More on Japanese TV

So like, there hasn't been much interesting going on. I have played a lot of FFXI. I wanted to update, though, so have a Bloglight Japan.

Bloglight Japan: TV

In America, Japanese television is known for being crazy and goofy and just plain silly. Most of the time, this is not the case, though there is still certainly a decent chunk of that. Commercials certainly tend to be that way. And, for the most part, Japanese dramas are more along the lines of what Americans would call melodramas (see 1 Litre of Tears for an excellent exception).

If you watch TV in America, you'll notice that certain kinds of shows tend to come on at certain times of day. During the day on weekdays, you have shows devoted to womens' interests, young children, and cooking. Afternoon gives way to cartoons before moving on to news, then you have prime-time dramas, comedic and commentary shows, movies, game shows, and the like. Weekends have cartoons in the morning and news and movies and other stuff later on. Late night/early morning TV on any day of the week becomes music shows and infomercials and some weird stuff they don't put on during the day.

This same sort of schedule generally holds true for Japanese television, though there are some differences. Cooking shows are more spread out, showing up at all times of day. Weekday cartoons don't start until later in the afternoon than American ones (probably because many kids have clubs and/or cram schools to go to). The post-news stuff includes a lot more game/quiz shows than American television. Dramas actually start showing before cartoons on some channels, and even the prime-time ones are less about sci-fi or science or politics than about human interaction... and have a good deal more silly scenes than their American counterparts.

There are also a number of shows intended to help watchers learn English. Of the ones I have caught so far, my favorite is this one show with a pirate theme (that's not the only reason why -- it's just the reason it caught my attention long enough to really watch it). The show has two hosts, an American man and a Japanese woman. The guy's Japanese is excellent, and he does most of the explaining. They both repeat examples, so that Japanese folk can hear it with an American accent, as well as in the Japanese accent they are more likely to be able to emulate.

What makes this show really good, though, is that each episode focuses on a different word which, when combined with other words, has a variety of meanings. They have two Americans with a travelling theme go around to different places and have good, commonplace conversations that use all of the key word's different meanings without seeming contrived. The show's watchers get to see the conversation twice, both with English subs. Between viewings the English is explained so that the viewers can go over it again and understand more of it.

An example of what sort of stuff they cover is as follows:

Keyword: on
Combinations: go on, come on, get on [with it], get on [a bus or something]

It's quality, language-learning TV.

Japanese game/quiz shows are what have given Japanese TV its crazy reputation in the states. And crazy they are. Some of the weird stuff I have gotten to see: guys in velcro suits trying to see how far up a wall they can stick after a trampoline bounce; people paired up with someone they can't see and, given a category (red fruit, christmas, etc.) having to write the same thing as their partner or be electrocuted for a good 30 seconds; and a show in which people in fruit and vegetable costumes were trying to overcome obstacles, with the punishment for failure being a humiliating fall into... flour.

There is also a Japanese version of Who Wants to Be a Millionare. The guy who plays the host is about as much like the American guy as you could find in Japan. They also have some questions on English in there -- stuff like, "Which of these words isn't really from English?" with the answers being four words in katakana, one of which is derived from English words, but not a real English word. The Japanese also say "final answer" in English for this show.

So this morning (New Year's Eve, here), I got up and turned my TV on and logged my FFXI mule (he'd been selling stuff all night) out of the game and turned to actual TV. Joy! Special holiday programming. A musical! I only caught like the last 10 minutes of it, but it was one of a string of short musicals being broadcast from a concert hall belonging to NHK, the TV station I was (and am, actually, as I write this) watching. Very much like American and British musicals.

Now, I am watching a kabuki performance. I can't understand a word they are saying (strike that -- I just caught a word). but I have been curious to see a kabuki performance for a while, so it is good. Kabuki is the Japanese style of play wherein all the actors are guys and everyone has white faces. Well, everyone except the "invisible" guys. They are all dressed in black, and perform duties like changing sets and costumes on stage in front of everyone.

One last note about Japanese TV: in America, everything runs in half-hour blocks. Here, a show can start at any ten-minute mark. Ten and twenty minute shows are not uncommon. I have noticed that most hour-long shows and anime start on the hour or the half-hour, though.

Realizations of the Period

1) The reason alcohol is present at all Japanese parties is because most Japanese people can't loosen up and forget about appearances long enough to just have fun without it.

雪大好き！(I Love Snow!)

Oh yay! ^^ The Japanese blizzard is the normal snowfall for an Alaskan. I hear tell that Kushiro doesn't usually get snow until after New Year's, but here we are with 6-8 inches in three days. Today has warmed up considerably, though, and I'm pretty sure there will be ice tomorrow. I don't think it's likely that the snow will completely disappear, though.

Yesterday I joined Sato and a couple of the other Okinawans for dinner. :D While Sato and Rei were cooking (it was at their house), Dai and I played Momotarou Densetsu X. It's an awesome game. The graphics are nothing special, but they don't need to be; for what the game is, it's just fine. We didn't bother with the story stuff, and Dai explained the things I couldn't read to me.

