Have you ever heard of the Japanese アニメ (cartoon) called 「妖怪人間べム」 (“Monster Man Bemu”)?
It’s basically about three kind 妖怪 (monsters) who want to be human. They learn that they can become human if they protect humans from other evil monsters.
The three kind monsters, 「べム」 (“Bemu”), 「ベラ」 (“Bera”), and 「べロ」 (“Bero”) are frightening-looking monsters but they are able to assume a humanoid form…but even so, they still look like monsters.
And for that reason, they aren’t accepted by most humans. Most people judge them by their physical appearance rather than their character. That is an underlying theme of this series.
This series originally aired on TV in Japan in the late-60’s…before my wife and I were born but we’ve seen re-runs of it.
A well-known line from this show is 「早く人間になりたい！」 (“I want to be a human soon!”)…it can even be heard in the show’s opening theme song.
Here is a YouTube clip of this show’s opening and closing theme songs:
When I was a kid in America I used to watch a TV show called “Candid Camera“.
This show put ordinary people in awkward or funny situations and filmed the results with a hidden camera.
After the victim’s humorous reaction, the host would reveal the prank with the show’s tagline “Smile, you’re on candid camera”.
Japan has a similar program that I enjoyed watching that was titled 「パニックフェイス」 (“Panic Face), but has been renamed 「パワフルフェイス」 (“Powerful Face“).
Americans like TV variety shows and game shows that have ordinary people as contestants or guests but in Japan, having established celebrities on the shows is more popular.
So, “Panic Face” (“Powerful Face”) has a celebrity (usually a comedian) as an unsuspecting victim and the point of the show is to see the victim’s “Panic Face”…or shocked expression.
Here are a few funny episodes that I watched on TV when they originally aired here in Japan…
This one has a celebrity in his dressing room preparing for his appearance on TV…when “ghosts” appear in his mirror and room:
This next on has two “magicians” mimicking two actual famous Japanese magicians who appear in the dressing room of a comedian and demonstrate a few of their “tricks”:
And this one has a “police officer” doing a “Jack Bauer” and commandeers the private cars (bicycle) of three comedians:
Today I bought a case of a new “limited edition for 2010” beer by Sapporo Breweries.
It’s called 「サッポロアイスラガー」 (“Sapporo Ice Lager“).
I couldn't resist a "ice" lager beer with polar bears on the can...it gives an image of being a real cold beer---perfect now that the weather is so hot!
Technically it’s not a “beer”, per se…but a 「発泡酒」 (low-malt beer).
Actually I prefer 発泡酒 (low-malt beer) because it tastes the same as beer but it’s cheaper in Japan because it doesn’t have the high beer tax added to it’s price.
So, beer or 発泡酒 (low-malt beer)…I enjoy drinking both but I usually buy 発泡酒 (low-malt beer) because of the price difference.
Anyways, I knew about this 「サッポロアイスラガー」 (“Sapporo Ice Lager“) beer before I bought it because of the funny TV commercial with two polar bears complaining about the heat and looking for something cold to drink.
Here it is:
The 2010 World Cup has begun. The World Cup is the international soccer championship games.
(I wrote this post about a drink Pepsi-Japan released recently in honor of the World Cup.)
I don’t think soccer is a very exciting game. But I remember seeing on TV here about ten or so years ago a soccer game organized by the famous Japanese comedian Beat Takeshi that was much more entertaining than how the game is usually played.
He made all of the players wear binoculars strapped by their faces. It was quite funny. Beat Takeshi always has excellent shows even today.
First of all, my blog reached the 400,000 hits point today. At the current rate of over 2,000 daily hits, my blog should reach the half-million hits mark by late July.
Thank you to everyone who visits my blog.
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Do you like サッカー (soccer)?
Personally, I don’t care for it much…but I know the “World Cup” is like the “Olympics of Soccer”.
The World Cup is an international championship soccer competition and it’s very popular around the whole world (except America 😉 ).
The 2010 World Cup is scheduled to begin on 2010 June 11. But currently there are some kind of “pre-World Cup” international soccer matches going on.
Tonight the Japan soccer team (nicknamed: “Samurai Blue“) is scheduled to play a game against the Korean soccer team in Saitama, Japan.
Ad for Japan's "Samurai Blue" team's soccer match against Korea this evening.
Here’s an Adidas Japan TV commercial for the Samurai Blue / World Cup:
Probably every Japanese person knows who 山下清 (Kiyoshi Yamashita) is.
Have you ever heard of him?
He’s a famous Japanese artist. Often called the “Japanese Van Gogh“.
He died in 1971 at the age of 49…but if he was still alive today, last Wednesday would have been his 88th birthday.
Kiyoshi Yamashita was born in Tokyo on 1922 March 10 (his birth name was Seiji Obashi).
He suffered an illness as a young child that stunted his mental growth and he was diagnosed as mentally handicapped (some people now believe he was autistic).
In elementary school he was bullied because of his mental handicap and slow speech. So his mother enrolled him in a boarding school in Chiba, Japan for special needs children.
In 1940, Japan was at war and Kiyoshi Yamashita was eighteen years old and now potentially eligible for the Army draft.
So he ran away and began a life as a vagrant wandering around Japan and painting the scenes he saw.
