When I lived in Japan originally a couple of years ago I didn’t watch much TV. Mainly because I didn’t understand it & it always seemed to be about food. So i/we rented a lot of videos and American dramas (Watching 15 hours of 24 in a day was a past time of the people that lived in my dorm especially on rainy days!)
Anyone that has lived in Japan will have something to say about Japanese TV. My first impression of it wasn’t good but it is growing on me and that is kind of scary because I never thought it would. In fact there are now shows I feel I have to watch and I am prepared to miss Friday night drinks (not every week though!) to see them. Crazy variety shows are beggining to make sence and I actually sit down and watch shows about food in case I learn something?!
Now we have a TV in our apartment & last night I got home from work a little early so the TV was on from 7pm until about 1am while I was doing other things like blog, email, cook dinner and clean the apartment. That is a lot of crazy TV viewing time to be had in that time.
First was channel 10′s Q-sama. This show has no point really but I guess it is kind of funny (If you had asked me 6 months ago I would never have said it was “funny”) and from what I can tell they have a set of regular people on that do silly stuff like they take them to the top of a 10m diving board blind folded then take off the blind folds and time how long it takes them to jump off. Japanese people tend not to like hights. Other have included bowling competitions with drama actors or making them run around a field with a fast man chasing them? So you can understand my disgust now that I actually watch this right? There really is no point….
Next up was Sapuri on channel 8, the drama in the 9pm Monday night slot for this summer. This is the most prestigious drama showing of the week and if you drama makes it in there your laughing. It is a good drama and I have watched it most weeks and it is nearly coming to an end. I really like this drama but I have become slightly Japanese drama obsessed this summer and I tell myself it is to improve my Japanese so that I don’t have to study from books! The only thing that really bothers me about this is the male lead, one of the young boys from boy band Kat-tun, Kamenashi Kazuya, well his eyebrows are strange. The have been shaped and then put in with an eyebrow pencil. Dude why did you let them do this to you?
Now this next show I am almost ashamed to say i watch. Who knows the band SMAP? Well there is a show on Monday nights, channel 8, called Smap x Smap. I only know the name of one of the guys, Kimura Takuya (“Kimutaku”). Basically another celebrity comes onto the show and they cook for that person or people….last night Sato Koichi the celebrity on requested they make something with SPAM? What was he thinking? Last night another guy also came on and they played pool. Some times they do skits. I am so surprised really (despite the fact I watched it) that Japan airs this kind of stuff? I mean really? There is no point. I have to say though i love the Gatsby ad that Kimura is in at the moment despite the fact that the song stays in your head for days. I think i just love the fact that I know him dancing there playing with his hair will sell the product in Japan……Shumpei uses it.
Last but not least was ainori. I love this show and I can understand why it is shown in Japan, what I can’t understand that it is only shown once a week for half an hour despite the idea behind it being awesome. It is a reality show, and basically there is a pink bus with seven people, men 7 women, who travel around the world in this bus until they fall in love with someone on board and request tickets home. It is great. You go on to find true love!!! One of Shumpei’s best mates works late and can’t always watch it (his dream despite having the same gf for last 3 or 4 years is to go on ainori…he can’t apply while he has a girlfriend) so i send him updates if he is not home in time.
I am slightly worried about my sanity…what will happen to me if i continue to watch Japanese TV? I never thought i would see the day that i watched this much Japanese tv, and actually looked forward to watching some programs. OMG…It is pulling me in…
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I am just a twenty something Aussie girl living in Chiba, Japan with my Japanese husband trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese world we live in! We welcomed our first son in December 2009 (Noah) and a second son in January 2011, 2 months premature (Shion). I am working hard at raising them to be confident, bilingual, happy kids!
I’d buy it!!!
Yes! When my hair gets cut shorter I will probably start using it myself. Despite having seen the ad a million times already it has not driven me insane yet!! He is kind of cute no?
I expect you pay your NHK bill then ???
I once had a full body crush on Kimutaku when he played a tough guy hockey player (??) in a shocking drama called Pride – I cried with him, I laughed with him, I slid on the ice with him – all without understanding a single word he uttered. The theme song was “I was born to love you” I think you are getting the picture – every Monday night I would rush home from work stopping at the Seven 11 to pick up a dodgey bento and some cheap alcohol, flick on the tele and snuggle up to Kimura – possibly one of the most joyous but lowest points in my life…since Pride finished (years ago) I have been unable to find that kind of love again. Masao is hot on AiNori so the tele is often on on a Monday night and shame of shames if we are home on a Sat night Shingo is often on pumping out his form of English with the bizarre foreign girls sitting in the backgound – wish I could make friends with one of them and find out what they are requested to do on set…its too weird. Oh SMAP how I miss them!
oh how I love Japanese TV! So wacky, yet so addictive. When I first visited Japan on exchange in 95/96, Kimutaku was advertising lipstick! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DsXoOAM-As)
Shingo has always been my fave of the SMAP boys, so when I went back to Japan for a short trip in 2004, I was absolutely delighted to see how popular he has become these days. just think how good all this Japanese TV is for your Japanese
Sushi- I most certainly do not pay my NHK bill although they never come and ask for money. Shumpei and I have discussed it and have said we won’t pay it. Do you pay it? What is with that show with the foreign women?? I have seen it a couple times and I am yet to understand what the point of that is either. They are funny though! The changing point in my Japanese drama watching life was when I saw Orange Days with Tsumabuki Satoshi…So i understand your crush on Kimura during Pride!
