Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Reality TV and Japan

You probably all know that Japanese TV is filled with crazy game shows and reality shows. It's true... just like the stereotype. But did you also know that an American, Mike, is going to be on a Japanese reality show?!?!! That's right!

I forgot to blog about this a while ago, but when we were in Nikko, I got interviewed by a famous old boxer and a J-Pop singer who were walking down the street. It happened like this: Early in the afternoon, J and I saw this film crew shooting that red bridge in Nikko, the one that the snakes made for the Priest (see one of the earlier picture sets for context). Later, when J was shopping for a Kimono, the film crew came by and pulled me out of the store to talk to me for a while. When they were done, the clerk came out and asked if I knew who the two guys were that talked to me. Of course not, I said. She goes, "that was so-and-so, a famous boxer, and that other guy was whats-his-name, the famous pop singer! They have a reality show together." The boxer guy told me that he had been to America, where he lost a fight to Roberto Duran years ago, so I knew at least figured out his story, but the other guy was a young pretty-boy.

My guess is that they have some kind "Surreal Life" kind of show together, but I don't know what it is called.

The other funny thing that happened in our first week in Japan, when we were still in Tokyo, was that we met a Luchador (Mexican wrestler with the mask) at our hotel. He was an American called the Destroyer (appearantly he's been around for a while and has devoted fans who sell his masks on ebay, so feel free to google him). We also had seen several posters about "wrestlefest 2006," so we figured that was why he was here. But when I asked him about it, he said he hasn't participated in that in years, but that he started coming to Japan to wrestle 43 years ago! Sevearal days later, Justine saw him on TV, giving a eulogy about a Japanese wrestler who had just died. What a wierd thing!

-Mike

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You should findout the name of the reality show so we can start downloading it.