What I Hate About Japan and Things to Work On

We're at that point now, the really relaxing time right between "It's going to happen" and "Holy shit it's going to happen soon!" We're going back to Japan for a few weeks next month, and I'm not going to hole myself up on the estate and go stir crazy this time.

I pledge to train, and to walk the dog in the rice paddies - ticks be damned. And I pledge to go to Tokyo as often as possible because that's where most of Ali's friends live and most of my friends in Japan are there too. I pledge not to eat and eat and eat because it's the only thing interesting to do, like last time. I pledge not to drink as much as I did last time, but I will still drink a few beers as a courtesy.

I pledge to avoid Japanese television as much as possible because it has some of the silliest shows I have ever seen. I had a whole essay ready about Japanese television, but it's very random and disjointed. It's enough to say that Japanese television is generally infotainment, heavily reliant on the cult of personality and it's followers. There's good Japanese television and there's really shitty Japanese television.

A good example would be this, even though it's based entirely around the personailty: I recently caught Ali watching a show where a group of comedians sit around a table and tell stories, judged by the others whether the stories are funny. This has such a simple premise, low production cost and can be very funny. Do we have this on American television? No. For various reasons, I suppose, the biggest being a perception of self-indulgence or gossip. I would like to see this type of show here.

I talked Genya into looking after our flat while we are away. I mentioned he could bring his girlfriend over. He giggled like a little schoolboy. Not sure if it's because I'm not supposed to know about the girlfriend, or if it's because he realizes that I know what a dirty monkey he can be. Our place is much nicer than his - a two-room apartment in Brooklyn ankle deep in cigarette butts, fast food and pot noodle garbage. He doesn't even have a bed. He's got a mattress on the floor in what is supposed to be the bedroom. I'm assuming his girlfriend has never seen his apartment because I want to believe she has standards.