Japanese TV is silly. This afternoon I watched as two young male TV talents met the lovely spokeswoman for the upcoming Pan Pacific Swimming Championship. They challenged her to a high-stakes Jenga game. If she lost, she had to go out on a date with one of the guys. To add to the hilarity, each Jenga block had a truth-or-dare style stunt to perform. “Do a 3 second promo for the Pan-Pashi (Pan Pacific) in a baby voice” “What’s your favorite sport for a date?”
Following the game (the spokewoman lost), I changed the channel and watched a food travel show. A portly, but very genki woman enthused about the famous uni (sea urchins) of eastern Hokkaido. I find uni extremely revolting. The yellow-brown color of baby poop, it is a mass of slightly gritty eggs. Blech. But the woman was funny to watch. As she checked into the ryokan where she would stay and have her dinner, she asked several times about the uni. “Do you have it with your dinners here?” She was assured that there would be plenty of uni. When dinner arrived, she had uni in abundance–raw, steamed, over rice. She was so excited that she couldn’t even manage “Oishii!” after her first bite. A squeal of delight was her only utterance. It was subtitled, ala the 1960s Batman TV show, naturally.
