Zombies in Tokyo!

Today there was an event at the Tokyo Tower to promote the U.S. TV series “The Walking Dead”.

About 1,200 celebrities and locals were made-up as zombies!

The Walking Dead

I wrote an earlier post about albums and movies that I like…including the movie “Shaun Of The Dead“.

It’s a zombie-comedy.

I also wrote another post about the movie “Zombieland“.

And recently we have begun watching an American TV series that became available on rental DVD not long ago.
Maybe you have already seen this show (if so, don’t tell me what’s going to happen! 😉 ).

The show is titled “The Walking Dead” and it’s about the struggles of a group of survivors in a zombie-apocalypse.

Do you watch this show too? Do you like it?

I like it so much that I placed an order on Amazon.com for the comic that the TV series is based on.

A panel from "The Walking Dead" comic books.

Let me introduce you to…

I have written a number of posts about interesting people. Most of whose stories are related to Japan in some way.
Maybe you haven’t seen many of them…so I decided to put links to all of them on a new page that I titled “Who’s Who?“.

Please check them out and leave comments to let me know what you think.

The new page is here.

Dole Banana in Japan now hiring…$11,000 / hour

Last year I wrote a post about Dominos Pizza in Japan hiring one person for their TV commercial for ¥2,500,000 (about US$31,000) per hour.

Dominos Pizza chose that amount (¥2500000) because it was the chain’s 25th anniversary in Japan.

Well, now Dole Banana in Japan is looking to hire one person to be in their TV ads. The position will pay ¥877,000 (about US$11,437) per hour.

¥877,000 was chosen because “8-7-7” can be pronounced, in Japanese, as “ba-na-na“.

The ad for the position with "Dole Banana, Japan" that pays ¥877,000 / hour.

To apply for this position, you must write a self-promoting message on the “Dole, Japan” Facebook page and then click the 「いいね！」 (“Like”) button.

But if you want to apply for this position, you should be in Japan (or able / willing to come here soon) and be legally eligible to work in Japan. The ability to speak Japanese is also a requirement, most likely.

Also, I’m sure that they’re looking for someone with charisma and who has no problem with the self-deprecating TV commercials that Dole Japan is known for.

Famous Japanese celebrity Shingo Katori has been the "face" of Dole, Japan for years now.

I Want To Be A Human Soon

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:

Panic Face

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:

ゾンビランド

I just watched the movie 「ゾンビランド」 (“Zombieland“) starring Woody Harrelson.

This movie definitely isn’t for everyone…it’s a zombie movie, after all.

But I like some, but not all, zombie movies.
The good ones (including the above mentioned “Zombieland“) include “Shaun Of The Dead“, “Dawn Of The Dead“, and “Day Of The Dead“.

I also like some, but not all, of Woody Harrelson’s work.
His good ones (including the above mentioned “Zombieland“) include the American TV series from the 1980s “Cheers“, “No Country For Old Men” and “Natural Born Killers“.

Have you seen “Zombieland“?
What was your opinion of it?
Do you like zombie movies? How about Woody Harrelson’s work in general?

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.

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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?