It's that time of year again. The time for bloggers everywhere to slack off and rack up cheap hits by squeezing out a mostly arbitrary list of top whatevers of the year.  It's like having a working vacation, and then a real vacation!

But that's not how I do it here in Japanator Radio. Nu-uh. Here, I slave for days trying to decide which of the zillions of albums released this year are good enough to make it on to my own personal list of Best Japanese Albums of 2009. This means something. This is important.

Also, this is a two-parter. That means you'll get six picks this week, and six more next week. Oh, didn't I mention that I also went the extra mile to bring you not 10 but 12 picks? That's right. And that's only for the second half of the year! (You can get my picks for the first half here and here.) 

Oh, and one more thing. Next week? The album of the year will be revealed! 

So grab the first half of the best of 2009 now, and feel free to share your own best of list in the comments.

DOWNLOAD EPISODE 117

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