Basically, you start out rich and try to get richer. You're riding around on a train (though you can switch to airplane or ship at appropriate spots. You ride around Japan investing money, losing money, getting money, getting cards with varying effects, and trying not to go broke while trying to reach a goalpoint. The goalpoints are randomly decided at the beginning and after one has been reached. If you reach a goalpoint, you get insane amounts of money. The game lasts a set number of years (with each round being one month) determined at the start of the game.

The game got cut short by dinner.

Taste-O-Meter!

Nikuimo: 5
Beef-flavored potato slices with noodles and carrots. :D Oh yeah.

Sanma in some really tasty sauce: 5
I pretty much summed it up in red.

After that, we got into a four-player game of Momotarou Densetsu X. :D That one got finished, but Sato dropped out early on to join her neighbors in making a snow cave (called kamakura in Japan). I got third place out of four in spite of reaching the first goalpoint, and then we went outside to help with the kamakura.

They didn't have it big enough to start, so we ended up starting to carve out the inside while using the carved out snow, some fresh snow, and several buckets of water to pretty much double the size of the kamakura. It was a lot of fun. :D They were utterly shocked when I threw off my cloak in annoyance to work in a T-shirt, but unless a nasty gust of wind came along (which did happen a couple of times) the constant movement kept me fine.

I helped with that until 2:30 AM, at which point I was like, "I should go home... I have class in the morning." So I did. But just before I left I was invited to their Christmas party, for which I will likely make some grilled cheese sandwiches. Somehow, with all the weird things they have come up with for food, that's something that really intrigues Japanese people.

Other Than That

I have also been doing a little bit of experimentation with food. Manju is awesome stuff. Manju is a hot, juicy dumpling whose innards are filled with something tasty. The ones I have seen thus far have anko, pizza (pepperoni and tomato sauce), or spiced beef and onion in the middle. ^^ Manju has just come up, but it's already going on the list for no more Taste-O-Meter! entries because manju is good if you like what is inside of it.

Realizations of the Period

1) If I spend more time at school, my heater spends less time on and my gas bill goes down.
2) If I spend more time at school so that my heater spends less time on and my gas bill goes down, my apartment doesn't generally stay as warm and getting up in the morning can suck.

Woe / Japanese TV

It has been a long time since I updated. Some days have been interesting, some boring.

Last Friday, we (Olga, Tolia, Sasha, Wu, Tomoki, Jyun, Utsuki, and I) had a drinking party after sadoubu (during which I had found out that it's actually supposed to be pronounced chadoubu and that even most Japanese people have it wrong). It was originally supposed to be at Tomoki's place, but there ended up being too many people to fit, so we had it at my place. There was a wide variety of alcohol and food.

Taste-O-Meter!

Brinni: 5
Russian pancakes. Not as sweet as American pancakes, and eaten with sour cream instead of syrup.

Russian Salad: 5
No lettuce here! Potatoes, onions, carrots, eggs, and mayonnaise and a couple of other things to hold it together. So tasty.

Sausages and Potatoes seasoned with Chicken Broth: 5
Tomoki started cooking the sausages around the time that Olga finished the salad. There were a couple of potatoes left over, and Sasha jumped up to slice them and cook them with the sausages. I didn't have any salt, so... chicken broth powder. If you've ever eaten that stuff raw, you'll know that it's more salty than chicken-y, so it worked just fine.

Shrimp Senbei: 4
Shrimp senbei is very different from the plainer senbei I had at chadoubu the one time. Same sort of thing -- a small, crunchy, rice-based buscuit -- but the flavor is very different.

Peanut Butter and Honey Flavored Snack: 5
This stuff had the texture of cheese doodles with none of the cheese. Good stuff.

Squid Jerky: 4
Nacilik was right about this stuff being good, though I personally still prefer beef jerky.

Jack Daniels Mixed with Plum Wine: 4
I don't like Jack Daniels much, but with the plum wine it was pretty good.

Jack Daniels Mixed with Pepsi Twist: 2
Don't like either of these drinks much. Together, they weren't good.

We generally chatted a lot. At one point, Sasha had my frying pan lid and was goofing off with it. Its handle is on the edge instead of in the middle; the middle is given over to a clear window so that you can see inside, unlike the outer edges. So he had it over his face and was looking out. I also found out that there's a Russian superstition about putting empty bottles on the table; supposedly, if you do, no food will come to that table again.

Woe is Alcohol

This being my third drunkening ever, I still didn't know my limits well, and drank too much. :( The part about this that makes me saddest is that I lost all the good food I had eaten. I remember everything up until throwing up the second (and last time). I am also fairly certain that I will know when to stop drinking after this.

The next day was bad. No hangover in the usual sense (headache and OMG my eyes), but I couldn't stand or sit up for more than like 20 seconds without my stomach clamoring badness until like 5 PM. I managed during that time to make myself some soup when I got hungry, and drank a lot of water. I also played FFXI, as I could do it laying down.

