TV observations

TV here in the hotels and hostels looks quite like Lost in Translation, i.e. just about everything is in Japanese. At the hotel the only English channel is the retarded infotainment of CNN. So I got myself up to date on the latest beef between Hillary and Obama, the missing pregnant woman from Ohio, and Paris Hilton's prison term. What else is there to know in this world?

On the Japanese channels, there's definitely some noteworthy stuff. One channel shows old samurai movies. Another one shows crazy game shows. The people in the game shows are all a little crazy even for Japanese standards, but it makes for good entertainment. In one episode they played some kind of tictactoe, and the team who lost got blasted with a stream of icicles.

A third channel worth noting was one where two masters played the game of Go.

While the masters were thinking (it takes a loooong time to make a move, this game is harder than chess), a commentator analyzed the position and played thru variations. The fun part is the commentator was not alone. There was a girl there (not so pretty) whose job it was to act stupid and emphasize the skill level of the teacher-commentator. So the commentary consisted of her making shy questions, from the frame of "I'm so stupid and unworthy to ask this, but will u please be so kind and share your knowledge with me, oh man-of-infinite-wisdom". Of course the old man was happy to oblige, correcting her or explaining things, while the girl kept saying "Hi, hi, hi...", which just means "Yes...". So after every unworthy question, she said yes about 20 times, frantically nodding her head, and thanking the teacher.



The above photo shows the Go column in a major newspaper.