TV night

Sunday night is my favorite night for Japanese TV. It’s kids’ shows. Starting at 1800, there is a show about a spunky kindergartener (I know she in kindergarten by her little yellow hat) and her family. Then, there is a show about a spunky housewife and her family. At 1900, a sandal wearing police officer routinely gets himself into trouble with his chief, but somehow always saves the day. All of these are interesting enough and fun because I can follow the basic plots and the dialogue. I also almost always learn a new word or two (last night I learned kagee, which is key). But, at 1930, the fun really starts. My favorite cartoon is One Piece. One Piece is about pirates. Luffee is a stretchy young pirate wanted across the seven seas, and Nami is a fiery redhead with bold ideas. Also in the crew are a karate master/chef, a sword-fighting master, a young lady with magical powers, an engineer with a long nose, and a kind of antlered creature who seems to be a pharmacist. This band of misfit pirates has ongoing adventures (like a soap opera); sometimes the shows are funny, and sometimes they can be quite violent and dark. For example, last night, Luffee and his cohort, the sword-fighting master, were killed in a bar fight, only to be revived by a cherry pie eating pirate-philosopher. Meanwhile a karaoke singing ape’s awful rendition of some traditional song caused vibrations that ripped apart the pirates’ boat. After One Piece, at 2000, there is a one-hour sketch variety show kind of like Kids in the Hall, but it starts every week with a game show. All of the participants dress like bugs and play a word game. I get a lot of new vocabulary from this show, too. The rest of the week, unless it’s a game show, infomercial or travel documentary, Japanese TV is too hard for me to follow, so I don’t bother watching; I read. 🙂 Which, by the way, in honor of the coming Ides of March, I am reading Colleen McCullough’s Ceasar.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man – Francis Bacon.