
. I can control it from my computer or from my DX7.
I don't do any proper recording work... I'm just getting started really. It's a hobby that I've just taken too far. It sounds like you were making some dough off of it though! What kind of gear do you have left over that you still use?