My favorite TV shows

In a recent post I mentioned a TV show that I really enjoy called「欽ちゃん＆香取慎吾の全日本仮装大賞」 (Kinchan & Shingo Katori’s All-Japan Costume Talent Contest)…(Click here to read it.)

But that show is only on air twice a year.

There are a number of shows that I enjoy watching every week.

Let me introduce you to a few of them…

• 伊藤政則のＲＯＣＫ ＣＩＴＹ (Masa Itoh’s Яock City) 毎週金曜 午後２４時４５分～２５時１５分 (Every Friday night (Saturday AM) at 12:45 – 1:15AM) on TVK Yokohama.



Masa Itoh is a famous heavy metal critic. He works for Burrn! magazine (Click here to see my post about this magazine) and has his own TV that introduces new metal albums and concerts coming to Japan, and shows interviews that Masa Itoh does with musicians, as well as music promotion videos.

Many American and European heavy metal bands list Masa Itoh‘s name in their album liner’s “Thank you” lists.

• テレビチャンピオン (TV Champion) 毎週木曜 午後７時５７分～８時５４分 (Every Thursday at 7:57 – 8:54PM) on TV Tokyo.



Every week they have experts in one field or another (such as chefs, carpenters, artists, etc) compete to see who is the best.

• 走れ！ポストマン (Run! Postman Run!) 毎週日曜 午後10時～ (Every Sunday at 10:00PM) on Tokyo Broadcasting Systems (TBS).



This show has a celebrity act as a postman to try to track down and deliver a letter or gift to someone who has touched the life of that week’s guest but they lost contact for one reason or another.

One week, for example,because of this show a woman whose mother is Japanese and father is American managed to get in contact with her long-lost father who had returned to America when she was young.

• 天才！志村どうぶつ園 (Shimura’s Zoo) 毎週土曜 午後7時～ (Every Saturday at 7:00PM) on Nihon TV (Nittre).


パン君＆ジェームズ (Pan-kun & James)

They show some amazing and interesting animals. Most popular segments include a celebrity help a different animal that has hardship (such as a baby panda whose mother tried to kill when it was born, and became handicapped because of it)…and also the popular パン君＆ジェームズ (“Pan-kun the chimpanzee and his pet bulldog James”) (pictured above) who have many adventures together. Both Pan-kun and James are very intelligent.

Watch this clip of one episode of the adventures ofパン君＆ジェームズ (“Pan-kun  and  James”):

• 知っとこ！ (Sittoko!) 毎週土曜 午前7時半～９時２５分 (Every Saturday at 7:30-9:25AM) on 毎日放送 (MBS).



It’s a live morning variety show. It always ends with the segment called 「世界の朝ごはん」 (World Breakfast) in which they feature a different city in world and introduce a bit of that city / country’s culture and then they introduce a local newlywed couple and the wife cooks an average breakfast for that city. And then the show’s hosts try some of the featured food.

• サンデージャポン (Sunday Japon) 毎週日曜 午前10時～ (Every Sunday at 10:00AM) on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS).



A live morning program in which they show and discuss the week’s biggest news stories.

• 奇跡体験！アンビリバボー (Miraculous! Unbelievable!) 毎週木曜 午後7時57分～ (Every Thursday at 7:57PM) on Fuji TV.



This show is on at the same time as 「テレビチャンピオン」 (“TV Champion“) that I mentioned above so I have to always chose to watch one or the other. 😦

This show features stories of  people around the world who have survived near-death experiences as well as other surprising or shocking stories. It’s always fun to watch when they show the surveillance-camera footage of robbery attempts by bungling-burglars!

• ナニコレ珍百景 (What the…? A hundred unusual scenes) 毎週水曜 午後7時～8時54分 (Every Wednesday at 7:00 – 8:54PM) on TV Asahi.



They show unusual or strange things things around the country (Japan) that viewers submitted the information about.

• 世界の果てまでイッテＱ！ (To The Ends Of The World) 毎週日曜19時58分～20時54分 (Every Sunday at 7:58 – 8:54PM) on Nihon TV (Nittre).



On this show, a Japanese celebrity accepts a challenge to go to a foreign country and participate in some unusual part of their culture.

Here’s a clip from one episode that I watched when it aired a while back. It has a Japanese comedian named Daisuke Miyagawa travel to England to join in a cheese-rolling festival.

He actually manages to come in second place…but sprains his ankle in the process.
The whole Japanese cast has a laugh at the end because an English newspaper shows his name as Daisuki Miyazawa. (The typo in his first name is funnier than the one in his last…because his name is 大輔 (Daisuke), but the English newspaper wrote Daisuki which is 大好き (love) in Japanese.)

My favorite member of the cast of this show is a comedian called Imoto.

—

Do you live in Japan? Have you ever seen any of these shows? I recommend them if you have a chance to watch them.

What types of shows do you like watching? What’s popular in your country?

東武動物公園

Yesterday, we took the kids to the 東武スーパープール (Tobu Super Pool), which is one of the pool amusement parks in the Tokyo area with a current pool, a wave pool and four water slides.

We woke up early and got ready (and my wife and kids made a picnic lunch) and we took the train up north into 埼玉県 (Saitama Prefecture) where the park is.
The weather forecast on the TV said that there was a chance of rain but we decided to go anyways because the pool will close next week for the season (and we have other plans for next weekend)…and it was good that we went because the weather was perfect.

We arrived there at about 11:00 AM and stayed until 3:30PM. My kids were in the pools and water slides the whole time (my wife and I went in for awhile too), and only got out for lunch.

The lunch that my wife and daughters made was おにぎり (rice balls) with salmon inside, chicken, chips and ビール (beer) (the kids drank Coke®).

The only photos that I took there were of my family (which I don’t put online). I didn’t take any other photos at the pool because I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures of other people.
Well, I did take this photo of a 蝉 (cicada) that we saw there:

The 東武スーパープール (Tobu Super Pool) is a part of the excellent 東武動物公園 (Tobu Zoo Park).

So, to get into the Super Pool, you need to buy admission tickets to enter the 東武動物公園 (Tobu Zoo Park), which has an 遊園地 (amusement park), a 動物園 (zoo), a わんこビレッジ (dog village), as well as the 東武スーパープール (Tobu Super Pool).

With that ticket, you can visit the zoo, but the dog village (where you can hold and play with different dogs), the amusement park, and the Super Pool cost extra.

We bought the admission tickets at a discount ticket shop last week, so we saved some money on that cost.

We have been to 東武動物公園 (Tobu Zoo Park) a few times before.
You can see a slideshow of our last visit there at this link.

and another post about it here.

When we left the Super Pool yesterday at 3:30PM, we walked around the zoo and looked at the animals until it closed at 5:30PM.

We were surprised when we were looking at the chimpanzees, they suddenly became quite agitated and started yelling and running around the cage throwing the tires and their water!

Then, at 5:30PM, we headed home for dinner. My wife made excellent 豚キムチ (Pork kimchee (spicy cabbage)).

Here are some videos I took of the animals at the zoo (including the angry chimps):