Once I was able to actually get up and do stuff, I did laundry and took stock of my apartment. More trash than normal, but all of it in trashbags; my guests had stayed for a while after I passed out (which I hadn't minded), and then cleaned up after themselves quite nicely. They also put the leftover food on the shlack (if not needing refrigeration) or in the windows. For those of you who've never lived in a cold place, once you hit a certain point of year double windows (or even single windows with a wide windowsill and some vanetian blinds if it's REALLY cold) can be used as a refigeration device.

However, the next day I realized that the leftover sausages had been left in the window that gets direct sunlight all day. Oops! A quick trip to the store to get flour and some pepper, and I was soon using the leftover sausages, milk, and onions to make gravy. :D It was a tasty dinner.

Other than that, there's not really been much blog-note worthy until day before yesterday. That, combined with me being lazy and playing a lot of FFXI, has led to the extremely long distance in blog updates.

Woe is Inability to Read Paperwork

I got offline to take a bath, came back, and discovered that my internet had stopped working. Specifically, the internet provider was no longer accepting my username/password combo for some reason. I tried calling the support number, but ended up on hold for 20 minutes. Called Bflets in the morning, and they sent a guy to help me.

Turns out that although I am currently not being charged for my internet as part of a promotion they are doing, one of the pieces of the paper they sent me was not, as I had thought, an example of a payment form, but a form for letting them know how I intended to pay. Without it, I get no service. Oops. So the guy helped me make sure I had the form filled out properly, then spent like 45 minutes on the phone trying to find out how long it'd take me to get internet again, since I had arranged the day before to go on a key hunt in FFXI with my friend Sean today. Turns out that after they receive the form in Tokyo, it'll take four days to reconnect the service. Grand total, approximately a week. Ouch.

Japanese TV

So I turned on the TV and worked on other stuff that I hadn't gotten around to doing. One of the television shows I had going was daytime housewife stuff -- cooking, arts and crafts, etc. At one point, my attention was drawn away from my computer by FFVII's "Song of the Ancients". Same show, but they were talking about fossils for some reason, and the background music of the moment was "Song of the Ancients". Another show I watched later used the theme from The Incredibles (side note: the Japanese title for that is Mr. Incredible). It still kinda surprises me, sometimes, what music the Japanese people will use where.

I have also seen the best video game commercial ever. Before I tell you about it, I need to explain about a piece of Japanese culture. The Japanese don't generally go to each others houses/apartments. If they do, they usually stand in the foyer to conduct whatever business they have, then leave. If they do, in fact, go into your residence itself, they always say "Ojama shimasu." I can't remember what it means, but not saying it is just totally impolite. If you're at someone's residence and someone else who lives there comes home, you say, "Ojama shiteimasu," which is the same thing only in the present tense. It lets them know that there is a visitor in their house.

You see two guys dressed as Mario and Luigi, who say "Hot Mario!" You're then taken to a Christmas-y living room where people are playing gamecube together -- two people to a pad, one old and one child. They show you some gameplay. I thought it was for Mario Party 6, but it turned out to be for Mario Party 7 (Whose mini-games look good, BTW). The commercial ended with the guys dressed as Mario and Luigi saying "Mario Party 7" together while crouched under the couch in the Christmas-y scene, causing everyone in the scene to start. Looking kind of sheepish, Mario and Luigi say, "Ojama shiteimasu..." at the same time.

I dunno if this is new or not, but the good old game Operation is currently being advertized on Japanese TV. It has a different name (Buzz! Dr. Game), but it's good old-fashioned Operation.

I had intended to not play FFXI yesterday anyway, in the interest of getting caught up on homework and the like, so it wasn't a big deal, but I lost all my plants in FFXI. Grr! Two of them would have been blooming yesterday, too. :(

And here I am, posting from the library again. That's what I get for not making damn sure I knew what I was doing.

Oh! It snowed yesterday. The snow will stick, making it officially winter now.

Realizations of the Period

1) Microsoft is using the power button symbol to plug the Xbox 360 on commercials. WTF?
2) If I get to the point where I can no longer stand not having an oven, I can go find myself a convection oven. Yay!
3) I need a brain.
4) I can't find oatmeal.
4b) You can substitute flour for oatmeal in a no-bake cookie recipe, but it's a 3 parts oatmeal, 1 part flour ratio instead of the 3-2 ratio I had figured for. :P And that's the way the cookie crumbles (quite literally).
5) People need common sense reminders in Japan, too, apparently. Watching a cooking show, and these messages keep flashing at the bottom. Finally read the first one. It's "Don't put saibashi [long, wooden chopsticks made for cooking] near the flame." Well, duh.
6) Japanese weather forecasts represent snowfall to come with angry-looking snowmen. Really heavy, driving snow is represented as an unhappy snowman trying to get out of the way of pelting snow. It's pretty funny.
7) Some Japanese commercials are entirely in English.
7b) Some Japanese commercials are entirely in Engrish.
7c) Some Japanese commercials are dubbed. (Herbal Escences commercails aren't any less weird in Japanese dub format.)
8) Since English-speaking newscasters all speak clearly, the Japanese assume that all English-speakers speak clearly. They're gonna have fun with my friend Nekram when he comes over to teach English.
9) Japanese TV is good during the day and in the middle of the night, but I do not like prime time stuff much.