When he was eventually forced to register for the draft he was found unfit due to his handicap, but he said that he enjoyed life on the road and he continued wandering for a fourteen years.
His art style is mosaic. He cuts pieces of colorful paper and glues them to a canvas to create a beautiful scene.
An amazing fact is that he would remember a scene that he saw and recreate it on his canvas later. He was able to memorize all the details that he saw…which is why many people believe he was autistic (the disease that Dustin Hoffman’s character had in the movie “Rain Man“).
Life on the road wasn’t always easy, of course.
He often had to beg for money to buy food. But he spent his money as frugally as possible and at one point he was arrested for vagrancy and the arresting officer found ¥10,000 in his bag that he was able to save up (which was a considerable amount at that time).
But when the police officer accused him of stealing it, Mr. Yamashita wasn’t able to explain himself clearly.
According to Mr. Yamashita’s biography, the officer beat him and pocketed the money.
At one point after Kiyoshi Yamashita stopped roaming the country and settled back down in 1954, he was given a chance to teach an art class for other mentally handicapped people.
He told them to never feel inferior and if they believe in themselves they can be like an Army general.
So, from that quote and also the way Mr. Yamashita had a habit of dressing without a shirt, he was given the nickname 「裸の大将」 (“The Naked General“).
There is a TV series in Japan based on his life. The series is titled 「裸の大将」 (“The Naked General“).
Yesterday was a holiday here in Japan. Called 「建国記念日」 (“National Foundation Day“).
(Click here to see my short FAQ about it.)
My wife, kids and I went to a カラオケボックス (Karaoke Box) and had lunch there.
After that we stopped by the DVD rental shop and picked up a couple more episodes of the American TV series “Prison Break“.
We’ve been watching a few episodes every month since last November.
We’re enjoying it.
We’re up to episode eight of season two….don’t tell me how it ends. 😉
We also rented a DVD that I wanted to watch…「毎日どっきりvs出川」.
It a show in which a celebrity here in Japan is chosen and the cast of the show play elaborate practical jokes on that celebrity every day for a month.
It was a funny DVD…but not as good as I expected.
Also, this post is titled 「アキラ」 (“Akira“) because I heard that America plans to make a live action movie remake of the Japanese anime titled 「アキラ」 (“Akira“).
The anime is about a motorcycle gang in Tokyo in the future.
Hollywood doesn’t really have a good track record of remaking Japanese anime into movies.
So, I wonder how this one will turn out.
(Click here to see the post about Japanese movies remade by Hollywood…some done well and others not.)
By the way, if you’re in Tokyo now, it’s forecast to snow tonight and tomorrow. So be careful if you go out tomorrow. (If it snows, it’ll probably only be a little bit though).
In America and China many 「トヨタ」 (Toyota) cars are being recalled because there’s a possibility that an ill-fitting floor mat can cause the accelerator pedal to stick which could cause an accident.
And now 「ホンダ」 (Honda) cars overseas are being recalled too.
I heard that Toyota and Honda dealers in those countries are losing a lot of potential business because the public has become hesitant to trust the safety of those cars now.
「トヨタ」 (Toyota)
「ホンダ」 (Honda)
This issue isn’t an issue at all in Japan.
Most Japanese feel that the cars being recalled overseas are different because they were made in America or China.
Japanese cars in Japan are made here…and anything “Made in Japan” is seen as superior in quality and safety.
So, Toyota and Honda dealers here in Japan aren’t feeling the affects of the recall overseas at all.
In fact, Toyota is the best-selling car in Japan…and has been for many years.
Has your image of Japanese cars changed because of this recall?
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On a totally unrelated subject…
I found out that Gene Simmons (of the rock band KISS) did a TV commercial in America for the Dr. Pepper soft drink.
His son is also in the commercial.
As I don’t live in America, I don’t normally watch America TV…but thanks to the internet in general, and YouTube specifically, I was able to see it.
It’s here:
Do you live in America? Have you seen this commercial on TV before?
In Japan, KISS has done a few TV commercials too.
I wrote a post about them last year. Click here to see that post.
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.
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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?
今日は子供の日 (Today is Children’s Day).
Families with sons with often decorate their homes with 鯉のぼり (Carp streamers) and Samurai dolls and eat a special meal on this holiday.
Today on 日テレ (Nihon TV) is a semi-annual TV show that I enjoy watching alot.
The show is 「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 image to go to the show's website)
The last time this showed aired was on 8 January 2009. I wrote a post about it in January, and included a couple YouTube videos of skits from the show. Click here to see that post.
Tonight 「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) will be on 日テレ (Nihon TV) from 19:58 – 21:54 (7:58 – 9:54 PM)*.
(* In Japan, television shows are often scheduled to begin and end a couple minutes before the hour (such as 7:58PM). That often seems odd to foreign visitors to Japan).
On this show, a panel of five judges watch people’s skits done with homemade costumes and props and the judges can award the contestants up to four points each (for a total of twenty possible points).
If the contestant earns at least twelve points, they have a chance to win one of the cash prizes.
Here’s another video of a skit from the show (besides the ones I already have on my earlier post here). It’s titled 「スーパーマリオ」 (“Super Mario“). At the end you can see they get the full twenty points…and they’re very excited!
If you’re in Japan, you should watch this TV show tonight. It’s great!
Tokyo Five 
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