Since I've had a terrible cold the last days and spent all days in bed and don't have an Internet connection, I've had too much time to spend on watching tv.
Now I thought swedish television wasn't very good, but compared to japanese, it's outstanding actually.
'But that's just because you don't understand much japanese at all' one might say.
Well of course, to a certain extent, it's true, I might not be totally correct with this report, but usually it's quite easy anyway to figure out what kind of a tv-show it is.
From my research, there are three main categories which you always seem to run into if you browse through the channels.
The most common are japanese entertainment shows, and they are all about quick entertainment and quick laughs.
Something 'funny' takes place, for example someone is supposed to run 3 laps around the studio accompanied by some cute pop music, and a screaming commentator. Afterwards there's always a bunch of people making comments for a good while about what just happens.
In my opinion, funny entertainment for 3-4 minutes or so, then it gets boring.
Secondly most common are commercials. It just never ends. Which actually is not too different from the entertainment shows.
Usually, something is funny and there's some happy pop music and some male voice screaming or very cute female voice speaking and then a company logo. Other common commercials are women's clothes, food stores and fast food.
One commercial I actually found kind of funny (it wasn't supposed to be funny though) was for dog's clothes. Not some kind of lame blankets, oh no, this was only designed fashion clothes, and it just went on and on for 15-20 minutes or so. Jeans, shirts, socks, you name it. Of course, everything accompanied by cute music and a cute woman's voice and another cute woman caressing the dogs. There even was a punk style dress that covered the entire dog with black leaher with just two holes for the eyes (hopefully some kind of opening in the back also, I didn't notice).
Thirdly is what I'd call the food porn. Some people, more commonly women than men, try different kinds of food, the camera zooms in to an extreme close up of the piece of meat (or whatever they're going to eat) when it's picked up by the chop sticks and put in the mouth, followed by the person eating exclaiming 'oishii!!' (delicious!) while still chewing the piece of food. Also, I have seen eating contests a couple of times. Of some reason the competitors are always slim, cute women, which really makes me wonder how they manage to eat so much. I have no idea if it was faked, but one of them had 60 pieces of sushi without any problem. In another contests, the poor women had 8 big bowls of ramen noodle soup each.
The food porn is often found in the commercial breaks also.
So far, I've managed to see three tv programs that actually seemed to be quite serious.
First one was the news, second one was the weather forecast which followed the news. This was actually more serious and detailed than the weather forecasts in Sweden, and swedish people are known for taking weather forecasts seriously.
Thirdly, I finally found something that actually seemed like a serious documentary.
I had no idea what it really was about though.
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8 comments:
This one time I saw a pretty funny "food contest" thing called "Russian Roulette Sushi". Basically they had a plate of sushi and one of them had like 5 gallons of wasabi on it. So the contestants took turns eating a sushi until someone got the one with all the wasabi.
I'd love to try that one sometime though I doubt I'd survive. :p
ps. may seem odd that I write in english when you+I are swedes but who the fuck cares you cock sucking mother fucker (and I speak english as well as I speak swedish pretty much, so it's no matter to me) ds.
kalle> haha thanks for those words, mom will be delighted to read them :).
well my thought is, why write a blog in a language that 9 million people use when i can write in a language that's alot more used globally (english). I think I can handle english well enough to make myself understood well anyway.
Hej Tomas
It's nice to have the exciting experiences here in Japan together.
Japan is a funny country, isn't it?
I am a bit tired of advertisements and strange music and smokey spaces though.
Ah yes, another swedish missionary in the country of the rising sun =) People like you are a great source of inspiration to me. I'll probably leave for Kagoshima next spring if everything goes as planned (I'm finishing my last year of highschool/gymnasiet this year).
I know you're probably sick of getting this question by now (I certaily am) but why and when did you realize that you wanted to go to Japan? And how did you and your japanese girlfriend meet?
As for me, I read this essey
(http://www.freezoon.net/jap/)
by Tor Dalsjö and after that I just knew that I had to go to that country. It is my destiny =P
Well, I hope you have many good experiences and meet a lot of interesting people during your stay.
ey brorsan!
Well, as previous speakers has posted in english, I think it's time for some svenska so you don't forget your wiking roots! + My english kinda sux after almost 5 years in exile from the Leckstroms! Stone, and specially Gun-ell would turn in their graves, I'm tellin' ya! hähä. Time to cut the bullshit...
Fan, hade ju nästan glömt bort dig här i vårsolen! Såg BP krossa DIF idag och kom och tänka på dig. Skönt för dig att du lämnat den där skiten bakom dig nu! Nu har du japansk baseball istället. Ska va nåt alldeles extra har jag hört. Eller har Sapporo möjligtvis ett fotbollslag av klass? Ligger det nån snö kvar där borta än eller har den smält bort? Lär ju va trevlig skidåkning annars verkar det som. De hade ju skid-vm o grejer där för nån månad sen.
Jaja, det har väl inte du tid att tänka på nu. Du har ju nyss börjat plugget nu och har säkert ett jävla ståhej med det! Vi hörs snart. Puss på dig! And give one to Yuko, if she's still with you!
Lots of love // Micke
zata: haha kul att hora av dig mike, din javel.
Varen ar lite seg har.. Snoar och regnar mest, men ar lite soligt ibland. I stan ar snon i stort sett helt borta, men sa fort man kommer utanfor stan ar det massor av berg och massor av blotsno. Var och badade i varm kalla igar, riktigt najs.
Ja lika bra slippa allsvenskan verkar det som, nae men saknar det faktiskt. Sapporo har ett fotbollslag i J-league 2, andraligan, de ligger 3a just nu. Ska ga o kolla lite matcher har jag tankt, last att det ar ratt mycket folk pa matcherna. Far val se om det ar nat amerikanskt cheerleader-arrangemang hela skiten. Finns val risk for det. Avstar nog baseballen dock.
Ska borja skolan pa mandag, hade introduktion i torsdags. Ska bli skont att lara sig lite japanska, ingen har fattar engelska typ.
Ska ut o kora lite all-you-can-drink med yuko, nagra fran pitea o en italienare ikvall! Skal!
baldur:
Nu blev jag lite sugen pa tt skriva svenska, sa jag gor det! Givetvis har aven jag blivit inspirerad av Tors 'plugga i japan-bibel' som alla verkar ha last.
Var i Japan 2 ggr tidigare och ar fascinerad av landet, sedan pluggade jag lite for skojs skull pa medborgarskolan i Sthlm och blev da sugen bestamde mig da att det skulle vara ett kul aventyr att dra ivag, sa enkelt var det nog.
Min flickvan traffade jag i Sthlm, hon bor fortfarande dar men ar har tillfalligt i Sapporo nu, men hon kommer att flytta hit om en manad ungefar, hon haller pa leta efter jobb just nu. Vi traffades i Sthlm for jag ville lara mig lite japanska och hon ville lara sig lite svenska, samt snacka om kulturerna osv. Hittade varandra genom japan-guide.com fran borjan.
Lycka till med dina planer och hor av dig om du har nagra fragor.
Ps. ge fan i att komma till Sapporo, vi ar redan tillrackligt med svenskar har haha :-P
Well it seams like your having a fun and interesting time over there in the land of Pokemon, bondage dressed dogs and TOM TE-buns (nice to learn something I didn't know about dear old Scandinavia)!
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