Nicole- Yes I was discussing how long SMAP have been around with Shun recently. It is amazing really and I wonder with the success of Kat-tun recently if it they will end up the same? Maybe I am way off though.
We saw the best show in the whole world in Japan…. I just don’t know if I can explain it at all. It was a competition of sorts where people kind of acted out a small scene but dressed up in crazy costumes. Like there was about 40 people in one, and they were all dressed in blue and moved around so they looked like waves, and then they had a paper mache whales tail flick up and a whale blowhole and whatnot. Or another one was they were acting out a scene, but doing it upside down with the camera also upside. It was wacky, it was awesome!! I loved it and pine for it most days…. (except I forgot about it until now).
Gat su beee, Gat su beee!! I know what’s going to be stuck in my head for the rest of my life!
I love his curls, that product seems to be pretty awesome if it gets his presumably straight, thick asian hair to get curly. I’m v impressed
Adam- There are a lot of skit shows here. I am not sure of the one you mean but I will look out for it!! Does sound wacky! Last night I watched a strange show in which everyone had stockings on their head…and stuck stuff to their faces and tried to drink through the stocking etc….It was on very late at night…I was tired…so I have NO idea what it was actually about.
Jen- I like his curls too, but I am pretty sure he perms his hair and then just straightens it if ne needs to…or his stylist does
I never knew this until i came here but a lot of Japanese people chemically straighten their hair…Even if it is already straight…haven’t figured out why yet.
hi, I tried to leave my comment but not sure if this works….I read your blog yesterday for the first time and I really like it.
I havent watched Japanese dramas for almost 5 years.i just dont want to be on time or tape them.
but there is one i really like is called ‘long vacation’ aired 10 years ago that Takuya Kimura played.its one of those love stories but for some reason,I got hooked on it and have watched over 20 times which doesnt mean Im a big fun of him.
Speaking of Ainori, dont know why people love that show…to be honest I watch it but dont like it at all,because it is all set up.Im sooo impressed with how they act, they are really good at it.
Dont you think??
Hi Zume,
WOW,your English is awesome. I am really jealous but impressed! Did you learn English here in Japan? Please teach Shumpei!!! I am not a very good teacher so his English is still not very good but he is getting better and he understands a lot now! When we first met my Japanese was very bad BUT he did not speak any English at all so my Japanese got better. Maybe he will become fluent like you one day!
I have not seen long vacation but I have heard it is very good. BUT at the TSUTAYA it only has the videos and we don’t have a video player only the computer which we play DVD’s on. So when we get video player I will rent it! Kimura Takuya must have been really young?
Ask Sushi about reality shows in Australia. They are all set up too but still sometimes funny. I like ainori because i understand the Japanese!!!
But they are very good actors…the new shy boy (san-chan?) is a little bit strange though don’t you think>?
Say hi to Sushi, I love the blog that you guys have also. I loved the photos from Europe but haven’t had time to look at the other ones on flickr yet…
Have a good weekend
Hi Lulu,
thanks for your message.
Yeah I did learn English here in tokyo.I went to English school for 2 years where I got to meet some nice,kind and cool people who taught me English very well, who are now my friends.
I remember when I started studying E I couldnt say anything, like a teacher says ‘ how are you?’ but Im like ‘what????’ so that really motivated me to study really hard also I paied a lot for school so I felt like I had to as best I could. I realy enjoyed it!!
If you want to watch long vacation on dvd, maybe you should go to tsutaya in Shibuya the biggest one right near the bigeest intersection.
Kimutaku was very young maybe 26 so which is the same age as me now. i mean I remeber watching the drama as I was thinking that he looked so matured and grown-up but now Im 26, but im not at all….it is so funny that when you are at the age of teens whoever you see,who are older than you,you think they are very cool but…..not. you know what Im saying??
Anyway that guy from ainori,he is super super wierd, dont know why ainori got him on the show but guess he is made up.isnt he?
Sushi and I always say that do not believe everything you see on tv or read, we dont know whats real or whtas really going on.
*Parp!*
*nods at Ye Ennye doth ye olde Penne*
*scratches behind ear with pencil, sits, spreads out massive piles of books, paper, notes, and general STUFF, and commences working while waiting for the others*
*pauses*
*Thinks: should I say hello to our gracious host? *
telepathy: Enny, you seem to have hung around here a bit, what do you think? – should I announce our Quest, or or just sit here taking up floor space?
Lulu,
Where are you?
It has been many days….
Hi from a fellow Aussie girl also living in Tokyo.
I’m all for watching Japanese dramas to improve your language, it’s great for listening and gives you a chance to see how Japanese is used in situations you may not necessarily find yourself in (eg. waiting on a bridge every night for your ex-lover to return from overseas like he promised even though it’s been 10 years and he hasn’t contacted you once). Long Vacation is great but if you like Tsumabuki you should watch “Slow Dance”, the story is quite similar to Long Vacation but it’s really sweet and fun to watch. Enjoy!